On returning to his command, the services of his shipwrights were duly enlisted to fabricate a plywood seahorse (painted black) which was then affixed to the buff coloured funnel. A quick committee of taste followed and it was subsequently determined that the seahorse should be adopted as the funnel emblem for HMAS Cook to recognise her as the 'workhorse' of the scientific force. It was there that the golf club’s motif of a seahorse, printed on a beer mat, caught his eye. He then stayed overnight at a caravan park in Narooma where he and six members of his team went for dinner at the Narooma Golf Club. He first visited his team at Ulladulla before travelling to Bermagui to check on the second team. Commander Cooke-Russell, always a captain concerned for the welfare of his crew, proceeded ashore to visit them and check on how they were getting on. In support of that activity, two radio fixing camps were established ashore - one at Ulladulla, the other at Bermagui. In 1983 HMAS Cook (Commander Peter Cooke-Russell, RAN) was conducting hydrographic surveys off the NSW coast. A move made to clearly identify the Australian character of her crew. Affixed to the top of her jackstaff was a bronze kangaroo in place of the more traditional naval crown. One of the first recorded examples of an RAN warship taking measures to make clear its nationality is that of HMAS Parramatta (I) during the First World War. This did not sit well with all, and it appears to have been one of the reasons for the introduction of a uniquely Australian national symbol appearing on RAN ships. When warships are at sea it is customary to fly only an ensign to identify a ship’s nationality and for many years ships of the RAN risked being mistaken for those of the Royal Navy (RN) with which it proudly shared the White Ensign. At the same time it was decreed that all ships and vessels of the Royal Australian Navy shall fly at the stern the White Ensign as the symbol of the authority of the Crown, and at the Jack Staff the distinctive flag of the Australian Commonwealth. On 10 July 1911 King George V formally approved the Permanent Naval Forces of the Commonwealth being designated the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
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