Construction
Rankin was laid down by Australian Submarine Corporation on 12 May 1995. The boat was launched on 7 November 2001. She was delivered to the RAN on 18 March 2003 and commissioned on 29 March 2003, 41 months behind schedule, after major delays in the completion and fitting out of the boat due to the diversion of resources to the "fast track" submarines Dechaineux and Sheean and repeated cannibalisation for parts to repair the other five Collins-class boats.
Rankin was named for Lieutenant Commander Robert William Rankin, who died when the ship he commanded, HMAS Yarra, engaged a force of five Japanese warships on 4 March 1942, to allow an Allied convoy to escape. The boat is nicknamed "The Black Knight".
Read more about this topic: HMAS Rankin (SSG 78)
Famous quotes containing the word construction:
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—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“Striving toward a goal puts a more pleasing construction on our advance toward death.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“When the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service. They will become flatterers instead of legislators; the instruments, not the guides, of the people.”
—Edmund Burke (1729–1797)