Shooting from the hip

CAPT Peter Murray is farewelled on a torpedo as the outgoing CO of HMAS Watson.

Photo: ABPH Nina Nikolin

Some outgoing commanding officers have ridden off on camels, in limousines, mini helicopters or on vintage boats. Captain Peter Murray’s departure “vehicle”, however is going to take some beating.

He rode out of HMAS Watson the other day mounted, as our picture shows, on a training torpedo.

When it started to rain he was handed an umbrella and a diver’s mask. More than 200 members of the ship’s company of the training establishment in Sydney, lined the road from the Wardroom, to doff caps and wave farewell.

The last commanding officer of DDG HMAS Hobart, (now a dive site in South Australia) CAPT Murray took command of Watson in January 2002.

The father of three goes on to become Commander Amphibious Task Group.

His place at Watson is taken by CAPT Ian Middleton, who comes to the role after representing the Commander Australian Theatre on the staff of the Commander US Central Command as part of Operation Iraqi and Enduring Freedom.

Before this he was the CO of HMAS Warramunga.

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