HMAS Success

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## HMAS Success (OR 304)

HMAS Success (OR 304)

**HMAS *Success* (OR 304)** was a *Durance*-class multi-product replenishment oiler that previously served in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Built by Cockatoo Docks & Engineering Company in Sydney, Australia, during the 1980s, she is the only ship of the class to be constructed outside France, and the only one to not originally serve in the *Marine Nationale* (French Navy). The ship was part of the Australian contribution to the 1991 Gulf War and was deployed to East Timor in response to incidents in 1999 and 2006. The ship was fitted with a double hull during the first half of 2011, to meet International Maritime Organization standards.

*Success* was decommissioned at Fleet Base East on 29 June 2019, after 33 years of service, and towed to Port Pirie for scrapping in August 2019.

### Operational History

In 1986, *Success* was part of the multi-national fleet that entered Sydney Harbour to mark the 75th anniversary of the RAN. Prior to the ceremonial entry, *Success* and two other replenishment ships (one United States Navy, one Royal Navy) were tasked with replenishing the assembled fleet: a competition between the three ships saw *Success* replenish more vessels than the other two.

*Success* formed part of the Australian contribution to the 1991 Gulf War. The ship was deployed to East Timor as part of the Australian-led INTERFET peacekeeping taskforce from 19 September to 28 October 1999. Although not recognized at the time, an overhaul of the RAN battle honors system, completed in March 2010, saw *Success* granted the honors "Kuwait 1991" and "East Timor 1999" for these deployments.

In 2005, *Success* was one of several Australian warships to participate in Exercise Talisman Sabre 2005, a series of joint RAN-USN war games.

During 2006, *Success* was deployed to East Timor as part of the Australian response to the 2006 East Timorese crisis. In late November 2006, *Success* was one of three Australian warships sent to Fiji during the leadup to the 2006 coup d'état by Fijian military forces against Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase. *Success* joined HMA Ships *Newcastle* and *Kanimbla*; the other two ships having sailed in the first week of November. The three vessels were to be used in the event of an evacuation of Australian citizens and nationals, but not as a military force. The task group was stood down in late December 2006, with all three ships returning to port.

On 20 February 2007, *Success* intercepted a boat carrying 85 Sri Lankan asylum seekers. These were the last asylum seekers to be processed under the Pacific Solution policy before its cancellation.

*Success* was deployed as part of Operation Resolute for three months in 2008. While assigned to Resolute, the vessel was deployed with several other RAN vessels to take part in RIMPAC 08, a multi-national naval exercise. During RIMPAC, on the night of 23 July, *Success* completed her 3,000th replenishment at sea (RAS) during a dual-replenishment of USS *Chung-Hoon* (port side, 2,999th RAS) and *Anzac* (starboard side, 3,000th RAS).

On the morning of 13 March 2009, *Success* was one of seventeen warships involved in a ceremonial fleet entry and fleet review in Sydney Harbour, the largest collection of RAN ships since the Australian Bicentenary in 1988. The replenishment ship was one of the thirteen vessels involved in the ceremonial entry through Sydney Heads and anchored in the harbor for the review.

In May 2009, while *Success* went on exercise in South-East Asia. There were several incidents during the three-month deployment; for example, two bars in Manila were damaged during shore leave. Three male sailors were removed from *Success* when the ship docked in Singapore and were sent back to Australia to participate in a formal inquiry; this inquiry was found to be flawed because of bias and the denial of support to the three accused, and a second, independent inquiry was set up under former judge Roger Gyles in February 2010. The first part of Gyles' inquiry report was released in February 2011, which stated that there was an entrenched culture of bullying and predatory behavior towards female sailors, coupled with alcohol-fueled misconduct, particularly amongst the male sailors of the ship's marine engineering department. Gyles found that although the harassment and misconduct had been occurring as early as 2004, failures to respond to earlier complaints led to a breakdown in discipline aboard *Success*. The former judge was unable to prove the existence of the claimed ledger but found many of the other claims to be correct.

At the end of 2009, the Department of Defence released a request for tender for modification of *Success* into a double hull vessel, allowing her to meet International Maritime Organization standards for oil tankers. The tender was awarded to Singapore-based ST Marine (a subsidiary of ST Engineering), with the conversion to be made during 2011. The ship sailed to Singapore in November for a naval exercise, after which she was to enter dock for the 14-week conversion, but problems in the contract delayed the dockyard start date, and *Success* was ordered back to Sydney, via HMAS *Stirling* in Western Australia, so the ship's company could take leave with family while the contract was finalised. Work on the ship started in late December 2010, with the main conversion work completed by the end of April 2011. In May 2011, a civilian contractor working on the ship died after falling overboard. *Success* left Singapore in late May and returned to Sydney.

*Success* underwent a major refit for most of 2013. During this time, the Spanish oiler *Cantabria* was deployed to Australian waters to operate in support of RAN assets, while providing the opportunity to train Australian personnel on systems similar to those in the Spanish-designed *Hobart*- and *Canberra*-class ships being acquired. In October 2013, *Success* participated in the International Fleet Review 2013 in Sydney. In late 2013, the ship was the testbed for flight trials of the MRH 90 helicopter.

In March 2014, *Success* was deployed to assist in efforts to locate and retrieve possible wreckage from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 that had been detected on satellite images of the southern Indian Ocean. In late November 2014, *Success* deployed to the Middle East for a six-month period to provide logistic support to coalition naval units as part of Operation Manitou, replacing the Australian frigate usually deployed in the region.

In February 2015, *Success* was awarded the Gloucester Cup for 2014, marking the ship as the most proficient in the RAN for that year.