HMAS Arrow Patrol Boat cover

Special cover for 40th Anniversary of commissioning of the Patrol Boat HMAS Arrow P 88 - This warship was lost during cyclone Tracey in Darwin. Cover with stamp cancel with Garden Island postmark.

Photo show HMAS Arrow the morning after the cyclone.

She was built by Walkers Limited at Maryborough, Queensland, launched on 17 February 1968, and commissioned on 3 July 1968. Arrow was transferred to the Melbourne Division of the Royal Australian

Navy Reserve in mid-1968, then was returned to active service in the early 1970s.
 
Arrow was driven ashore and sank at Stokes Hill Wharf in Darwin with the loss of two sailors, Petty Officer Leslie Catton, and Able Seaman Ian Rennie, during Cyclone Tracy on 25 December 1974