The British Pacific and East Indies Fleets

Early history

Admiralty Floating Dock No. 20 was a Clark Stanfield design dock with a lifting capacity of 2750 tons, originally intended for the emergency docking of escort vessels and destroyers. Devonport Dockyard ordered her in June 1941, and she was laid down in September.

On completion, AFD 20 was towed to Port Bannatyne, Kames Bay, situated near Rothesay on the Isle of Bute, Scotland, as a replacement dock for AFD 7. HMS VARBEL, headquarters of the 7th and 12th Submarine Flotillas, used the dock to maintain and repair submarines and X-craft midget submarines. In June/July 1943, she was used for modification work from X5 to X10, carried out before the attack on Tirpitz, and the dock was also used as a practice target for the raid. In 1944, the dock was utilised to train X-Craft midget submarines in preparation for attacks on the enemy-held Laksevåg floating dock at Bergen, Norway; on April 15, 1944, HMS X24 attacked the Laksevåg floating dock but failed to sink her. A second operation on September 11th, 1944, carried out by X24, succeeded, and the dock was sunk.

Allocated to the British Pacific Fleet

In late autumn 1944, the dock was allocated to the proposed British Pacific Fleet and moved to Greenock to prepare for a 13,000-mile tow to its operating area. AFD 20 left Greenock on New Year's Eve 1944 under tow by ocean-going rescue tugs HMS DESTINY and HMS EMINENT on the first leg of her tow to Gibraltar. The voyage was undertaken in stages; the dock arrived at Gibraltar on January 12th, where storm damage had to be repaired to her tugs. EMINENT had to remain in dockyard hands while DESTINY continued the tow to Malta. During this leg, DESTINY had difficulties; when EMINENT relieved her on the tow after catching up, DESTINY entered the port of Oran to make repairs. EMINENT and AFD 20 proceeded to Bizerta, where DESTINY joined them, and sailed for Malta, reaching there on January 27th. The group sailed for Port Said on February 1st and reached it on the 7th. They were to wait six days before transiting the Suez Canal and continuing to Aden. On arriving at Aden on February 21st, the tugs took on fuel and departed on the 25th for the next leg to Cochin in Southern India. The Dock and her tugs arrived at Cochin early on the morning of March 10th, where they waited for a second dock, AFD 18 and her tugs, to arrive before taking passage to Australia.

AFD 18 & AFD 20 departed Co-chin for Darwin in Convoy O 4A on April 9th; AFD 18 was under tow from the tugs ADVANTAGE and CHEERLY, and AFD 20 from the tugs EMINENT and DESTINY. A fifth tug, the harbour tug EMPIRE SAM, was in company, towed astern of AFD 20. The frigates HELFORD and PLYM provided escort; both were en route for the British Pacific Fleet. On 14th April, EMINENT had a serious fire in her engine room, and CHEERLY towed her back to Colombo. In an odd coincidence, DESTINY also had a fire but got it under control without needing dockyard assistance. A few days later, the tow line from DESTINY to AFD 20 broke, and she was adrift in the early hours of the morning; it took five hours to secure the tow again. With the tug power halved, progress was very slow, but CHEERLY re-joined the convoy on April 18th and eased the situation for the other tugs. The convoy rendezvoused with the tanker EAGLES DALE on the 27th to replenish water and fuel supplies, which were running low by then, and to supply the vessels with other necessities. As they neared Australia, HMAS WARRNAMBOOL and HMAS INVERELL joined the convoy, and they were ordered to escort AFD 20 and DESTINY independently to Darwin, which they reached on May 22nd. AFD 18 continued in company with HELFORD and PLIMM, and arrived in Darwin on the 24th.

By this time, DESTINY and AFD 20 had completed a voyage of 11,313 miles, with a steaming time of 2036 hours at an average speed of 5.56 knots. The two docks resumed their journey on June 19th to their operational areas; AFD 20, still towed by DESTINY, in company with HMS EMPIRE SAM and the Australian rescue tug HMAS SPRIGHTLY, and the destroyer HMS BARLE. AFD18, now under tow by the tug HMAS HEROS and the salvage vessel HMS SALVESTOR, was bound for Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea, with two Australian minesweepers, HMAS TAMWORTH and HMAS GOULBURN, as escorts.

Several other vessels sailed in convoy with the two docks, some from Britain and others from India and Australia, including H.M. ships HELFORD, PLYM, ODZANI, USK, and BARLE, and another Rescue Tug, HMS ADVANTAGE. Some of the escort vessels continued on to Manus with AFD 20, where they were to join the escort force of the Fleet Train. On her arrival in the Admiralty Islands on June 30th, AFD 20 had been towed over 13,000 miles, possibly the longest tow in maritime history (see the account of AFD 17 which also may lay claim to this accolade). 

AFD 20 docked her first vessel at Manus at 07:30 on Monday, August 20th 1945, lifting the destroyer HMAS NEPAL so a team from the repair ship HMS ARTIFEX could carry out repairs. Work was completed on Friday, August 31st; the ship undocked at 18:00. A second Australian destroyer took her place around midday on September 1st; this time, HMAS NORMAN was docked for remedial work. She was undocked at 13:30 on the 9th.

Post War

A further eight dockings were completed in the next two months before the dock was reassigned, her usefulness at Manus had come to an end and she was towed to Singapore, where she was installed at Sembawang Dockyard, Singapore naval base. No further information is currently available on this vessel.

Last modified 24 September 2026

Additional sources:

Admiralty War Diaries February 1945 Electronically sourced via Fold3.com Accessed 02 January 201

Admiralty War Diaries March 1945 Electronically sourced via Fold3.com Accessed 02 January 2015

US Naval Base, Manus, War Diary, August 1945 Electronically sourced via Fold3.com Accessed 02 January 2015

The Australian War Memorial Reports of Proceedings, HMA Ships and Establishments; Accessed 24 September 2026