Bathurst Class Corvette - Construction

Construction

Construction of the ships required a significant expansion of the Australian shipbuilding industry. This was achieved by bringing disused dockyards back into production and establishing new facilities. The lead shipyard was Cockatoo Island Dockyard in Sydney, which laid down the first ship, HMAS Bathurst, in February 1940, and produced a further seven vessels. The other seven shipyards involved were Walkers Limited in Maryborough, Queensland (7 ships), Evans Deakin & Co in Brisbane (11 ships), Morts Dock & Engineering Co in Sydney (14 ships), Poole & Steel in Sydney (7 ships), NSW State Dockyard at Newcastle, New South Wales (1 ship), HMA Naval Dockyard at Williamstown, Victoria (8 ships), and Broken Hill Pty Co Ltd at Whyalla, South Australia (4 ships). Each ship cost approximately A£250,000 to build.

The initial rate of construction was slow, due to a variety of factors: delays in equipment delivery from overseas, industrial problems, a lack of qualified labour, and the difficulty of naval overseers in supporting all eight shipyards at once primary among them. The initial prediction was that two vessels per month would enter service through 1941, but by June 1940, only five of the seventeen ordered so far had been laid down, and the RAN was advised at the end of 1940 that only seven would be completed December 1940. The prioritisation of Admiralty orders by the Australian government meant that RAN-ordered ships were further delayed, although the Admiralty later allowed the first four of their ships to remain in local waters until replacements entered service. Rate of construction increased by late 1941, although the increasing need of shipbuilding resources for repairs as the war progressed slowed the rate of construction back down. The Bathurst class build time was comparable to that of an Essex class aircraft carrier: the fourteen-month construction time for USS Franklin was equal to or faster than the individual build time of half the corvettes.

Three additional Bathursts were to be built for the Royal Indian Navy by Garden Reach of Calcutta. All three were laid down on 3 May 1943, but were cancelled and broken up on the slipways in March 1945. Instead, three Flower class corvettes were transferred from the Royal Navy to India.