Overview
HMAS Condamine is one of four Australian-built Bay-design frigates generally known in RAN service as Modified River class; it remains within the River production lineage as a distinct configuration.
HMAS Condamine is associated with Australia and Royal Australian Navy. It belonged to River class frigate, so the class page provides the shared design history while this page concentrates on the individual ship.
Construction and identity
The sources currently attached to HMAS Condamine do not provide a complete builder and construction chronology.
The ship's documented identity includes hull or pennant identifiers K698 and service with Royal Australian Navy.
Service history
The available source set establishes HMAS Condamine's identity and class relationship, but it does not yet provide a detailed, date-by-date operational history.
The ship's configuration should be interpreted through the documented class and the dates attached to this individual vessel; equipment should not be assumed to have remained unchanged throughout service.
Class context: River class frigate
The River class was the first mass-produced Allied ocean frigate design of the Second World War, combining Flower-class-style economical machinery and merchant-yard construction practice with a larger twin-screw hull suited to North Atlantic escort work.
As a member of River class frigate, HMAS Condamine shared the class's documented design framework and intended roles of Convoy escort, Anti submarine warfare, and Ocean escort. Individual refits, transfers, and wartime changes belong to this ship only when separately documented.
Later service and disposition
The recorded final status is unknown.
HMAS Condamine matters as an individual career within River class frigate, allowing class-wide design history to be separated from this ship's own construction, identities, service, and fate.
Class relationship
This ship is recorded as a member of River class frigate. Shared design history belongs on the class page; this page concentrates on the individual hull where evidence is available.
Sources and further reading
- HMAS Macquarie ↗Royal Australian Navy · accessed 2026-09-19
- Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1922–1946Conway Maritime Press
- River class Frigates - Allied Warships of WWII ↗uboat.net · accessed 2026-09-19
- RIVER (British- and earlier Canadian-built) frigates (SPEY) ↗Navypedia · accessed 2026-09-19
- RIVER (later Canadian-built) frigates (CHEBOGUE) ↗Navypedia · accessed 2026-09-19
- RIVER (Australian-built) frigates (GASCOYNE) ↗Navypedia · accessed 2026-09-19
- HMCS Annan ↗Royal Canadian Navy / Government of Canada · accessed 2026-09-19
- Asheville II (PF-1) ↗United States Navy · accessed 2026-09-19