HMAS

Success (II) - Part 5

• HMAS Success (II) - Part 4

2004

On 12 January 2004 the ship’s company were recalled from leave to prepare for sea to support HMAS Warramunga in the conduct of Operation CELESTA, the patrol of Australia's Exclusive Economic Zone in the vicinity of Heard Island. Warramunga had intercepted the Uruguayan registered fishing vessel Maya V illegally fishing for toothfish in the Southern Ocean. The frigate was, at the time, keeping a watchful eye on the fishing vessel, but could possibly require replenishment before returning to Australia.

With preparations complete, Success departed Sydney on the 14th and embarked her Sea King flight from HMAS Albatross that afternoon. Warramunga’s boarding party had control of Maya V by the 23rd after a difficult boarding conducted in freezing conditions during which four members of Warramunga's crew were thrown into the sea due to the inclement weather. They were quickly rescued by one of the ship’s Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats (RHIB). Success arrived on the scene the following day and positioned herself 30 to 50nm clear of Maya V as Warramunga escorted the fishing vessel to Fremantle. After taking into account Warramunga’s remaining fuel, the sea conditions and the tactical situation, the planned replenishment was cancelled, however, Success was directed to continue on to the Heard Island and McDonald Island Exclusive Economic Zone to the south west to continue the patrol.

A transfer of personnel and stores was conducted by Success’ Sea King helicopter on the 25th, including the transfer of 220 thermal immersion suits necessary for the ship to operate within the Antarctic Convergence Zone. Over the ensuing days the tanker completed a circumnavigation of Heard Island with sea temperatures frequently below zero, and located and recovered Maya V’s fishing buoys. She was released from the tasking on 31 January and returned to Melbourne on 10 February. Success had travelled further south than any other RAN vessel had been for many years and had even sighted icebergs during her passage to Melbourne.

Technical sailors monitor the systems in the Machinery Control Room, circa 2004.

There was little rest for Success as she participated in Exercise TASMANEX in Bass Strait and off the Australian east coast later in the month. She visited New Zealand in March where a team of 12 cyclists and two support crew cycled across the North Island from Wellington to Auckland to raise money for the Mater Dei School. The cyclists covered more than 850km in ten days and raised nearly $5000 for the school. The ship returned to Sydney, via Norfolk and Lord Howe Islands, on 27 March where she entered a leave and maintenance period.

She returned to sea on 31 May and commenced preparations for her RIMPAC deployment the following month. She departed Sydney for Hawaii, in company with HMA Ships Newcastle and Parramatta, on 7 June and arrived at Pearl Harbor, via Fiji, on the 25th. RIMPAC 04 ran through most of July and included some 18,000 personnel, 35 surface vessels, seven submarines and 90 aircraft from Australia, the USA, Canada, Chile, Japan, South Korea and the UK. Success departed Hawaii on 27 June and rendezvoused with the other ships of the Australian Task Group the following day. The tanker arrived back in Sydney, via Auckland, on 13 August.

She departed Sydney on 13 September once again bound, firstly, for Darwin and then on to Asian waters where she would operate under the tactical control of USN’s Commander Task Force 73. Over the ensuing four weeks the ship was based at Singapore, and also visited Phuket and Penang. She returned to Australia in early November and formally returned to RAN tactical control on the 12th. Upon her return she participated in anti-submarine exercises in Western Australian waters before returning to Sydney, via Hobart, on 3 December and commenced preparations for an extensive maintenance period in the New Year.

2005

The work package for the maintenance period included the installation of two reverse osmosis fresh water plants and the removal of the ship’s boilers. This modification heralded the end of the final link with the steam age in the RAN, an event which, in the words of Success’ Commanding Officer, Commander Stephen O’Brien “passed into history without fanfare”.

The ship returned to sea on 2 May 2005 for engineering trials, and shakedown and workup exercises. She visited Brisbane during the month where she replenished two USN ships en route back to the USA from the Middle East. She took part in Exercise TALISMAN SABRE in June upon the conclusion of which she recommenced a routine program of exercises, training and maintenance.

The ship visited Newcastle in August and Melbourne in September, bookended by patrols of the Bass Strait Oil Rigs under the auspices of Operation ESTES. She departed Sydney on 10 October and visited Brisbane and Darwin before conducting a patrol in support of Operation RELEX II in the vicinity of Christmas Island in November. Upon the conclusion of RELEX II commitments, Success proceeded north for a brief stay in Asian waters, the only port of call being Penang in Malaysia, before returning to Sydney on 21 December.

2006

The tanker returned to sea on 17 January 2006 ahead of participation in Exercises OCEAN PROTECTOR, TASMANEX and TASMAN LINK at the end of January and into February. She also joined HMA Ships Sydney and Stuart in visiting Hobart for the Royal Hobart Regatta in February.

Following a maintenance period in March and April, Success returned to sea on 8 May for trials and shakedown exercises before departing on the 11th for South East Asia where she was scheduled to conduct replenishment operations with USN units. She departed Darwin on 22 May and commenced replenishment operations with the USN the following day in the Celebes Sea. On the morning of the 24th, however, the ship was ordered to proceed to Timor Leste under the auspices of Operation ASTUTE, the ADF operation to, at the request of the Timor Leste government, quell unrest and return stability to the country.

Success arrived off Dili on the 25th and took up a position some 10-15nm north east of the city. That evening HMAS Adelaide, from her position close to Dili, reported gunfire, explosions and fires ashore while, from her position further offshore, Success observed what was believed to be tracer rounds and several large fires lighting the sky over Dili. She joined Adelaide in taking up a patrol line outside Dili Harbour at dawn on the 26th as Australian troops were landed by RAAF Hercules aircraft that morning.

