Community
14 June, 2024
Well, hello 500 sailors
A ‘MINI-city’ has docked alongside Cairns in a first visit by the US Navy ship Emory S. Land and its 500-member crew to the Far North.
The ship is on a routine visit while also engaging with the community and enjoying the best sights and hospitality Cairns has to offer.
Commanded by Captain Brent Spillner, the Emory S. Land – a 644m-long and 12 storeys high vessel – arrived in Cairns last Saturday, June 8, for a visit to continue strengthening relationships with HMAS Cairns for a peacekeeping future while also looking to experience Cairns and contribute to the community.
The Emory S. Land is set to depart on Monday, June 17 to an undisclosed location to continue its mission of providing expeditionary intermediate-level maintenance, services, and logistics support to deployed submarines across allied nations.
Captain Spillner said this trip would allow them to keep strengthening relations with the Australian Royal Navy and engaging with the community.
“The Emory S. Land is one of two submarine tenders the US Navy operates. We’re basically a floating naval base, our mission is to repair, rearm and resupply US and allied submarines and service warships everywhere in the world,” he said.
“We’re designed to be self-contained and provide support in very austere ports. This is part of a regular appointment for us, we’re going to be travelling all around the western Pacific and Indian oceans starting here in Australia. We also have a team of 17 Australian sailors embarked with us, they’re fully integrated into our repair department.
“We’re also here to try and give back to the community. On Wednesday we’re assisting the marine biology program at James Cook University, and we’ll be engaging with different community groups. Today (Monday) we’re also going on the HMAS Leeuwin and we’ve never tended to a ship of that class and it’s practice in case we ever have to meet them at another port and I’m really looking forward to that cooperation.”
HMAS Cairns commander Alfonso Santos said the visit was an opportunity to showcase what Cairns had to offer as a maritime city.
“What a great opportunity to stand on this wonderful ship and another US vessel here in the last few months which shows the interoperability between our nations and what we’re able to achieve in Far North Queensland,” he said.
