HMAS HDML 1321

Four of the crew members of Motor Launch (ML) 1321 and NX73110 Sapper (Spr) Edgar Thomas 'Mick' Dennis, Z Special Unit, the only survivor of the ill fated raid on Muschu Island (off the coast of New Guinea), at Brisbane dockyard; May 1945
History
Australia
Builder: Purdon & Featherstone, Battery Point, Tasmania
Commissioned: 11 November 1943
Out of service: 1970
Renamed: HMAS Rushcutter, 1953
Fate: Sold into civilian service in August 1971, converted to pleasure craft, operational as at May 2016.
General characteristics
Class and type: Harbour Defence Motor Launch
Displacement: 58 tons
Armament:

37mm Vickers autocannon

Oerlikon 20 mm cannon

2 x .50 calibre machine guns

Bren light machine gun

Up to 8 depth charges

HMAS HDML 1321, also known as Rushcutter was a 58-ton Harbour Defence Motor Launch of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Built by Purdon & Featherstone, Battery Point, Hobart, Tasmania and commissioned into the RAN on 11 November 1943, being the first Australian-built HDML to be commissioned and the last HDML in RAN service.[1] She was assigned to Z Special Unit and delivered commandos for the 1945 ill-fated raid on Muschu Island.[2] She was later reclassified as a Seaward Defence Boat and put into reserve after the war. She was recommissioned as HMAS Rushcutter (ML 1321) in 1953 and used as an unarmed training vessel for the Royal Australian Naval Reserve and Australian Navy Cadets until 1970. Paid off in August 1971, she was converted to pleasure craft MV Rushcutter and is now based in Darwin.

Rushcutter was moved from its mooring in Cossack Creek to the Small Boat Anchorage between Stokes Hill Wharf and the East Arm Wharf in 2016 while it was being offered for sale. It sank on the 19th of October 2016. Support is being sought to have it raised and preserved for it's historical value.

Citations

  1. ↑ Gillett 1986, p. 37.
  2. ↑ Dennis 2006, p. 54.

References

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