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Melbourne
boards her hundredth
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Riding
high in the water the tanker is secured as Melbourne’s
RHIB races to collect the boarding party. Overhead, her
Seahawk keeps close watch on the situation.
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HMAS
Melbourne (CAPT Steve McDowall) chalked up her 100th boarding on
September 1 while deployed on Multinational Interception Operations
(MIO) as part of Operation Slipper in the Northern Arabian Gulf.
The boarding took place during an extremely busy 24 hours in which
Melbourne queried 21 vessels across a wide area of the Slipper Area
of Operations (AO). Of the 21 vessels queried 11 were boarded by
one of the ship’s boarding teams and eight of the boardings
were non-compliant.
At the time of writing, Melbourne’s boarding tally since arriving
in the AO on July 1 was 104 with 66 being compliant and 38 being
non-compliant. This is quite an achievement in a relatively short
period, even more so when the work is physically demanding and has
been carried out in the height of the Persian Gulf summer when temperatures
are regularly into the 40s.
As circumstances would have it, the 100th boarding was to be a very
different one to the 99 before it. Previously boardings had only
been conducted on wooden hulled cargo dhows and boarding parties
had been inserted by means of the ship’s RHIBs. For boarding
100 the target was an oil tanker which had failed to respond to
radio queries while heading into Iraqi waters.
Options to insert the boarding party were limited by the high freeboard
of the tanker and approval was granted for the boarding team to
insert by fast rope from Melbourne’s Seahawk. The operation
was performed to perfection and it demonstrated once again the RAN’s
great professionalism in carrying out its MIF operations mission.
September 1 was also a memorable day because it closely coincided
with the halfway point in Melbourne’s six-month deployment.
After accepting the ‘weight’ from HMAS Newcastle on June
23 in a very rough Arabian Sea, Melbourne continued its passage
through the Gulf of Oman and the Straits of Hormuz before completing
arrival formalities in Bahrain. For many of the ship’s company
it was their first visit to the Middle East region and many took
the opportunity to take in the sights.
Eager to get on with the job that the OLOC workup process had prepared
them for, the ship’s company completed final preparations for
a start of MIF operations while the ship was in Bahrain. Melbourne
sailed on June 30 to commence her first MIF patrol on July 1 and
at the time of writing the ship was nearing the end of its third
patrol.
“The ship’s company is continuing to distinguish herself
though its quite extraordinary professionalism and their spirits
are high. The Melbourne team is doing a great job and is confident
that their efforts are making a difference,” CAPT McDowall
said.
“Our time here is also all the more rewarding as we are working
with very capable coalition ships and the opportunity to work with
HMAS Arunta, HMS Argyll (Type 23 Frigate) and the US destroyers,
Hopper and Carney and the cruisers Cushing, Vicksberg, Monterey,
Normandy and Mobile Bay is fantastic”.
Of course it is not all work and for the two stand off port visits
the ship has made, the crew has made the most of the cheap shopping
deals. The many nightspots, restaurants and hotels have also proved
popular.
“With half of the deployment behind us, some real achievements
to look back on and more to come, all are looking forward to a successful
second half and of course our return home,” CAPT McDowall added.
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