Lieutenant Commander Simon Griffiths, DDS, Royal New Zealand Navy
Lieutenant Commander Simon Griffiths is the Commanding Officer of the Royal New Zealand Navy’s Offshore Patrol Vessel 'HMNZS Wellington'. He led the ship through the introduction into service trials and unit readiness evaluation. The successful conclusion was the ship's operational deployment in February 2011 to the Southern Ocean and Antarctica. This was the first Navy visit to the area in 40 years and while there is much historical information on operations in the area, there was neither practical experience in operating a vessel like 'HMNZS Wellington' nor current knowledge of ice navigation. While the ship was departing the Ross Sea, soon after a significant storm, a distress call was received from a recreational adventure vessel. With limited communications back to New Zealand because of the weather conditions, he instituted a considered and measured approach to the call. The ship spent 12 hours conducting an extensive, but what proved to be fruitless, search for the yacht or her life boat and crew.