HMQS Paluma

HMQS Paluma

HMQS "Paluma" was a gunboat operated by the Queensland Maritime Defence Force and the Royal Australian Navy. She entered service in 1884 and was decommissioned in 1948.

History

Following the Jervois-Scratchley reports the colonial governments of Australia restructured their defence forces. One of the many outcomes of this report was the formation of the Queensland Maritime Defence Force. To equip the new force the colonial government purchased two gunboats and a torpedo boat.

Commissioned in the United Kingdom as HMQS "Paluma" during October 1884, she arrived in Brisbane on the 7 May 1885. Over the next few years the ship conducted survey work on the Great Barrier Reef for the Admiralty. The floods of February 1893 ripped "Paluma" from her moorings and left her well above the high water mark in the nearby botanical gardens. As locals considered how to return her to the Brisbane River another major flood just two weeks later refloated the gunboat and she was pulled clear. The depression of the 1890s saw "Paluma" and her sister in reserve, being reactivated for annual training at Easter.

With the federation of the Australian colonies, the gunboats joined the Commonwealth Naval Forces in 1901, and in 1911 both were integrated into the newly formed Royal Australian Navy. "Paluma" was employed mainly around Sydney Harbour during World War I, before being sold in 1916 to the Victorian Ports and Harbours Department who renamed her Rip. In 1948 she was retired, having been replaced the previous year by the converted "Bathurst" class corvette HMAS "Whyalla". Paluma was scrapped in 1950-1951.

Class note

Paluma was a sister ship of HMQS "Gayundah". They were known as Albert class gunboats after HMVS "Albert" which was also built in 1884 and served with the colony of Victoria, the Commonwealth Naval Forces and the Royal Australian Navy.

See also

*HMQS Gayundah sister ship
*List of Queensland Maritime Defence Force ships
*Colonial navies of Australia - Queensland
*Queensland Maritime Defence Force
*List of Royal Australian Navy ships

Bibliography

*"Warships of Australia", Ross Gillett, Illustrations Colin Graham, Rigby Limited, 1977, ISBN 0-7270-0472-7


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