Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index

HMAS Voyager

Two ships of the Royal Australian Navy have borne the name Voyager.

The first HMAS Voyager (D-31/I-31) was V class destroyer laid down by Alexander Stephen and Sons at Linthouse in Scotland on 7 May 1917, launched on 8 May 1918, completed on 24 June 1918 and commissioned into the Royal Navy, transferred to the Royal Australian Navy at Portsmouth on 11 October 1933 and commissioned as HMAS Voyager. Voyager departed for Australia on 17 October 1933, paid off to reserve on 14 April 1936 but re-commissioned on 26 April 1938, and served in the Mediterranean where she was involved in the evacuation of Greece in April 1941. HMAS Voyager ran aground at Betano on Timor on 23 September 1942 and was abandoned. She was destroyed by demolition charges were detonated and the ship’s company was safely evacuated by HMAS Kalgoorlie and HMAS Warrnambool on 25 September 1942.

The second HMAS Voyager (D-04) was a Daring class destroyer laid down by the Cockatoo Docks and Engineering Company Limited at Sydney in New South Wales on 10 October 1949, launched on 1 May 1952 by Mrs. R. G. Menzies, wife of the Prime Minister and commissioned on 12 February 1957. HMAS Voyager collided with the aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne twenty miles south-east of Jervis Bay on the New South Wales coast on the night of 10 February 1964. She was cut in two by the impact and sank with the loss of 81 of her crew and one civilian dockyard employee.