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Destroyer collides with merchant ship

tiredretired

The Old Salt
SUPER Site Supporter
Yeah, I'm also wonder whose fault it is. The Old Man had just been Captain for about a month. Major collisions at sea do not look good on ones service record even regardless of fault.

BTW, the USS Fitzgerald is named after William "Bill" Fitzgerald, a US Navy officer killed in Vietnam in 1967. He died very heroically covering a retreat so others could get away. Hence, the ships motto, "Protect your people". He did that very well. He was born in Montpelier, VT, the capital and 7 miles from the town I was born in. I remember his death very well. A well known family and a great kid. I actually attended church with one of his children for a while soon after the ship was commissioned in the mid 90's. He was a hero and a true Green Mountain Boy.
 
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waybomb

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
How the he'll does this happen?

I've got a pipsqueek 6kw 72 mile consumer non-military radar on my boat and I can see great lakes container ships on my screen before they pop over the horizon miles away.

This essentially toy radar I have has zone alarms, bearing lines, etc.

These two ships would have radars of much more power and quality than my radar.
 

tiredretired

The Old Salt
SUPER Site Supporter
How the he'll does this happen?

I've got a pipsqueek 6kw 72 mile consumer non-military radar on my boat and I can see great lakes container ships on my screen before they pop over the horizon miles away.

This essentially toy radar I have has zone alarms, bearing lines, etc.

These two ships would have radars of much more power and quality than my radar.

The USS Fitz uses Lockheed-Martin's AN/SPY-1D 3D Radar which is a passive electronically scanned system which is integrated into the Aegis Combat System as per wikipedia.

Yeah, just a titch more sophisticated then yours. So, yes, how in hell did it happen. Good question.
 

JimVT

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
by the looks of the container ship that anchor could have punched a good hole.
twitter has good pictures
one post
_rd29_Basically of what I know the merchant vessel didn't have time to turn away fast enough and rammed the starboard- bow (near bridge) side
ahmad_rreza������usa navy
 
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waybomb

Well-known member
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The bow bulb which is below water probably did the most damage and probably caused the flooding.
 

XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq

Master of Distraction
Staff member
SUPER Site Supporter
Someone is losing their commission. Still don't know how this could happen. Someone was totally asleep at the helm.
 

road squawker

Active member
GOLD Site Supporter
The USS Fitz uses Lockheed-Martin's AN/SPY-1D 3D Radar which is a passive electronically scanned system which is integrated into the Aegis Combat System as per wikipedia.

Yeah, just a titch more sophisticated then yours. So, yes, how in hell did it happen. Good question.

Thats a surface to air radar system
 

Danang Sailor

nullius in verba
GOLD Site Supporter
How the he'll does this happen?

I've got a pipsqueek 6kw 72 mile consumer non-military radar on my boat and I can see great lakes container ships on my screen before they pop over the horizon miles away.

This essentially toy radar I have has zone alarms, bearing lines, etc.

These two ships would have radars of much more power and quality than my radar.
If everything was normal, it wouldn't matter what sort of radar the container ship had; they tend to run with "Iron Mike" (i.e., nautical autopilot) engaged once clear of harbors. In many cases, they don't keep a live body on the bridge, trusting to alarms built into (newer) radar units, or other ships maneuvering to missthem, or most often, blind luck!

And yes, that particular habit is incredibly dangerous. The only reason there aren't more collisions is the vastness of the sea.

Now, having said all that, I have to wonder what the hell the lookouts on the Fitzgerald were doing ... as well as the Quartermaster with the bridge watch and the guys in CIC! With competent lookouts, bridge, and CIC watches this should never happen! The fact that it did will cost the CO his career, even if he was asleep in his cabin, and will likely tarnish (at the least) the careers of everyone on the bridge at the time.
 

tiredretired

The Old Salt
SUPER Site Supporter
If everything was normal, it wouldn't matter what sort of radar the container ship had; they tend to run with "Iron Mike" (i.e., nautical autopilot) engaged once clear of harbors. In many cases, they don't keep a live body on the bridge, trusting to alarms built into (newer) radar units, or other ships maneuvering to missthem, or most often, blind luck!

And yes, that particular habit is incredibly dangerous. The only reason there aren't more collisions is the vastness of the sea.

Now, having said all that, I have to wonder what the hell the lookouts on the Fitzgerald were doing ... as well as the Quartermaster with the bridge watch and the guys in CIC! With competent lookouts, bridge, and CIC watches this should never happen! The fact that it did will cost the CO his career, even if he was asleep in his cabin, and will likely tarnish (at the least) the careers of everyone on the bridge at the time.

We collided with an ammo ship, the USS Wrangell, during an UNREP in the Med. The old man was not on the bridge at the time. It cost him dearly.

It was more of a side swipe then what happened to the Fitz. Still, it does not do wonders for one's service record.
 

