Daring Class Destroyer (1949) - Service and Fate

Service and Fate

The class saw service with the RN from the early 1950s to the early 1970s, and with the RAN from the late 1950s to the late 1970s, with Vampire in service as a training ship until 1986. Several of the ships were also involved in Cold War conflicts. Delight, Duchess, Vampire and Vendetta were involved in the Indonesian Confrontation. Vendetta was also involved in the Vietnam War; the only Australian-built warship to serve in the conflict.

Only one ship of the class was lost. On the night of 10 February 1964, Voyager crossed the bows of the aircraft carrier Melbourne and was rammed and sunk with the loss of 81 RAN personnel and one civilian contractor. Duchess was loaned to the RAN as a replacement for four years while replacements (two modified River class destroyer escorts) were constructed, but was then sold to the RAN.

The British Darings received little modernisation, and were all decommissioned as obsolete during the early 1970s. Two of these, Diana and Decoy, were sold to the Peruvian Navy and renamed BAP Palacios and BAP Ferré respectively. These two ships were modernised, with Palacios serving until 1993, and Ferré decommissioning in 2007. The RAN ships were modernised in the early 1970s at a cost of A$20 million, although modifications to Duchess were fewer than to her sister ships. Duchess and Vendetta remained in commission until the late 1970s, and Vampire was retained until 1986 as a training ship.

The Australian Darings were replaced with the Perth-class destroyers, an American-built derivative of the Charles F. Adams-class guided missile destroyer. The training role of the Darings was first supplemented, then replaced, by HMAS Jervis Bay.

After decommissioning, Vampire became a museum ship at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney; the only ship of the class to be preserved.