Article below provided by John Thiele, volunteer aboard
HMAS Diamantina, South Brisbane Australia
UBS Mayu
A Sister For Diamantina
In November 2017, the attention of the Queensland Maritime Museum was drawn to the existence of another complete River Class frigate (UBS Mayu) located at the Naval College in Yangon (Rangoon) in Myanmar (Burma).
Mayu was laid down as the British built River Class frigate HMS Fal and was commissioned in July, 1943. Fal served most of her time on the West African convoy routes, based in Freetown. The German submarine threat at this time of the war had diminished and HMS Fal saw no enemy action. With the end of hostilities, she was transferred to the Far East and was stationed in Rangoon, Burma.
An interesting coincidence is that both Fal and Diamantina were commissioned by the same commanding officer, Lt Cmdr Maurice Rose, RANVR. Rose’s service records state that he was “the first RANVR officer to be appointed in command of a frigate”.
In May 1947,Fal was handed over, on loan, to the Burma Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, and was renamed HMBS Mayu. In August 1948, she was transferred to the Burmese navy as a gift and was subsequently renamed UBS Mayu.
UBS Mayu was the first flagship of the Burmese Navy. She saw 32 years of service during which she participated in many counter-insurgency operations and also served as a training ship for the officers and ratings of the Myanmar (Burma) Navy.
She was decommissioned in September 1979. Following her decommissioning, she was designated an historic war vessel and is now preserved as a museum ship at Myanmar Naval Training Headquarters, Seikkyi.
Search of the internet has identified a number of sources of information, including Wikipedia, Facebook and Twitter. Facebook and Twitter have given us some photos and contact has been made with an ex-Myanmar naval officer.
The ship was located on Google Earth. The coordinates are 16 degree 43 min 17.20 sec N; 96 degree 13 min 41.66 sec E. She is on land and is located in a well-maintained park.
follow link to see Mayu on Google Maps
Available pictures indicate the UBS Mayu is in good condition and she appears to retain most of her World War 2 fittings – including a Hedgehog mount.
Through Facebook, contact was made with Kyaw lwin (aka KT), a retired naval officer and “World War 2 veteran”. He served on UBS Mayu, initially as Instructor of Midshipmen and later as Navigating Officer and as Gunnery Officer.
In answer to some questions, KT replied that UBS Mayu is not open to the public, except on special days. However, it appears that a visit might be possible, through serving naval contacts!
To the best of his knowledge, there is little modification. He mentioned that the “quarterdeck” was modified for helicopter landings and that the after 4” gun was removed. (This might explain the apparent extension to the superstructure aft).
Initially, the intention was to scrap the ship “inside a side creek off the Rangoon River in the vicinity of the naval training base”. The late General Ne Win “decided to retain her as our memento of Burmese naval history and had the creek converted to a permanent dry dock where she rests today on concrete blocks, and connected to shore lighting”.
From Russell Stuart, a New Zealand friend of KT, we have (quote) “the River Class Gunboat (sic) was in immaculate condition considering her age, the care and pride was very evident, the grounds manicured.”