HMAS Gladstone (FCPB 216), named for the city of Gladstone, Queensland, is a Fremantle-class patrol boat, formerly of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Built by NQEA during the early 1980s, Gladstone was commissioned into RAN service in 1984. The patrol boat spent most of its career operating out of the naval base on fisheries and border protection operations. The ship's company were granted Freedom of the City of their ship's namesake city on three occasions. Gladstone was decommissioned in 2007, and was donated to the Gladstone Maritime History Society for preservation and display as a museum ship at the Gladstone Maritime Museum. Work was postponed due to the financial crisis of 2007-2008, with preservation work and development of a wet dock to display the ship completed in 2016. The vessel is now available for tours on weekends. The vessel is located in the Gladstone East Shores precinct, adjacent to the Gladstone Marina. Design and construction Starting in the late 1960s, planning began for a new class of patrol boat to replace the Attack class, with designs calling for improved seakeeping capability, and updated weapons and equipment. The Fremantles had a full load displacement of , were long overall, had a beam of , and a maximum draught of . Main propulsion machinery consists of two MTU series 538 diesel engines, which supplied to the two propeller shafts. Exhaust was not expelled through a funnel, like most ships, but through vents below the waterline. The patrol boat could reach a maximum speed of , and had a maximum range of at . The ship's company consisted of 24 personnel. Each patrol boat was armed with a single Bofors 40mm gun as main armament, supplemented by two .50 cal Browning machineguns and an 81-mm mortar, although the mortar was removed from all ships sometime after 1988. The main weapon was originally to be two 30-mm guns on a twin-mount, but the reconditioned Bofors were selected to keep costs down; provision was made to install an updated weapon later in the class' service life, but this did not eventuate. Gladstone was laid down by NQEA in Cairns, Queensland on 7 March 1983, launched on 28 July 1984, and commissioned into the RAN on 8 September 1984. During its career, the patrol boat acquired the nickname "Sadrock". Operational history Gladstone spent its entire life based at in Cairns, Queensland. The Fremantle-class patrol boats operated