the random musings not worthy of new thread thread

[ice grillin you]

i did...I use the messenger app but I don't have a page

[PhillyPhreak54]

Hope Don Ho is ok...earthquake in Hawaii

5.3

[ice grillin you]

haha

http://wsvn.com/news/us-world/venomous-snake-bites-man-man-bites-wife-so-they-could-die-together/

[PhillyPhreak54]

So how does a container ship and a navy destroyer collide in the ocean?

[ice grillin you]

it wasnt exactly the middle of the ocean it was a super busy shipping channel

[SD]

So how does a container ship and a navy destroyer collide in the ocean?

No idea. I used to be a master helmsman on a DDG (The Fitzgerald was DDG 62, I was on the Stethem which is DDG 63), the only time we were that close to another ship was during underway replenishment (refueling at sea). A ship would pull alongside of us and be 30 yards away. We'd heave a probe over and refuel.

A DDG bridge has an officer of the deck, conning officer, helmsman and lee helmsman, quartermaster of the watch, boatswainsmate of the watch, messenger of the watch, a operations specialist who's constantly tracking contacts and is in direct contact with CIC, a port/starboard/aft lookout.

It's fathomable the Navy Destroyer wasn't picked up by the Cargo ships radar. Navy destroyers are built with a ton of devices that deflect radar to make the ship look invisible or at the very least very small. We were coming into port in Canada and we were a mile from docking and the Canadians told us they couldn't pick us up on their radar.

On the flipside, a Navy Destroyer is equipped with SPA radar which constantly tracks sub/surface/air contacts. That thing picks up everything. If for whatever reason it doesn't the lookout will report a contact. This happened in the dead of night, but we're given nightvision binoculars so visibility is still pretty decent. By maritime laws and where the Destroyer was struck the Cargo ship had the right of way. The Destroyer was stuck on the starboard side meaning it has a green running light, so any ship coming towards the starboard side gets the right of way (on the flipside if it were on the port side there's a red running light meaning the Destroyer would have the right of way). I'd like to know the knots and bearing course of each ship. The only thing I can come up with is if it were really foggy, I've stood lookouts where you couldn't see 10 feet in front of you. Still radar should have picked it up, Navy vessels always keep a safe distance so incidents like this don't happen. They were in a shipping channel and from what I read were in restrictive maneuvering meaning they knew they needed to take additional measures so something like this wouldn't happen.

[PhillyPhreak54]

Fascinating answer thanks.

Can those Navy ships move and turn quickly?

I know container ships take forever to maneuver

[SD]

Fascinating answer thanks.

Can those Navy ships move and turn quickly?

I know container ships take forever to maneuver

Depending on the knots they're going they can change their course pretty quickly. Now, if a cargo ship is that close and hits them near the focsle there's nothing they can do. I've been on ship going over 20 knots where we went rudder full left and the port side weather decks were practically submerged in water. Something farged up happened in this instance. Had to be a perfect storm of navigation error, radar error, and low visibility. There are 7 people on a bridge/pilot house that have binoculars, there's big eyes on the port and starboard bridge wings, and knight vision.

Let's say a cargo ship wanted to purposely hit a Naval ship, it would still be hard to do because SOP of Navy ships is to operate as far away from commercial vessels as possible while still maintaining their mission.

[Tomahawk]

Was the vision all White Knight like King Arthur or Dark Knight like Batman?

[Diomedes]

I get lost in the lingo past starboard.  Focsle?

[SD]

I get lost in the lingo past starboard.  Focsle?

Focsle is short for forecastle aka the front or bow of the ship.

[PhillyPhreak54]

Good stuff bro

So this is likely on the captain of the navy ship?

[SD]

The Captain was new to the command (not that that excuses him). He was likely sleeping since it was 2AM and the cargo ship hit his sea cabin and he was almost killed.

There are 3 types of sleeping quarters:
The CO and XO have their own sea cabins. They're decent sized but separate on a ship so if one is killed the other is still alive to run the ship.

Officers quarters are a small room with bunkbeads. They usually have their own sink and a stand up closet. Officers shtein/shower in their own quarters.

Then there's the berthings which hold the crew. They're a giant room with a bunch of racks stacked 3 high. You get a small locker and your rack (your bed) lifts up and all of your clothes/toiletteries go in that space. There's usually 100 or more people in each berthing. They're very tight living conditions.

The sailors that were killed were sleeping in their berthing. Unfortunately their racks were adjacent to the hull so when the cargo ship struck them they were crushed.

Captains don't always go down. The OOD could have been negligent, radar could have been down (highly unlikely). They'll do a thorough investigation for sure. That's easily $100 million worth of damage.

When I was on the Reagan one of the reactors blew because proper PMS (planned maintenance system) wasn't done properly and the ship was stuck in port for 3 months. One of the reactor sailors (also called "Nukes" was burnt to death by boiling water from a pipe. The ship was only s year old so those incidents are inexcusable. They did an investigation a determined the XO hadn't been enforcing the proper damage control checks, so he was relieved. The CO went on to make Admiral.

To clarify: CO = Commanding Officer (The Captain/skipper regardless of rank)
XO= Exectutive Officer (2nd in command)

[QB Eagles]

His career being totally farged is effectively automatic after something like this. That's where the buck stops even if he personally had absolutely nothing to do with the mistakes that were made. Kids are dead.

In this case I suspect he deserves the blame, too. I haven't seen any evidence that cargo ship did anything wrong other than reacting really slowly after the collision.

[PhillyPhreak54]

Thanks SD great stuff

Its fascinating about the radar and how the ship has ways to make it hard to be seen on opposing radar.

QB

I wonder if they just mothball him into some office job or given some command in a little known area? Or if he retires - not sure of his age tho.

I remember back during desert storm my ex step dad's commanding officer, a Lt Col, killed two soldiers in a friendly fire incident. He was an apache pilot and disobeyed orders to not engage in battle as a CO. He ended up being reprimanded but his name was leaked out and he was eventually allowed to retire at his Lt Col rank.