HMAS

Success (II) - Part 6

• HMAS Success (II) - Part 5

2009

Success participated in the Fleet Concentration Period in February and March 2009 at the conclusion of which she joined 15 other vessels as they entered Sydney Harbour on 13 March for a ceremonial Fleet Review. The following day, the ship's company participated in a Freedom of Entry march through the City of Sydney. March also marked the beginning of an association the newly adopted charity ‘Youth off the Streets’.

She commenced a South East Asian deployment on 27 March and visited Darwin and Manila before arriving in Qingdao, China, on 19 April to participate in the People’s Liberation Army - Navy (PLA-N) 60th Anniversary International Fleet Review. Ships from 14 nations participated in the review on the 23rd, coinciding with the tanker’s 23rd birthday, with Success and HMAS Pirie representing Australia. Success departed Qingdao on the 26th and went on to visit Hong Kong and Singapore, and participated in Exercise BERSAMA SHIELD as well as conducting exercises with naval units from the Philippines, India, China and New Zealand.

HMAS Success and HMNZS Endeavour replenish while on transit to Hong Kong.

Regrettably a small number of the ship’s company displayed behaviours that were contrary to the Navy values during this deployment resulting in four sailors being put ashore in Singapore for return to Australia. A Commission of Inquiry was later convened to investigate these matters.

Success arrived back in Darwin on 6 June and, following a brief period assigned to Operation RESOLUTE, she returned to Sydney on the 20th.

She participated in Exercise TALISMAN SABRE off the coast of Queensland in July, and on 7 August departed Sydney initially bound for Manado, Indonesia. On the 11th, however, she was diverted from her passage to take part in Operation KOKODA ASSIST, the search for the missing 13 members, nine of whom were Australian, of Papua New Guinean flight CG4684. She launched her Sea King helicopter the following morning with the ship's Medical Officer, Lieutenant Commander Simon Winder, RAN, embarked but by the time the aircraft had arrived in Port Moresby the wreck of the ill-fated CG4686 had been located near the Kokoda airstrip. Lieutenant Commander Winder was flown to the crash site by a PNG Police helicopter to assist local authorities.

Success, meanwhile, arrived in Port Moresby on the 12th and recovered her Sea King the following day, poor weather and the remoteness of the crash site limiting the helicopter's involvement in recovery operations. Lieutenant Commander Winder returned to the ship on the 14th and Success recommenced her passage to Manado that afternoon.

She arrived at Manado on the 19th, the day of the International Fleet Review marking the 64th anniversary of Indonesian independence. Ships from 38 nations took part with Australia represented by Success and HMA Ships Darwin and Leeuwin. It was a brief stay in the Indonesian port for Success as she departed that evening, her fleet review commitments complete, and continued on with her deployment. She returned to Sydney on 7 October where she entered a leave and maintenance period for the remainder of the year.

2010

The tanker returned to sea on 22 March 2010 to conduct engineering trials, and shake down and workup exercises. She departed Sydney for South East Asia once again on 8 April and went on to visit Cairns and Singapore before participating in Exercise BERSAMA SHIELD 10 at the end of April and into May alongside other naval units from Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and New Zealand. Upon the conclusion of the exercise, Success went on to visit Singapore and Kota Kinabalu before returning to Sydney on 28 May.

HMAS Success (II) secured alongside Fleet Base East, Sydney while undergoing maintenance, circa 2010.

The ship entered a leave and maintenance period upon her return to Sydney but defects with her RAS rigs resulted in an extended period alongside. When she returned to sea in mid-August she was limited to operating one RAS at a time due to a defect in the Port RAS Alternator which would require an extended period alongside to rectify. In spite of this, she departed Sydney on 23 August for Darwin to participate in Exercise KAKADU at the end of the month, and Exercise SINGAROO and Fleet Training Period North in September.

She departed Darwin for South East Asia on 20 September in company with HMA Ships Arunta, Toowoomba and Tobruk. Success went on to visit Makassar, Port Klang and Singapore, participated in Exercise BERSAMA PADU, and conducted passage exercises with units of the Indonesian Navy. In the afternoon of 28 September, en route from Makassar to Port Klang, a man was spotted in the water and rescued by Success' sea boat. The 42-year-old Indonesian fisherman had been adrift for three days and advised that his three crewmates were also adrift. Success and Arunta immediately commenced a search and rescue operation but no sign of the three fishermen could be found. The survivor was transferred to the Indonesian patrol boat KRI Sigarut on 1 October. Success was fortunate not to suffer any damage when she was twice struck by lightning in the early hours of 2 October while transiting the Malacca Strait in inclement weather.

She returned to HMAS Stirling in November to commence preparations for her International Maritime Organization (IMO) Conversion in order to comply with the IMO's 'double-hull' regulation for seagoing oilers with a scheduled refit to commence immediately afterwards. The conversion and the refit together kept Success alongside for some 19 months excepting passage from Stirling to Singapore, where the conversion was to be conducted, and Singapore to Sydney for the refit. She returned to Singapore in early December with a ‘steaming crew’ of 113 personnel. Once in Singapore crew numbers were further reduced to form a ‘ship keeping team’ of 70 personnel.

