Decommissioning and Preservation
On 25 June 1986, Vampire left active service. She was decommissioned on 13 August 1986, having spent 27 years in service, and travelled 808,026 nautical miles (1,496,464 km). She was later presented to the Australian National Maritime Museum for preservation as a museum ship: on loan from 1990 to 1997, then transferred outright in 1997. Vampire is the largest museum piece on display in Australia. The ship is also used for training RAN divers in hull clearance. In 1994, two disabled twin Bofors mounts were returned to the destroyer, replacing those removed in 1980. On 9 April 1997, permission was granted for Vampire to fly the Australian White Ensign, despite not being a commissioned warship.
The destroyer is returned to HMAS Kuttabul every five years for maintenance and cleaning. During a docking in October 2006, rumours spread among RAN personnel that Vampire would be refitted and returned to active service. During the same refit, a fire broke out in the ship's boiler room. Nobody was injured, and no irreparable damage was caused.
An overhaul of the RAN battle honours system completed in March 2009 saw Vampire retroactively honoured for her service in the Strategic Reserve between 1964 and 1966—the time of the Indonesia-Malaysia Confrontation. Any future ships named HMAS Vampire will carry the battle honour "Malaysia 1964–66" in addition to the honours earned by the previous HMAS Vampire.
Read more about this topic: HMAS Vampire (D11)
Famous quotes containing the word preservation:
“Men are not therefore put to death, or punished for that their theft proceedeth from election; but because it was noxious and contrary to men’s preservation, and the punishment conducing to the preservation of the rest, inasmuch as to punish those that do voluntary hurt, and none else, frameth and maketh men’s wills such as men would have them.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)