Built as a minesweeper by the Cockatoo Island yard, N.S.W., Australia for the Government of India.
24 September 1940 ordered.
03 December 1941 laid down.
07 July 1942 launched under the name HMIS BENGAL, one of the Bathurst class, Mrs. Elsie Curtin wife of the Prime Minister launched her.
Displacement 735/950, dim. 56 x 9.44 x 2.59m. (draught).
Armament 1 – 75mm.
Powered by triple expansion steamengines, 1.800 hp, two shafts, speed 15.5 knots.
Crew 85.
14 August 1942 completed.
She was built as a standard unit of the Australian Bathurst class of which 60 were built in yards around Australia. The men who served in them refer mostly the class as corvettes.
She were used for all kind of work during World War II like survey work, convoy escort etc.
The BENGAL is best known as escort under command of Lt. Commander W.J. Wilson of the Dutch Shell tanker ONDINA and the battle between these two ships and two Japanese raiders on 11 November 1942.
After the battle she sailed to Diego Garcia where she on 17 November arrived with holes in her hull fore and aft.
05 July 1943 when the American freighter ALCOA PROSPECTOR in convoy PA 44 from Abadan to Montevideo was torpedoed in position 24 26N 58 20E by the Japanese submarine I-27, the crew abandoned the vessel and was taken on board the BENGAL.
The American vessel did not sink and she was reboarded the next day, an attempt by the BENGAL to tow the vessel failed, and the next day she was towed to safety by tugs from the Anglo-Iranian oil company.
The BENGAL was decommissioned in 1960.
She is the vessel in the foreground of the stamp. The tanker on the left is the ONDINA, see index for more info on this ship, while in the background the two Japanese raiders are depict.
British Indian Ocean Territory 2005 26p.