HMAS CHOULES named

[steppenrig]

13 August 2011

Message from the Chief of Navy

ex Largs Bay will be commissioned as HMAS Choules.Today at Fleet Base West the Prime Minister and the Minister for Defence announced that the ex Royal Fleet Auxilliary Landing Ship Dock Largs Bay is to commission into the Royal Australian Navy as HMAS Choules.

Many of you will recall that former Chief Petty Officer Claude Choules passed away in May of this year, our centenary year. He died in Perth at the age of 110. This was a significant moment when the world lost its last living link with those who had served in WW1.

Claude Choules was born in England two days after the birth of Australia's Navy in March 1901. Like the ship that will bear his name, Claude started his Naval service in the Royal Navy, in his case in 1916. He came to Australia on loan in 1926 and soon decided to transfer to the RAN. He was a member of the commissioning crew of HMAS Canberra (I) in 1928 and in 1932 became a Chief Petty Officer Torpedo and Anti Submarine instructor.

During WW2 Claude was the acting Torpedo Officer in Fremantle and the Chief Demolition Officer on the west coast. He transferred to the Naval Dockyard Police after the war so that he could continue to serve, He finally retired in 1956.

In thinking about our past during our centenary year I have been struck by the stories of the tens of thousands of everyday Australians who have made the Navy what it is today. While we honour individual acts of heroism, these others also deserve some form of recognition for their service. In naming the ship after Claude Choules we not only acknowledge his forty years of service in peace and war but the contribution of all who have faced the unremitting hazards of the sea and the challenges of conflict in the last century. The naval service demands endurance and self-sacrifice and, by its nature, much goes unseen. The Navy’s history has included many fierce battles but it is also marked by the patient and devoted patrol, surveillance and escort work which has ensured that Australia and its allies have been able to use the sea to achieve victory. Our sailors past and present have gone about the vital work that we do without fuss or fanfare, often in extreme danger, generally under less than ideal conditions but always with their own unique combination of humour and devotion to duty. Claude Choules, as much as any, epitomises this tradition.

The pennant number of HMAS Choules will be L100, further reinforcing the link to the centenary of the Royal Australian Navy and those who have served in it throughout our history. HMAS Choules will be an exceptional addition to the fleet. The ship will commission in Australia later this year.

Vice Admiral Ray Griggs, AM, CSC, RAN
Chief of Navy

[scott154]

I was hoping that she would keep her name Largs Bay being an Adelaide boy, but I'm very happy with the name change and the story that goes with that name. Scott

[MikeJames]

I understood that there was a preference for Jervis Bay in Navy, this sounds like the sort of name fostered by politicians.

After the issues with the naming of the Collins class, Navy stated that they were unlikely to name any further vessels after people.

Mike

[MikeJames]

Choules will carry the number L100.

Unfortunately the UK dockyard frakked up, they put the number in the RN location, not the RAN position.



Given that doesn't look like Storm Grey, she may be repainted once she gets out here.

.

[alienpew]

Mike,

She looks a bit like an F100, Fugly ! But where's the Ffffffffased array ?

Alien.

[RussF172]

As Teresa just put it I might have a rant!!! What a joke. Nothing against honouring a past RAN member, but I think the Navy has cocked up. Once again politicians have entered into something they don''t understand. No wonder I didn't see anything on the news last night about it. They claim that he was the last surviving WW1 veteran that served Australia and he wasn't even a member of the RAN at that time (not until 1926). I am sure the Naval Association will have something to say about all this. Trust the poms, they cant even get the numbers right. Must be in one of those moods. JERVIS BAY was the ideal name for this vessel but obviously the Pollies are trying to make their mark on the Defence Forces again. Not happy Jan!!!!

[CarlLinkenbagh]

I'm with you Russ. No disrespect to the person the ship has been named after, or his decendants or relatives......but its not the most appropriate choice.

[MikeJames]

I hear it wasn't what Navy wanted.

The Fleet would have liked to continue the Jervis Bay name, however it seems to have escaped Navy's corporate memory that naming ships after people is a minefield.

I was told by the then Chief of Navy at a Canberra Navy Day that they should never have named the Collins class after people, as for everyone who was so honoured there were many more equally worthy, and for every person who approved of a name, ten more disapproved.

In this case, they appeared to have selected an otherwise unremarkable individual on the sole basis that he outlasted his contemporaries.

Hardly a ringing endorsement.

Mike

[RussF172]

I've heard from a few Navy mates this morning and they are not happy. I also went onto another forum (current and ex navy types) and they are all horrified by the name. Aparently it was rushed through and wasn't even one of the choices that Navy (Sea Power Centre) put forward. It just came out of the blue and the pollies thought, "What a good idea". There were many other more deserving names on the list if they wanted to name it after a person. The name JERVIS BAY was ideal as she will be used for training and support (As was JB 1 Ex "MV Australian Trader") and transport and support (JB II Ex INCAT 045). I think there is going to be an outcry over this from the Naval Association, RSL and any number of other ex-military associations that want to get onboard. I thought it might make a reasonable model to do. Not any more. I did notice a mounting for PHALANX in front of the bridge.

[MikeJames]

I did notice a mounting for PHALANX in front of the bridge.

No, that's not a Phalanx mounting.

The mounting point for Phalanx on the Bay class is amidships, one on each side,as seen here in a shot of her sister Cardigan Bay



Mike

[RussF172]

Sorry Mike, that square box structure with the three pieces behind it is for a PHALANX and its associated electronics box. Maybe they have decided to move it as where they are on the other vessel it maybe inthe way of where more helo ops.

[MikeJames]

That'd be right. The RN go to all the trouble to set up the class with integrating dual Phalanx mounts to avoid blind spots and tha RAN goes and changes it to get stingy with Phalanx mounts, creating a aft blind spot.

I swear the ADF's penchant for 'Australianising' (code for frakking about with) everything it gets its hands on costs the taxpayer insanely large amounts of money.

Key examples include designing the citadel out of the Anzacs, coming up with new LCMs that aren't fit for service, the choice of the F100 and the whole Super Sea Sprite saga.

Mike

[MichaelB]

May be someone is being old fashioned in the RAN & remembers when a warship's main armament was on the forecastle!