The first thing I noticed was the nose (as you do). The second thing was that that's a hell of a sunvisor.

The Ocean Shield is in fact an Australian Defence Force vessel, but not one of Her Majesty's commissioned naval vessels. Although crewed by civilians, she serves in an auxiliary role with the Royal Australian Navy. She's intended to provide support when, for example, natural disasters occur. This role would normally be undertaken by, for example, landing ships but we're a little short of those at the moment with the two new Canberra class helicopter landing vessels not due to arrive until 2014. As a result, the Ocean Shield is the designated pinch hitter. When the two Canberra's arrive next year she will be transferred to the Customs service where she already has a sister ship.

The ship is heading toward the old White Bay wharves, but didn't get there. I followed her around the corner and a few hundred metres downstream she swung herself around to face directly at me. (And for a big girl, she's got an impressive turning circle; it seemed like she almost swing on her axis.) In fact, I considered using one of those shots with us standing there looking at each other nose to nose (albeit a few hundred metres apart) but it wouldn't have brought out Ocean Shield's distinctive shape quite as well. After a couple of minutes of staring at me (well, probably not at me, it just seemed that way) she turned around and headed back the way she came. I believe that she would have been here as part of the 2013 Fleet review which was held over the Labour Day long weekend and was just manoeuvring toward her designated berth.