Before the appearance of the Liaoning ship, the Chinese had always had a dream of an aircraft carrier, hoping to get close to the aircraft carrier and understand it. In the last century, our country has purchased four aircraft carrier hulls from abroad. Among them, the "Melbourne" aircraft carrier purchased by Guangzhou Shipyard from Australia is the first aircraft carrier hull purchased by China, and its arrival has also made Many of our military experts at that time were shocked.
In March 1985, Guangzhou Shipbuilding purchased the aircraft carrier Melbourne from Australia through bidding, and jointly dismantled it with the Guangdong Zhongshan Ship Recycling Company. The arrival of the Melbourne aircraft carrier is China's first close encounter with an aircraft carrier. The aircraft carrier Melbourne was originally the HMS Majestic of the British Navy, with the hull number R77.
However, the arrival of the Melbourne aircraft carrier also brought a lot of trouble to Australia. It collided with warships many times and even twice smashed a large-tonnage destroyer into two pieces. In these two collisions, , the attack resulted in the deaths of 82 Australians and 73 Americans. Since then, this aircraft carrier has been nicknamed the destroyer killer. Each fleet sails in its own way. What is the reason for frequent accidents?
On February 10, 1964, the Melbourne collided with the destroyer Voyager, an escort battleship in its own formation. The huge aircraft carrier hit the middle of the destroyer Voyager, cutting the destroyer off in the middle, killing 82 Australians. The navy died, but the Australian Navy's final investigation result was that the captain of the Voyager destroyer neglected his duty, veered off course, and sailed into the waters of the aircraft carrier channel. Just a few years later, on June 3, 1969, during a joint exercise between the United States and Australia, the USS Melbourne aircraft carrier once again showed its power and crashed the USS Evans destroyer into two pieces. According to the plot setting of the exercise, the USS Evans left the formation and went out to conduct a forward search, and then made a U-turn at sea in order to rejoin the formation. As a result, it came face to face with the USS Melbourne aircraft carrier. It was a dark night and the Weaver Girl was on fire. One relies on the sidelights to determine the direction. The sidelights are red on the left and green on the right. If you see green on the left and red on the right at sea, it means that the two sides must be driving at opposite ends and there is a risk of collision. According to the international rules for avoiding collisions at sea, when facing each other head-on, both sides should sound the piccolo to indicate that our ship is avoiding to the right, and each should turn right to avoid, and the movement range should be large, so that the other party can see that you are avoiding. The US destroyer turned right in accordance with this regulation, but the USS Melbourne aircraft carrier turned left. There was a roar and the Evans destroyer was cut in half. The collision resulted in the death of 73 US sailors. Due to the frequent accidents of the Melbourne aircraft carrier, the Australian Navy has been disappointed with it. The aircraft carrier has entered a standby state and is only used when necessary. In 1985, Melbourne dismantled all the equipment on the ship and sold it to China for scrap metal for dismantling. This is also China's first close contact with an aircraft carrier.