Q Class Destroyers and Frigate Conversions World Naval Ships Forums Archive

Naval History by Country :

ROYAL
NAVY

US
NAVY

GERMAN
NAVY

FRENCH
NAVY

*VIEW ALL OF OUR CURRENT ART SPECIAL OFFERS ON ONE PAGE HERE*
NAVAL ART	AVIATION ART	MILITARY ART	SPORT ART

ALWAYS GREAT OFFERS :

20% FURTHER PRICE REDUCTIONS ON HUNDREDS OF LIMITED EDITION ART PRINTS

BUY ONE GET ONE HALF PRICE ON THOUSANDS OF PAINTINGS AND PRINTS

FOR MORE OFFERS SIGN UP TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER

Q Class Destroyers and Frigate Conversions World Naval Ships Forums Archive

Q Class Destroyers and Frigate Conversions

Posts 1 to 17

[B]Quickmatch, Quiberon, Queenborough, Quadrant [/B]- scratch [B]Quality[/B]. I had been thinking about doing a thread on the much-overlooked Q Class fast anti-submarine frigates of the 1950s and Sixties, which were conversions of four of the five wartime destroyers that initially came on loan from the RN. When I was a Navy-mad kid these ships were very much around, and as I've shown in a pic elsewhere (My First Car), I visited [I]Quickmatch[/I], and I think possibly one or two of the others. But, with a kid's lack of any sophisticated knowledge about the Navy's changing strategic roles and requirements, I was always somewhat down on them. The way I looked at it was this: we'd had five quite good-looking destroyers, one got more of less permanently laid up, the others went into dockyards in Sydney and Melbourne - and what came out was four lightly-armed-looking frigates! I felt short-changed at the time, and I think it was Bear or Ian in a post elsewhere who has pointed out that with their advanced sonar and Limbo mortar batteries they were actually quite formidable for the new role in which they'd been configured. BTW, for comparison purposes, I'm going to include some pics of the quartet of RN R Class destroyers - HMS [I]Rapid[/I], [I]Relentless[/I], [I]Rocket[/I] and [I]Roebuck[/I] - that underwent similar conversions (in total, 23 RN destroyers underwent these conversions). Their profiles are just a little different. Another thing I have newly-learned is that the anti-submarines frigates that came out of the dockyards were a good deal heavier than the destroyers that went in. The Q class destroyers were 1,705 tons standard, 2,500 tons full load. The frigates were 2,020 standard, 2,700 tons full load. Their complements, however, went up from 220 to 250 men. The five Q Class destroyers that came to the RAN served out the war as mainly RN-owned but Australian-manned ships: I'm not sure what the manning was on HMS [I]Quality[/I] (pic #TK) , which came to us on loan in 1945, outright ownership like the others in 1950 - but she had been placed in reserve soon after arrival. To my mind she is one of the most little known or talked about Australian combat ships. She was disposed of and left for breaking up in Japan in April 1958. Duringthe war the 'Q's had served in the South Atlantic, some were present in North Africa for [I]Operation Torch[/I], and later left for the Indian Ocean with the British Pacific Fleet, serving right up through Okinawa and the Northern islands to the surrender in Japan. Postwar, some of the RAN ships were involved in the Malayan Emergency and Konfrontasi with Indonesia over its opposition to the Federation of Malaysia - service, involving little-known actions both ashore and off-shore, for which their crews have thus far been denied war service recognition. Anyway, here's the ships and some diagrams: the interesting difference with the Royal Navy conversions is that the RN ships had a broader bridge structure forward, with the secondary armament on top, while the RAN conversions produced a raised wheelhouse type bridge (for want of a better expression) and the twin 40mm bofors place forward of it. From the photos, the forward gun/s on the RN ships also looks heavier, but I'm not sure what it was. A fair proportion of these photos are unposted before, but those that are repeated from a 'Postwar RAN' thread have been re-sized and repaired for page ripples and print show-through since I made that thread. I've repaired two good but damaged images posted by Ashley (Airlana) on other threads, and I'm repeating the aerial of Quickmatch to show the different bridge/forward structure compared to the RN's that follow. Unfortunately I can't access a good aerial of those. Here's the pictures ...
Attachments :

