HMAS

Viking

With much of the Royal Australian Navy fleet deployed to foreign waters in the early years of World War II, the defence of Australia’s coastlines became a primary concern for the Naval Board. The Naval Auxiliary Patrol (NAP) was a war-raised unit approved on 25 June 1941, charged with patrolling and safeguarding Australia's inner harbours, ports, rivers and estuaries against enemy sabotage or attack. The NAP fleet was comprised primarily of former pleasure craft, offered freely by their owners.

In May 1942, the NAP was transferred to the Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve (RANVR) and was thereafter known as the RANVR NAP. By October 1942 the total strength of the NAP had increased to over 3000 mobilised and unmobilised reserves. This was to remain the case until early 1944 when it was considered that the danger of enemy attack was remote enough to reduce the strength of the NAP to a minimum. https://seapower.navy.gov.au/media-room/publications/naval-auxiliary-patrol.

Viking was a 41 foot Motor Launch that served as a Rendering Mines Safe and Naval Auxiliary Patrol Vessel. The boat was requisitioned for naval service on 8 July 1942 and commissioned into the RAN the same day. HMAS Viking was renamed Jurien in June 1944 before being decommissioned on 9 January 1945. She was returned to her owners in October 1945.

HMAS Viking first appeared in the January 1944 edition of the Navy List: https://seapower.navy.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/Navy_List-January-1944.pdf