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Sweet
sight: HMAS Farncomb returns to Fleet Base West after
three months of exercises.
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Photo: ABPH Quentin Mushins
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By
Michael Brooke
HMAS
Farncomb’s return to FBW recently after a three-month voyage
around Australia was a joyous occasion for the crew and their
families but was day of mixed emotions for the commanding officer
CMDR Mark Potter.
HMAS Farncomb’s berthing at HMAS Stirling on August 19 marked
the last time CMDR Potter would command his beloved Collins
class submarine.
“I was overcome by emotion because there is no escape from the
knowledge that this was my last voyage as Farncomb’s Commanding
Officer,” he said. More than 100 family and friends greeted
Farncomb upon her return to FBW after an 8,000 km voyage during
which time she participated in Exercise Talisman Sabre and Exercise
Kakadu.
CMDR Potter, who handed over command of Farncomb on August 22
to LCDR Mark Hammond, said “the sadness I felt is off-set by
the fond memories I have of the crew who did such a fantastic
job for me over the past year.”
CMDR Potter, who will take over as commander of the recruit
school at HMAS Cerberus, where he started as a sailor almost
exactly twenty years ago, said Farncomb performed highly on
exercises and operations.
CMDR Potter said Farncomb was, for the first time, fully integrated
into the carrier battlegroup during Exercise Talisman Sabre
when it served alongside USN Kitty Hawk.
HMAS Farncomb played both “the good guy and the bad guy during
Exercise Kakadu off the coast of Northern Australia last month,”
he said.
CMDR Potter said under his command Farncomb was the first Collins
class submarine to complete Full Cycle Docking and returned
to duty in April 2005.
