Attending school a few hundred metres from the Williamstown Shipbuilding Yard in Melbourne’s inner west, it was only a matter of time before the pull of a life at sea would grip Lieutenant Commander Samuel Amor as a teenager.

Sailing lessons in Port Phillip Bay for school sports, as well as tours of visiting HMA Ships Darwin and Warramunga would cement a career that has seen him circumnavigate the globe, deploy to the Middle East, serve aboard a US Destroyer and qualify as a principal warfare officer over 19 years with the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).

Fortuitously, he would also serve aboard some of the vessels built a few hundred metres from his classroom, including HMA Ships Melbourne, Arunta, Stuart, Ballarat and Toowoomba, as well as some sections of HMAS Brisbane, where he currently serves as the executive officer.

“It was actually here at Station Pier in Port Melbourne where a few of those ships – Darwin and Warramunga – came to Melbourne and I first stepped aboard,” Lieutenant Commander Amor said.

“From that day I got the spark in my mind that maybe the Navy could be an interesting career, so I kept that in the back of my mind all throughout school.

“At Williamstown High School they offered sailing as one of the sports, so we did a lot of sailing in the bay and seeing the ships go by I really developed a passion for the water and decided I wanted to make a career of that.”

Brisbane joined other RAN ships in Melbourne to commemorate Anzac Day, the first time that Lieutenant Commander Amor has been in his hometown to mark the occasion since serving in the Australian Defence Force.

“Anzac Day has always been a special day of remembrance and to honour the sacrifice for all those who have served and gone before us,” he said.

“To do that here in my home town – my first Anzac Day in Melbourne since joining the Navy – is a very special time for me and I was looking forward to sharing that with my family.”