Seahose Mercator is a navigational training vessel operated by Defence Maritime Services

Defence Maritime Services

DMS Maritime, formerly Defence Maritime Services, is an Australian company providing port services to the Australian Defence Force and Australian Customs Service National Marine Unit. DMS was founded in 1997 and currently operates 8 ocean going vessels and over 100 harbour craft and has around 350...

 under contract to the Royal Australian Navy

Royal Australian Navy

The Royal Australian Navy is the naval branch of the Australian Defence Force. Following the Federation of Australia in 1901, the ships and resources of the separate colonial navies were integrated into a national force: the Commonwealth Naval Forces...

 (RAN). She is a modified version of the Pacific class patrol boat

Pacific class patrol boat

The Pacific class is a class of 22 patrol boats built by Australia and donated to twelve South Pacific countries. Constructed from 1985 to 1997 and operated by militaries, coast guards or police forces of the twelve island nations, these boats are supported by the Pacific Patrol Boat Program...

 design and is based at HMAS Waterhen

HMAS Waterhen (naval base)

HMAS Waterhen is a shore establishment of the Royal Australian Navy , located in Waverton, Sydney. Constructed on the site of a quarry used to expand Garden Island in the 1930s, the location was used during World War II as a boom net maintenance and storage area. In 1962, the area was commissioned...

 at Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

. Seahorse Mercator is fitted with an extensive suite of navigation systems and has a secondary role as a mine countermeasures craft. The Canadian Forces Maritime Command

Canadian Forces Maritime Command

The Royal Canadian Navy , is the naval force of Canada. The RCN is one of three environmental commands within the unified Canadian Forces. Operating 33 warships and several auxiliary vessels, the Royal Canadian Navy consists of 8,500 Regular Force and 5,100 Primary Reserve sailors, supported by...

's Orca class patrol vessels were built to a significantly modified variant of Seahorse Mercators design.

History

Seahorse Mercator was built by Tenix Ship Building Western Australia for DMS at a cost of A$4 million, and was launched on 15 October 1998. She conducted sea trials during November 1998 and replaced the Attack class patrol boat

Attack class patrol boat

The Attack class patrol boats were small coastal defence vessels built for the Royal Australian Navy and operated between 1967 and 1985...

as the RAN's Sydney-based navigational training vessel in December that year. Since then she has mainly operated in the Sydney area and has trained RAN personnel and sailors from other navies in coastal navigation, ship handling and watch keeping procedures.