HMAS Horsham (I)

HMAS Horsham was one of 60 Australian Minesweepers (commonly known as corvettes) built during the Second World War in Australian shipyards as part of the Commonwealth Government’s wartime shipbuilding program. Twenty were built on Admiralty order but commissioned by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Thirty-six (including Horsham) were built for the RAN and 4 for the Indian Navy.

Horsham was laid down at Melbourne Harbour Trust, Williamstown, Melbourne, Victoria on 26 June 1941. It was launched on 16 May 1942 by Mrs AD Mackenzie, wife of the chairperson of Melbourne Harbour Trust and was the first RAN warship to carry the name of the regional city in the Wimmera region of western Victoria.

Horsham commissioned at Melbourne on 18 November 1942 under the command of Lieutenant William Newby RANR(S).

On completion of trials in late 1942 Horsham sailed to Western Australia and was assigned to the Fremantle command as an anti-submarine patrol vessel on 1 January 1943. It operated from Fremantle for the next 20 months conducting anti-submarine patrols, training exercises with Allied submarines (that were based at Fremantle) and occasional convoy escort duties along the Western Australian coast as far north as Exmouth and Broome. In August 1944 it proceeded to Darwin to operate as a survey ship and in November conducted a short patrol in the Timor Sea to inspect Cartier Island. It remained based at Darwin, except for a period refitting at Fremantle during February-April 1945, until the end of hostilities.

Horsham was part of a significant Australian and Dutch naval force that arrived at Kupang, Timor on 11 September 1945 to enforce the surrender of Japanese forces on Timor.

Horsham departed Timor on 14 September 1945 and returned to its surveying duties in the Darwin area. It sailed to Fremantle at the end of November and was decommissioned on 17 December 1945 and placed in the Reserve Fleet. During its service it had steamed 95 872 miles and was under way for 11 302 hours.

Horsham was sold as scrap for breaking up to the Hong Kong Delta Shipping Company, Hong Kong, on 8 August 1956.