Chief of Army and CDF designate LTGEN Peter Cosgrove addresses sailors during his recent visit to HMAS Manoora in the junior sailors' café. Photo by LSPH Damian Pawlenko.

In Australia 'greasing the rails' means to help someone achieve a target.

In the Gulf it means something more sinister.

Oil smugglers are now smearing grease on the rails of their ships so that RAN boarding party members will lose their grip when coming over the side.

Another dangerous deterrent sees the smugglers spread oil on the deck so that sailors fast-roping from helicopters will lose their footing.

HMAS Canberra (CMDR Roger Boyce) tells of the defences put up by the smugglers who don't want their vessels searched by members of the Coalition task group, charged with enforcing the UN sanctions against Iraq.

Meanwhile the former Chief of Navy, VADM David Shackleton has told that the sanctions by Australia, the US, Canada and Britain have been so successful that smugglers are now using dhows instead of conventional tankers to try to get oil clear of Iraq.

"They are even putting the oil into 44 gallon drums," former CN said last week.

Canberra reports her boarding parties encounter a number of barriers when reaching the bridge and or engineering spaces of vessels they want to check.

"These passive defences vary from the welding shut of doors and hatches, placement of obstacles at the most likely spots for fast-roping and boat boardings," the warship reported.

"They rig barbed wire, put grease on guardrails and ladders and leave crude oil on the deck.

"Boarding parties are taught to recognise these dangers and work around them."

For the welded doors and hatches, the Australian sailors use sledge-hammers and thermo-cutting equipment to gain entry.

The 4,100-tonne West-based FFG is enforcing sanctions against Iraq which requires continual vigilance.

The ship's operations team undertakes the marathon effort of collating the complex surface picture, being on guard for anything from a lone coastal smuggler trying to sneak past the MIF forces to the next multi-vessel break out.

The bridge staff is kept busy by the navigationally-constrained waters and the large number of local fishing vessels and their nets.

"Lookouts are taxed by temperatures in the high 30s while Canberra's helicopter spends long hours on patrol or on a variety of short-notice missions," the ship reported.

When a possible sanction violator is detected leaving Iraqi waters, the FFG quizzes the vessel via VHF radio.

The warship decides if its two boarding parties will go aboard.

The parties comprise sailors and officers from all branches who generally have received training vastly different to their core roles.

This training ranges from self-defence tactics, weapons handling and fast-roping from the ship's Seahawk to container climbing, abseiling, interrogation and evidence collection.

A vessel trading under the auspices of UNSCR 986 (food for oil) and complies with the MIF directions will have a compliant boarding conducted.

The boarders will make a search and confirm she is carrying a legitimate cargo.

The search is hot and heavy work requiring sailors check every hold, container, fuel tank and compartment.

If all items found relate to the manifest, the vessel is allowed to proceed to its next port of call.

Vessels smuggling oil, however, will take extreme measures not to be intercepted by MIF ships.

They will typically sail on dark moonless nights, in poor weather and passage along shallow constrained waters or in waters of neighbouring Gulf states where warships cannot enter.

Once a vessel is detained it will usually be diverted to a UN holding area where a more detailed search will be made.
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By Graham Davis