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The
ex-HMAS Jervis Bay I now MV Ajman City.
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Australian
Navy ship HMAS Melbourne (CMDR Vern Dutschke) conducted hundreds
of boardings during its stint in The Gulf, but none of the boardings
were quite like the time they boarded the passenger ferry MV Ajman
City.
Usually the boarding teams found their way around a foreign vessel
by reading deck names in either Greek, Arabic, or Russian.
However during one such boarding in February the team discovered
the deck markings to be all too familiar. The vessel on that day
was the former logistic support ship HMAS Jervis Bay I.
After paying off she was sold to a Greek company and operated
in the Mediterranean as a passenger ferry for many years before
being purchased recently for operations between Dubai (UAE) and
Umm Qasr (Iraq).
She has had modifications to her aft deck and ramp to make her
more of a cruise ship than when in service with the RAN.
