The ship that would serve in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) as HMAS Supply (I) was built by Harland & Wolf Ltd, Belfast, Northern Ireland. It was ordered as a war operations measure for the RAN because of a government direction in 1951 requiring the armed services to prepare for mobilisation by 1953. Its keel was laid on 5 August 1952 and it was launched on 1 September 1954 by Mrs Foley, wife of Captain J B Foley RAN, the liaison officer for the RAN in the United Kingdom.
Supply at sea in Queensland waters during Exercise SEA EAGLE 1984
The easing of international tensions made its use as a unit of the RAN unnecessary at the time of its completion in March 1955. It was leased to the British Admiralty which operated it as a Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) between 1955 and 1962.
In 1962 the Australian Naval Board decided to add Tide Austral to the Australian fleet and it commissioned in the RAN at Southampton on 15 August 1962 under the command of Captain G V Gladstone DSC RAN.
HMAS Tide Austral only enjoyed a brief time as a commissioned ship of the RAN for on 7 September 1962 the ship was renamed HMAS Supply by Mrs Becher, wife of Rear Admiral Otto H Becher CBE DSO DSC RAN. The name Supply was selected to commemorate the ship of the same name that accompanied the First Fleet to Sydney in 1788.
To ready Supply for its voyage to Australia several contingents of RAN personnel were flown to the UK to learn how to operate the tanker and acquaint themselves with the vessel. Following a brief period of workups, Supply sailed from Portsmouth on 1 October 1962 bound for Sydney where it arrived on 6 December in time for Christmas.
As a unit of the RAN fleet, Supply’s role was to replenish other naval vessels at sea, thus giving the fleet far greater range, mobility and flexibility. Replenishments at sea, or ‘RAS’ as they are known, are carried out almost anywhere at sea, day and night and in a wide range of weather conditions while ships are underway. The role of Supply was to provide fuel, aviation gasoline, diesoline and water to fleet units.
Throughout the 1960s and early 1970s Supply participated in a broad range of Commonwealth and SEATO exercises during which time it visited numerous Southeast Asian ports.
In 1969, in a first for an RAN replenishment ship, Supply was awarded the prestigious Duke of Gloucester’s Cup for being deemed the RAN unit displaying the highest level of overall proficiency.
On 25 June 1973 Supply sailed from Sydney having received orders to support HMNZS Otago on a protest mission to observe French nuclear atmospheric tests taking place at Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific. The 2 ships rendezvoused on 29 June when Otago was received alongside Supply for the first of several replenishment serials in connection with the operation. Later HMNZS Canterbury joined the protest action, and it too was supported by Supply.
During its long and diverse career, Supply visited the African continent, took part in the American bicentenary celebrations in 1976, visiting Hawaii the US mainland and Canada and was one of the many RAN ships that steamed at short notice to Darwin in the wake of Tropical Cyclone Tracy on Boxing Day 1974.
By 1985 a decision had been made to decommission Supply to make way for the new fast underway replenishment ship HMAS Success which was nearing completion at Cockatoo Island Dockyard in Sydney.
During its career, Supply steamed 667 421 miles at an average speed of 12.84 knots and completed 3401 underway replenishments at sea. Its sea time ended on 11 November 1985, Remembrance Day, when it entered Port Jackson, Sydney for the last time. It decommissioned on 16 December 1985.
