Passing on the weight

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I meant to post this before the last one but never mind. It shouldn't make much difference. When we visited Western Australia’s naval base recently, we spent some time in the museum. Shown in the photo is one of the items there - ‘The Weight’ from HMAS Westralia II. The weight represented the responsibility of the commanding officer and was handed by the outgoing commanding officer to the incoming one. HMAS Westralia II was built in 1976 in Birkenhead, United Kingdom, as a petroleum products tanker. Before being decommissioned in 2006, she saw service in the Gulf War and took part in a great many exercises and deployments. In her 17 years of Royal Australian Navy service, she covered more than 457 908 nautical miles and transferred more than 400 million dollars worth of diesel. One of Westralia’s more notable events was the replenishing with fuel of HMAS Adelaide in 1997. The Adelaide went on to assist in the rescue of yachtsmen Thierry Dubois and Tony Bullimore, when their respective vessels capsized in the Southern Ocean during their attempts at sailing around the world. Getting back to the photo, I thought ‘transferring the weight’ was very symbolic of the responsibility that those who lead teams and crews under sometimes very hazardous conditions. More about Westralia II next time