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Order of Service from the commissioning ceremony of HMAS STUART

Date17 August 2002

Object number00045981

NameProgram

Mediumcoloured ink on paper

DimensionsOverall: 297 x 210 mm

ClassificationsCommemorative artefacts

Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from CMDR Lee Goddard

Terms

souvenir programs

DescriptionThis order of service was produced for the commissioning ceremony of HMAS STUART (III) into the Royal Australian Navy on 17 August 2002. It details the Invitation to Prayer, the Lord's Prayer, Psalm 107, a Scripture reading, the Naval Prayer, the Blessing and Prayer for the ship, the Naval Hymn, and the Benediction. The left edge features a strip of tartan of the Stuart clan.HistoryHMAS STUART (III) was one of the newest ships in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). It is one of 10 ANZAC class frigates built by the Australian shipbuilders Tenix Defence Systems. Built at Williamstown in Victoria, HMAS STUART was launched on 17 April 1999, delivered to the RAN on 31 May 2002, and commissioned in August that year. This particular STUART is the third to have carried the name. HMAS STUART (I) was part of the Australian Destroyer Flotilla in World War I, and STUART (II) was a River class destroyer escort working with HMAS SYDNEY during the Vietnam War. Between November 2002 and February 2003, HMAS STUART was deployed to the north-west of Australia patrolling for illegal refugees and asylum seekers and illegal fishermen. In April 2003, STUART assisted the Australian Federal Police on short notice in stopping the suspected drug smuggling North Korean freighter PONG SU off the east coast of Australia. As part of Australia's joint operations Slipper and Catalyst, HMAS STUART was deployed to the Persian Gulf on active service in 2004, 2008, 2009 and 2011. Operation Slipper is the Australian Defence Force's (ADF) commitment to the international coalition against terrorism, known as Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). Currently (2011), Australia's commitment to Operation Slipper involves the deployment of an Australian Major Fleet Unit under the joint Australian operations Slipper and Catalyst, as well as the deployment of AP-3C Orion aircraft from the Royal Australian Air Force Maritime Patrol Group, who conduct maritime patrol tasks in the Persian Gulf. Notable achievements of HMAS STUART during these operations were the rescue of several critically injured United States sailors from the patrol boat USS FIREBOLT which had been attacked off the coast of Iraq in 2004, the rescue of three Yemeni fishermen held hostage by Somali pirates off the Horn of Africa, and the disabling of an unoccupied skiff being towed by the pirated ship MV SINAR KUDLUS off Somalia in 2011. In June 2011, HMAS TOOWOOMBA commenced security operations in the Gulf and HMAS STUART returned to Sydney.SignificanceThis Order of Service represents the Royal Australian Navy ship HMAS STUART (III), which was deployed to the Middle East four times between 2004 and 2011 as part of Operations Slipper and Catalyst.