The sailors of the corvette HMAS Armidale emblazoned their names in Australia's naval history when their ship was sunk by Japanese planes off Timor on December 1, 1942.

     For more than a week they fought against hunger, thirst, sharks and deadly sea snakes in one of the great survival feats of WW2. Their story was immortalised in the book HMAS Armidale: The Ship That Had To Die, which is reprinted in up-dated form in this book.

     Now another ship bears the name HMAS Armidale - a sleek swift elegant patrol boat. This book takes the reader inside the new ship, through the maze of state-of-the-art gadgetry that makes her the jewel of the Royal Australian Navy.