Success remained on station for two days with replenishment operations becoming more frequent as more RAN units arrived. She was released from ASTUTE in the evening of the 27th and commenced passage to Singapore to recommence USN support tasking, replenishing USN units involved in earthquake relief operations in Java en route. The tanker arrived in Singapore on 31 May before conducting replenishment operations with USN units primarily in the Sulu Sea.

She operated in northern Australian waters in June and July in support of Operations RELEX II and CRANBERRY, and later, Operation RESOLUTE when that operation subsumed the previous two. 14 July proved to be a particularly busy day as Success and HMAS Dubbo combined to apprehend seven foreign fishing vessels illegally fishing within Australia's Exclusive Economic Zone. All of the poachers mounted some form of defence and the boarding operations were conducted across approximately 250nm over the course of seven hours. Success completed her patrol on 6 August and returned to Sydney, via Darwin and Townsville, on the 18th for a period of leave and maintenance.

She visited Adelaide, Melbourne and Fremantle in October; however, planned exercises with HMAS Sirius and HMAS Sheean in Western Australia were cancelled forcing a rapid redrafting of Success' training program. The following month her planned participation in anti-submarine warfare exercises was also cancelled as she was instructed to return to Fleet Base East and prepare to deploy in support of Operation QUICKSTEP, the ADF contingency operation to evacuate Australians from Fiji in the face of an emerging coup. The operational boundaries of QUICKSTEP was later expanded to include Tonga when civil unrest and rioting broke out in the island kingdom

Success arrived back in Sydney early in the morning of 8 November and, after resupplying with fuel and embarking consigned cargo, ammunition and personnel, including the commander of the RAN Task Group (CTG 636.1), Captain Phil Spedding, DSC, OAM, RAN, she was underway and heading for Fiji the same morning. She rendezvoused with the other ships of the task group, HMA Ships Newcastle and Kanimbla, on the 12th and CTG 636.1 transferred to Kanimbla. Over the next month the tanker conducted replenishment operations and personnel transfers with the other ships of the task group while undertaking patrol duties in both Fijian and Tongan waters, and conducted logistic visits to New Caledonia and Auckland. The operation was tragically marred on 29 November by the loss of an Australian Army Blackhawk helicopter which crashed while attempting to land on Kanimbla's aft flight deck. It was lost over the side of the ship resulting in the deaths of two of the ten crew members. Success was released from QUICKSTEP tasking on 13 December and arrived back in Sydney on the 17th.

Top left: Sub Lieutenant John Nash and Sub Lieutenant Nicholas Walczak observing proceedings during a replenishment at sea in support of Operation QUICKSTEP 2006. Top right: Looking aft from the port bridge wing, circa 2006. Bottom left: An Army Blackhawk helicopter conducting a VERTREP in support of Operation QUICKSTEP 2006. Bottom right: An Army Blackhawk helicopter preparing to launch, Operation QUICKSTEP 2006.

2007

The ship departed Sydney on 29 January 2007 for Darwin and the following month commenced patrols in support of Operation RESOLUTE. Upon the conclusion of her RESOLUTE commitments on 19 March Success commenced a South East Asian deployment, where she would once again provide logistic support to the USN, departing Darwin for Hong Kong the following day.

The tanker conducted replenishment operations with USN units near Okinawa in early April before visiting Da Nang, where members of the ship's company conducted a working bee at a school in Hoi An south of Da Nang, and Singapore. She conducted operations with the USS Boxer Expeditionary Strike Group in the Indian Ocean en route to Fremantle before continuing passage to the Australian East Coast at the end of the month. She arrived back in Sydney on 5 May. She entered a leave and maintenance period in June ahead of commencing a refit in August.

2008

Success proceeded to sea for the first time in over nine months on 31 March 2008 for post-refit trials, and shakedown and workup exercises. The exercises were delayed by two unfortunate and tragic events over the weekend of 12/13 April. In the early hours of the 12th, news was received that a member of the ship's company, Seaman Hayden Pizzey, had fallen from a significant height and had been hospitalised in a critical condition. He was not expected to survive the weekend. Later that day further news was received that a second member of the ship's company, Petty Officer Gregory Lewis, had passed away at his home that morning. Thankfully, Seaman Pizzey confounded his medical prognosis and made a slow but steady recovery; however, Success' scheduled sailing that Monday was delayed for 24 hours as the crew processed the news of what had happened to their two shipmates. A large number of the ship's company travelled to Nowra later that week to attend the funeral service of Petty Officer Lewis.

The ship departed Sydney on 19 May for a 15-week deployment which initially saw her conducting patrols in northern Australian waters in support of Operation RESOLUTE at the end of the month and into June. Upon the conclusion of her RESOLUTE commitments, Success departed Darwin on 12 June with HMAS Anzac, and later rendezvoused with HMAS Tobruk, and commenced passage to Hawaii to participate in Exercise RIMPAC 08. The Australian task group arrived in Pearl Harbor on the 29th.

HMAS ANZAC (left) and HMCS Regina (right) alongside HMAS Success with USS Chung Hoon stationed astern during Exercise RIMPAC 2008.

RIMPAC exercises occupied most of July and included 20,000 personnel, 35 warships, six submarines and over 100 aircraft from ten participating nations. She departed Pearl Harbor on 5 August and arrived back in Sydney, via Guam, on the 27th where she entered a leave and maintenance period.

She returned to sea on 7 October and proceeded north to Queensland waters where she took part in the multi-jurisdictional counter-terrorism Exercise MERCURY. She visited Cairns upon the conclusion of the exercise and returned to Sydney at the end of the month, conducting passage exercises with HMAS Tobruk en route, where she remained for the rest of the year.

• HMAS Success (II) - Part 6