Royal Australian Navy’s longest serving ship completes final voyage

By Baird Maritime - June 21, 2019.

Image: US Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Holly L. Herline – HMAS Success

The Royal Australian Navy’s (RAN) longest serving ship, HMAS Success, has completed its final voyage after 33 years’ service to Australia.

Success, an 18,000-tonne Durance-class Auxiliary Oiler Replenishment (AOR) ship, almost 160 meters in length and known as “The Battle Tanker,” was the last vessel built for the RAN at Sydney’s Cockatoo Island dockyard.

Commissioned in 1986, the ship has steamed over one million nautical miles, participated in a world record 11 Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercises, earned battle honours for service during the 1991 Gulf War and East Timor in 1999, and helped search for missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370.

Success will be decommissioned at a formal ceremony at Fleet Base East in Sydney on Saturday, June 29. Plans for the vessel after decommissioning are under consideration by the Australian Government.