K i was interested to see the picture of Quality as she appears in my Whirlwind research Nigel

2nd row pic #1 Quadrant F01; Might that be the skippers car stowed on the stbd side of the bridge???? Going to need dockyard crane assistance before using it ashore me thinks;) Little h

[quote=harry.gibbon;10004096]2nd row pic #1 Quadrant F01; Might that be the skippers car stowed on the stbd side of the bridge???? Going to need dockyard crane assistance before using it ashore me thinks;) Little h[/quote] Should have gone to Specsavers Harry:D:D Its a liferaft and lifebelt.
Attachments :

[QUOTE=jbryce1437;10004119]Should have gone to Specsavers Harry:D:D Its a liferaft[/QUOTE] OMG (oh my gawd) Jim, I even thought the right indicator was flashing:D:D Nearly became a candidate for an old thread of mine:- [url]http://www.worldnavalships.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3800[/url] Little h

Jim Is it just me that can't bring up your attachment?

[QUOTE=qprdave;10004121]Jim Is it just me that can't bring up your attachment?[/QUOTE] Its a tad too small for bringing up Dave!!

Looks like a car to me Harry But what do I know about four wheeled maritime vehicles!!!!!!

[quote=qprdave;10004121]Jim Is it just me that can't bring up your attachment?[/quote] Hi Dave, I posted it at its original crop size as it tended to distort when enlarged. I have changed the attachment to a slightly larger version, which is now markedly distorted, but probably shows what the article is;) Jim

It looks like the rear end of a 1954 Ford Consul to me!! :D

They would have had to operate with the Charles f adams destroyers as they have very little AA capability

When these were converted the C. F. Adams design was not even dreamed of yet. By the time the first "Perth" class DDG (modified C. F. Adams) was delivered to the RAN the first of these were being decommissioned back to reserve and replaced by the new type-12 Frigates being commissioned. The mid-late 1950s RAN had 6 gun destroyers and 6 ASW-conversions of destroyers. There were the two ASW conversions of the "RAN-Tribal" class DDs, as well as the four "Q-class" ASW frigates. Their heavy-armed companions were the two "RAN-Battle" and three "RAN-Daring" class destroyers, as well as the single unconverted "RAN-Tribal" class DD.

Excellent pictures, i note that your T15's had a smaller bridge structure than ours, all the UK full conversions had a full width bridge; there is a thread on the type 15 conversion you can look at to compare the pics (for them as doesnt know) thanks tim

The RAN's type-15 bridge offered a better view over the bow, and a better view in rough seas/heavy weather... which is why they built theirs that way.

The Q ships of the RAN all ex Royal Navy Regards John
Attachments :

Don't forget HMAS QUEENBOROUGH, she had the longest career of the lot. Quiberon was transferred to the RAN in July 1942 and Quickmatch in September the same year. Queenborough, Quality and Quadrant were transferred between September and November 1945. All 5 ships were transferred outright to the RAN in 1950 and all but Quality were converted to fast ASW frigates - Type 15. They were gradually replaced by the new Type 12's and the Type 15 era ended during the early 70's with the sale of Quiberon and Quickmatch in Feb 72 and finally Queenborough during April 1975. Quadrant was paid off to reserve in Aug 1957 and sold in 1963. Cheers

Two "Q Class" threads merged.

Everything we obtain for this site is shown on the site, we do not have any more photos, crew lists or further information on any of the ships.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE. ALL IMAGES DISPLAYED ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT LAW, AND ARE OWNED BY CRANSTON FINE ARTS OR THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS. NO REPRODUCTION OR COPYING ALLOWED ON OTHER WEBSITES, BOOKS OR ARTICLES WITHOUT PRIOR AGREEMENT.

Contact Details
Shipping Info
Terms and Conditions
Cookie Policy
Privacy Policy

Sign Up To Our Newsletter!

Stay up to date with all our latest offers, deals and events as well as new releases and exclusive subscriber content!

This website is owned by Cranston Fine Arts. Torwood House, Torwoodhill Road, Rhu, Helensburgh, Scotland, G848LE

Contact: Tel: (+44) (0) 1436 820269. Email: cranstonorders -at- outlook.com

Return to Home Page