US Navy Visits Hobart

*I have italicized USS Tarawa as is proper with ships’ names, but the Mercury did not.

Yesterday in the grocery store the Mercury caught my eye. The Mercury is the local newspaper, which calls itself “The Voice of Tasmania.” In large print, the front page proclaimed, “Ship Splurge: Sailors to pump $6m into Tassie.” Curious, I read the first paragraph and learned that the sailors are American. I therefore bought the newspaper and took it home to read the story. Learning about American-Australian interactions is quite interesting and this visit has piqued my attention for that reason.

The USS Tarawa was to arrive Saturday morning with 3,000 sailors and Marines. According to the article, the length of stay will be at least through Monday but hasn’t been confirmed. Monday is International Nurses Day and crew members will visit the Royal Hobart Hospital to visit patients. Unfortunately, the Mercury didn’t explain what the crew of a US warship has to do with International Nurses Day. In any case, the crew will also attend a commemoration ceremony for the Battle of the Coral Sea, “the combined American and Australian naval and air engagement that effectively halted the Japanese southern advance towards Australia.” (Though we rarely hear about it at home, Australia was a major player in the Pacific Theater of WWII. This makes sense, really; Japan was looking for land and resources, two things Australia has in abundance. Northern Australia was bombed during the war.)

The figure of $6 million dollars comes from the US Government, as “the Consulate General of the United States in Perth said yesterday that visits by US Navy Expeditionary Strike Groups brought $2 million a day to local economies.” Because of this, more shops are expected to be open on Sunday. This should work out well, because Captain Brian Luther of the Tarawa said, “Hobart is an exotic city that Tarawa sailors and marines have been looking forward to coming to for months.” Further comments in the article discussed how businesses were encouraged to take advantage of American business.

This was all interesting, but the shock came when I flipped to page two to read the rest of the article. Next to it was an article that began, “Hobart’s sex worker population is likely to double during a visit from the USS Tarawa…”

On second thought, coming from the Navy town of Brunswick, I probably shouldn’t have been so shocked. However, I am generally content to live my sheltered academic life. (And yes, prostitution is legal and regulated in Australia. That I already knew, but the Prostitutes Tasmania spokeswoman’s quote would’ve made it clear anyway.) Apparently prostitutes come from other Australian states for the visits of US ships. I am far from thrilled that this is a major component of Hobart’s interaction with Americans.

There was also a more hopeful article of a couple who met when he came to Hobart in 1999. They got married, and last year, after he left the Navy, moved to Tasmania. It was a sweet story complete with a color photo of the couple with their three-year-old daughter. That, I thought, was more like it.

The Mercury has a section where apparently random people are asked their views on a topic. Yesterday’s question was “Do you enjoy US warship visits to Hobart?” The results were as follows: five people said yes, mostly citing the economic boost; one person didn’t care; another person was from the Gold Coast (on the mainland) but said if she lived here she would; and two people said no, one not caring much and one with the more worrisome “I know it’s good for business but personally I wouldn’t let them into our state. I can’t stand American sailors.” I will confess that after reading that I wondered if he thinks Australian sailors are saints. Being away from home makes me prone to bouts of patriotism.

I’ve been blessed with a splendid living situation here, renting a room in a house. The lovely woman who owns this house said, “My first thought [about the sailors] was, ‘How many babies are they going to leave behind?’” I promptly asked for permission to quote her in this blog post.

This is a totally different look at Americans, and by no stretch can it be considered entirely complimentary. Businesses, however, are happy. I’ve been told by friends that huge amounts of Budweiser are ordered for the occasion of US ship visits, and some young women deliberately dress shabbily so as not to attract unwanted attention (others, sadly, get excited and text message each other when the ship arrives in hopes of having a fling). Happily, other sailors engage in more wholesome pursuits such as bushwalking, and I imagine that restaurants do quite well also.

I wonder if any of the sailors try Vegemite…

The Sunday Tasmanian came out while this post was in the proofreading stage, and the headline declared in big bold letters, “Ahoy, big spenders.” There were also two small articles about the crew enjoying the city, one entitled “Taken By Our Picturesque Port.” Lest anyone think it’s just hometown pride, Hobart really is a beautiful city tucked between the River Derwent and Mount Wellington.