2011

The conversion was completed on 14 April 2011 and crew numbers began to increase as preparations for the return passage to Australia commenced. On 6 May a civilian sub-contractor, Mr Mohamed Amin Bin Onsie, fell from the ship’s starboard boat deck onto the wharf some 12 metres below before falling a further two metres into the water. Three members of the ship’s company jumped into the water to rescue him and he was evacuated to hospital shortly afterwards. Tragically, Mr Onsie did not recover from his injuries and he passed away later that evening.

Left: HMAS Success’ ship’s company pose for the camera on their return to Australia in May 2011. Right: Able Seaman Cook Seager is presented his Australian Defence Medal (ADM) by Commander Ainsley Morthorpe, Commanding Officer HMAS Success.

The ship departed for home on 20 May with a steaming crew of 129. She arrived in Sydney, via Cairns, on 3 June and commenced her refit. She was scheduled to return to sea before the end of the year; however, the identification of numerous new defects saw the expansion of an already extensive work package and Success remained alongside into 2012.

2012

Following a series of harbour trials, Success returned to sea on 27 June 2012 to conduct engine trials, and further engineering trials and shakedown exercises in July. She conducted visits to Brisbane and Melbourne in August as the ship worked up to becoming a fully operational unit of the RAN once again. She visited Adelaide and Hobart in October, but a programmed visit to New Zealand had to be cancelled due to defects in her RAS alternators and forced a return to Sydney.

With the defects rectified she returned to Hobart in November before participating Exercise TRITON WARRIOR off the east Australian coast. She returned to Sydney at the end of the month for a period of maintenance and defect rectification.

2013

Success entered the Captain Cook Dock on 15 January 2013 where she remained until 31 May. The ship’s company took the opportunity to strengthen the ship's association with ESPS Cantabria with many members of the crew taking up sea riding opportunities aboard the Spanish vessel.

The conclusion of Success’ maintenance period coincided with the RAN International Fleet Review (IFR) commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the arrival of the RAN Fleet Unit in October 1913. While she was unable to take part in the ceremonial fleet entry she did host the IFR reception in the evening of 4 October with some 400 guests embarking for the event.

Top left: Chief Petty Officer Alan Gillett inside the AFT Gyro compartment, with Chief Petty Officer Kathryn Holmes conducting Material Casualty Drills looking on. Top centre: Sailors of HMAS Success stand fast as HMAS Darwin sails into position to conduct a night Replenishment At Sea, a part of the Unit Readiness Evaluation of HMAS Success. Top right: At the ready, a fire fighting support party awaits tasking aboard HMAS Success during the damage control phase of a Unit Readiness Evaluation. Bottom left: A boarding party from HMAS Success steams alongside the ship in Jervis Bay, NSW. Bottom centre: Boatswains Mates on the forecastle of HMAS Success during a tow exercise with HMAS Darwin in the East Australian Exercise Area. Bottom right: Leading Seaman Medic Nicole Sorlie instructs the Ship's Medical Emergency Team of HMAS Success on the correct use of a Paraguard stretcher during the ship’s Unit Readiness Evaluation.

She conducted various harbour trials through September and October before returning to sea on 25 October. Post-refit sea trials, and shakedown and work up exercises remained her focus for the rest of the year, including first of class flight trials for the RAN's new MRH-90 Romeo helicopters.

2014

She departed Sydney on 17 February for Darwin and commenced patrols in northern Australian waters in support of Operation RESOLUTE at the end of the month. She escorted HMAS Ballarat, who was experiencing significant engineering defects, to Fremantle in March. The two ships berthed at Fremantle on the 15th and three days later Success was ordered to outchop from RESOLUTE tasking and assist in the search for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370. She departed Fremantle in the morning of 19 March under the auspices of Operation SOUTHERN INDIAN OCEAN.

She arrived in her designated search area on the 22nd and posted additional lookouts round-the-clock. Over the course of the search and rescue operation, Success operated with a number of other ships from Australia, Malaysia, China and the USA. Numerous objects were recovered from the water and catalogued for evidence, but none were assessed as being from the missing aircraft.

She made an overnight logistic visit to Stirling on 22/23 April before returning to the search area. The surface search for missing flight MH370 was concluded on 28 April and Success was released from Operation SOUTHERN INDIAN OCEAN. She returned to Sydney on 6 May.

She departed Sydney for Hawaii on 13 June and arrived at Pearl Harbor on the 25th for Exercise RIMPAC. RIMPAC exercises ran through most of July and on this occasion involved 49 surface warships, six submarines, 200 aircraft and 24,000 personnel from 22 participating nations. The tanker departed Pearl Harbor on 4 August and arrived back in Sydney on the 18th where she entered a leave and maintenance period.

She proceeded to sea on 13 October to conduct sea trials, and commence shakedown and workup exercises in preparation to deploy to the Middle East Region (MER) in support of Operation MANITOU. She departed Sydney on 23 November taking a southerly route to the Indian Ocean. A high level of internal training was conducted during the transit including a weekly ‘war day’ consisting of a warfare scenario. She entered the MANITOU Area of Operations on 14 December and proceeded to Muscat, Oman, after providing assistance to the master of an Iranian vessel who required medical attention. She commenced her first patrol of the deployment on the 23rd.

• HMAS Success (II) - Part 7