Doc

Bottoms Up
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
[

Now, having said all that, I have to wonder what the hell the lookouts on the Fitzgerald were doing ... as well as the Quartermaster with the bridge watch and the guys in CIC! With competent lookouts, bridge, and CIC watches this should never happen! The fact that it did will cost the CO his career, even if he was asleep in his cabin, and will likely tarnish (at the least) the careers of everyone on the bridge at the time.
[/FONT]

Agree 100% No excuse for those on watch on the bridge not to have taken action to avoid the massive container ship. From the graphic shown of the container ship doing the big circle it did not show the Navy ship taking any evasive action. Un-freaking-believable.

We collided with an ammo ship, the USS Wrangell, during an UNREP in the Med. The old man was not on the bridge at the time. It cost him dearly.

It was more of a side swipe then what happened to the Fitz. Still, it does not do wonders for one's service record.

I was on an Ammo ship that did a Med cruise and then went from Norfolk VA to Vietnam. USS Butte AE-27, known as the Lonely Bull because we sailed alone, never with the fleet. I suppose all Ammo ships do the same.
 

mla2ofus

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Could it be all responsible people on both ships were too busy texting or playing video games??
Mike
 

road squawker

Active member
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EastTexFrank

Well-known member
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Like others, I am absolutely amazed by this.

The container ship I can understand, they tend to run with minimum crew and maximum electronics, but a Navy destroyer?????

I can just see the helmsman having one of those, "hold my beer and watch this" moments. That incident is going to cost a lot of people dearly.
 

JimVT

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
how can a container ship make a 180 degree turn and no one notices is on both ships?
kind of sounds impossible. was the destroyer with the fleet?
 

road squawker

Active member
GOLD Site Supporter
...kind of sounds impossible. was the destroyer with the fleet?

Years ago, a ship I was on had its homeport changed to Yokosuka Japan.

At the end of a 9 month deployment, instead of returning to our home port in San Diego, where our families were living, we just stayed in our new "homeport" of yokosuksa.

Unless you "volunteered" for a 3 year tour, you could NOT have your dependents relocated to Japan,.... it became a 3 year involuntary unaccompanied tour.

The reason mention this, is because that ship had the worst morale of any ship I ever encountered in my Naval career.

The ships unofficial motto became "vote with your feet" (the only way to get out of Japan was to get out of the Navy or reenlist with guaranteed orders to a new duty station).
 

FrancSevin

Proudly Deplorable
GOLD Site Supporter
If everything was normal, it wouldn't matter what sort of radar the container ship had; they tend to run with "Iron Mike" (i.e., nautical autopilot) engaged once clear of harbors. In many cases, they don't keep a live body on the bridge, trusting to alarms built into (newer) radar units, or other ships maneuvering to missthem, or most often, blind luck!

And yes, that particular habit is incredibly dangerous. The only reason there aren't more collisions is the vastness of the sea.

Now, having said all that, I have to wonder what the hell the lookouts on the Fitzgerald were doing ... as well as the Quartermaster with the bridge watch and the guys in CIC! With competent lookouts, bridge, and CIC watches this should never happen! The fact that it did will cost the CO his career, even if he was asleep in his cabin, and will likely tarnish (at the least) the careers of everyone on the bridge at the time.
There is a reason the Captain's orders are sacrosanct. He is ultimately responsible for all actions or lack of action, proper or improper, that happens on the ship.

My son told a story of enlisted receiving two barrels of oil while the captain was ashore, in harbor, New London CT. One was hydraulic oil which he was ordered to use immediately. The other was solvent. He promptly installed the wrong oil, rendering the entire submarine useless.

The Captain lost his command and received a bill for the boat.
The Seaman received a reprimand.

I don't know if the story is true but ,,,; it is the reason that when officers are promoted, they remove from their head the bone that makes the Captain explain orders.
 

tiredretired

The Old Salt
SUPER Site Supporter
Agree 100% No excuse for those on watch on the bridge not to have taken action to avoid the massive container ship. From the graphic shown of the container ship doing the big circle it did not show the Navy ship taking any evasive action. Un-freaking-believable.



I was on an Ammo ship that did a Med cruise and then went from Norfolk VA to Vietnam. USS Butte AE-27, known as the Lonely Bull because we sailed alone, never with the fleet. I suppose all Ammo ships do the same.

That's because we don't want to be anywhere near you guys when you do the Roman Candle imitation. :yum::yum::yum::yum:

Did they ever light the smoking lamp on an AE?
 

Doc

Bottoms Up
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
That's because we don't want to be anywhere near you guys when you do the Roman Candle imitation. :yum::yum::yum::yum:

Did they ever light the smoking lamp on an AE?
Yep, daily ....there were designated smoking areas. Today, I doubt that is the case. The world has sure changed since then.
 
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