Australian Naval History on 11 December 2003

HMAS Newcastle arrived home in Sydney from the Middle East Area of Operations. In addition to the 396 boardings the crew conducted during her deployment, three Newcastle sailors in one of the ship’s Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats also saved the lives of four Iraqi merchant sailors whose tug sank in heavy seas in the northern Persian Gulf. Newcastle’s deployment was thye RAN’s 28th individual ship deployment to the Middle East Area of Operations since 1990.