HMAS Torrens
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Two ships of the Royal Australian Navy have been named for the River Torrens in South Australia.
The first HMAS Torrens (D-67) was a River class torpedo boat destroyer laid down by the Cockatoo Docks and Engineering Company Propriety Limited at Sydney in New South Wales on 25 January 1913, launched on 28 August 1915 by Lady Helen Munro-Ferguson, wife of the Governor-General and commissioned on 3 July 1916. HMAS Torrens paid off into reserve on 19 July 1920 and was based on Westernport for Royal Australian Navy Reserve Training from June 1924 to mid March 1925. During the general reduction in naval activity imposed by lack of finance during the depression it was decided to scrap the six Torpedo Boat Destroyers and she was towed to sea by the tug Heroic for use as a Fleet Gunnery Practice Target on 24 November 1930. She withstood considerable shelling before being sunk by a charge of gelignite placed in her hull.
Mark_48_Torpedo_testing.jpg
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The second HMAS Torrens (DE-53) was a River class destroyer escort laid down by the Cockatoo Docks and Engineering Company Propriety Limited at Sydney in New South Wales on 18 August 1965, launched on 28 September 1968 by Dame Zara Holt, DBE, and commissioned on 19 January 1971. HMAS Torrens paid off in 1998 and was sunk as a target by the submarine HMAS Farncomb off Western Australia on 14 June 1999.
Image from the NAVY PowerPoint presentation: THE AWESOME POWER OF THE SUBMARINE LAUNCHED MARK-48 TORPEDO.
On Monday June 14, 1999 the Australian Collins class submarine, HMAS Farncomb, fired a Mark-48 war-shot torpedo at the 28 year old former Destroyer Escort Torrens. The firing was part of the Collins class trials requirements and was designed to validate the submarine's combat system. The submerged Farncomb fired the Mark-48 torpedo at the stationary hulk of the 2700-ton Destroyer Escort from over the horizon. The plume of water and fragments shot some 150 meters skyward as the blast of the torpedo cut the ship in two. The stern section sank rapidly after the torpedo hit, the bow section remained afloat but sank sometime later.
The torpedo warhead contains explosive power equivalent to approximately 1200 pounds of TNT. This explosive power is maximized when the warhead detonates below the keel of the target ship, as opposed to striking it directly. When the detonation occurs below the keel, the resulting pressure wave of the explosion "lifts" the ship and can break its keel in the process. As the ship "settles" it is then seemingly hit by a second detonation as the explosion itself rips through the area of the blast. This combined effect often breaks smaller targets in half and can severely disable larger vessels.
The Mark-48 torpedo used in this test is a variation of the MK-48 ADCAP (Advanced Capability) torpedo developed for the United States Navy.
Photos and Mk-48 Torpedo information provided by Maritime Headquarters and DSTO Australia. Photos by PO Scott Connolly and AB Stuart Farrow. This Power Point presentation prepared by, NORTHERN CONNECTICUT, SUBMARINE LIBRARY, and MUSEUM
Source: US NAVY (http://www.dcfp.navy.mil/mc/presentations/Mark-48.htm)
See also Royal Australian Navy