The HMAS Vampire (known as "The Bat") is the last of the Royal Australian Navy's conventional gun boats. It was designed to provide all-purpose fleet defense against surface, sub-surface and air attacks. It served in the British Commonwealth Strategic Reserve in the 60s and 70s and was converted to a training vessel in 1980. She was decommissioned in 1986.
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| Dockside view of the bow of Vampire. Its main armament are three turrets mounting a pair of 4.5 inch cannon each. | One of a pair of dual 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft cannon mounts. | |
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| The forward superstructure has the wheelhouse and bridge on top, control centre underneath. | Fire control radar was retrofitted in the 1970s, but that couldn't save Vampire from retirement - she was just to manual and mechanical for a modern navy. | |
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| The starboard side crew mess - there's a mirror image on the port side to the right of this photo. | Just aft of the port side mess is the kitchen, this size is over the kitchen service counter. | |
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| Captain's mess, forward of the crew mess. | Officer's mess, on the other side of the ship from the Captain's mess. | |
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| Aft of the kitchen is the damage control panel, showing lights for every water-tight hatch and the ability to mark damage throughout the ship. | Near the damage control center is the radio room, which is still used periodically like a HAM radio station. | |
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| The wheelhouse contains three important components - the wheel, the telegraph (to send speed commands to the engine room) and the gyrocompass. | Stacy climbs the ladder to the bridge. | |
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| The bridge, also known as the compass room, filled primarily with instruments for navigation - war fighting was done from the control room below. | Navigation radar and direction finding equipment on the bridge. | |
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| Down in the control room, this is the surface plotting and direction station. | Anti-submarine warfare station. To the right is the chart table. | |
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| Radar control station in the control room of the Vampire. | Back on deck, all the way forward are the anchors. | |
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| Time to look at the primary purpose of the Vampire - the main guns. | Stacy leans against a ventilator unit, right beside the A gun. | |
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| Behind the A Gun, on the B Gun deck. | A close up of the A gun view port - the gun controller could aim and order fired the gun from inside the turret. | |
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| A look at the loading gear inside the B gun turret. You can see in the center the automated hoist for lifting cartridges to the gun. From there, they would be man-handled into the chamber of the gun. | 4.5 inch cartridge casings, combined with a primer, powder, shell and fuse make a weapon capable of hitting targets 19km away from the ship. | |
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| Down in the lower decks, below the turret is the automatic hoist for the cartridges. There are two cartridge loaders per turret - one for each barrel of the gun. | A shell sitting in the automatic loader of the A gun, two decks below the turret itself. This shell weighs 75 pounds and traveled at 2,500 feet per second when fired. | |
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| The plaque of the Vampire, showing its date and location of launching. | A covered over entry way into the machine room of the Vampire. | |
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| In the rear training room of Vampire are models of the 4.5 inch round fuses, showing timed, proximity and direct models. | The complete 4.5 inch round assembly in the training room. | |
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| A model of the after portions of the Vampire, showing the Foster-Wheeler boilers and steam turbines that powered the Vampire to a maximum speed of 30.5 knots. | Anti-submarine "Limbo" mortar shells, once launched by a three-barreled Limbo launcher that sat where the training room the shells are resting in now exists. |
The Vampire never saw combat, although it participated in a number of actions, including escorting convoys during the Vietnam conflict. Ultimately, missile frigates have rendered her obsolete, and her mechanical systems became too expensive to operate - as a warship, she needed 300 crew, as a training vessel, 250. Modern missile frigates operate with fewer than 100 crew.