Navy ship HMAS Launceston is set to run its last patrols this week, north of Darwin, ahead of the vessel's decommissioning on June 1.
After more than 15 years of service, the Armidale-class patrol boat is being retired, and will be superseded by the navy's new Cape-class vessels.
It marks the end of an era as the HMAS Launceston name has been involved intermittently for more than 80 years in the Royal Australian Navy.
The name will be considered again in the future "along with other Australian cities and towns that have had historical relationships with the navy," a Defence Department spokesperson confirmed.
Before his resignation earlier this month, City of Launceston Mayor Danny Gibson said it would be "the end of a proud era" when the current HMAS Launceston was decommissioned.
Northern exposure
In 2013, Launceston man and then army reservist Joel Douglas spent time on board the vessel as part of Operation Sovereign Borders, off the north coast of Australia.
"We would spend up to three weeks at sea and sometimes go as far as Christmas Island and Singapore," he said.
Mr Douglas said while the work was hot and mentally challenging, he described it as one of the most enjoyable periods of his life.
"It was a close crew," he said.
"When you've got around 30 people on a ship and they work together day in day out, they're eating together and they're sharing rooms.
"There's no room for any personal discrepancies. They were like a family."
Mr Douglas said one highlight for the crew during their down time was catching and eating fresh fish.
Conflict experience
In contrast to more recent border patrol missions, the first HMAS Launceston was stationed much further afield, during World War II.
Commissioned in April 1942 as one of 60 Bathurst-class corvettes, the J179 was first used as a convoy ship across the Indian Ocean for the British Eastern Fleet.
It later took part in the infamous Battle of Okinawa, considered the bloodiest in the Pacific, with nearly 200,000 casualties.
Despite being decommissioned in 1946, the vessel went on to serve nearly two more decades in the Turkish navy, taking on the name of TCG Avancik, before being used as a training facility by the Turkish Seamanship College.
What's next?
While the HMAS Launceston (II) was broken up shortly after it was decommissioned, no information has yet been released about the future of the outgoing, third, vessel.
It is possible that, like the original HMAS Launceston, it could be sold to another navy.
Local historian Julian Burgess, who met up with the current crew of the HMAS Launceston at Anzac Day commemorations in the city last month, said they were already looking forward to an upgrade.
"I think they're pretty excited about the fact that they'll be going to a new vessel," he said.
"The new Cape-class patrol boats are the best and newest around.
"There is obviously an emphasis to modernise that part of the Australian fleet."
Naming rights
While it seems that none of the Cape-class patrol boats will be named after Tasmania's second-most populous city – they're generally called after Australian capes — there is still a chance the name HMAS Launceston will return to the navy.
"It might not be considered right now, but I suspect it will be used again in the future," naval historian John Perryman said.
Mr Perryman said the naming of vessels was generally done with a view to a geographical spread around the country, and that Tasmania "hadn't done too badly in the past".
He recommends Launceston City Council write to the Chief of Navy if it wants the name to be considered again in the future.
"It really is the case that the squeaky wheel gets the grease," Mr Perryman said.
