https://news.usni.org/2017/07/12/new-dry-dock-photos-show-extent-hidden-uss-fitzgerald-damage

Looks like they are patching her up for a trip back to the USA for repairs.

http://taskandpurpose.com/fitzgeralds-watch-team-mine/

It's pretty spooky being under a large ship in drydock. I once replaced a ships Fathometer transducer while she was high and dry and then tighten the transducer bolts in the Pit_sword room at the bottom of the ships interior hull.

 

I once had to take a trip in the keel tunnel of a freighter to replace some temp. probes.Laying on my back on a little wheeled trolley pushing myself along in that small space along the length of the ship was definitely an experience.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/17/politics/uss-fitzgerald-leadership-removed/index.html

(CNN)The commanding officer, executive officer and senior non-commissioned officer of the USS Fitzgerald are due to be removed from their duties for cause amid the fallout surrounding the deadly collision between the USS Fitzgerald and a cargo ship off the coast of Japan on June 17.

"They will be detached from the ship for cause, which is, we've lost trust and confidence in their ability to lead in those positions and they will not return to the ship," Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. William Moran told reporters at the Pentagon late Thursday.
Moran added that the commander of the Navy's 7th Fleet, Adm. Joseph Aucoin, "has notified them of his intent" to detach them for cause a move likely to occur during their non-judicial punishment process, scheduled to take place Friday.

https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3934451/Navy-Report-on-USS-Fitzgerald.pdf

 

This will be the first time I seen a Command Master Chief relieved along with the CO and XO.

 

I watched several officers and the senior corpsman all get relieved on the deck of a ship (USS WORDEN) in Diego Garcia after several crew members got sick and one died from Malaria contracted during a Spec-Op in Africa. I was waiting at the base to repair one of the ships critical computer systems so I was next on-board after they left and the new personnel were piped on. There was some sort of investigation that resulted in a new CO for that ship.

http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1985/U...nyan-Port/id-69f4a19c85c6c6a5a2fb2a564d6b129f

The local business community, hotel proprietors, bar owners and prostitutes generally do a booming business during the fleet visits to Mombasa, also a popular liberty port for sailors of the British, French and other navies.

 

Loss of confidence is the catch all phrase today. It swings mightily when one runs afoul. Even following all the promulgated procedures can get one relieved for cause.

 

Loss of confidence is the catch all phrase today. It swings mightily when one runs afoul. Even following all the promulgated procedures can get one relieved for cause.

If you crash your ship into another one during a normal nights passage, get seven sailors killed with at least two who died saving others you need to have the excuse of the worst act of God possible to save the senior leadership asses from being keelhauled down the last man in the Goat locker.

 

There had to be a ton of errors by multiple people that night, or worse, warnings ignored by someone. I know the RFC is justified in my mind, with a permanent one to follow, and possibly a court martial.

 

looks like another collision.....destroyer mccane. not too many details yet. 10 missing.

 

looks like another collision.....destroyer mccane. not too many details yet. 10 missing.

That's a bad spot to have a steering casualty. I've been up and down that Strait, into the Gulf of Thailand, up from Cambodia to Pattyaya and out to the Indian Ocean. There are times when you can just about pogo stick across ships decks to the shore there is so much traffic.
https://twitter.com/mykamarul

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewe...&ll=5.5505787634184705,100.53862648622896&z=7

 

This is troubling and puzzling. I am not a radar expert. And I recall some comments about close in radar problems. I imagine a high traffic area would make it worse. But surely....we have better tech than that. And if not.....why not lookouts in high traffic areas?

Both collisions were with large ships. And lives were lost. Troubling events.

 

This is troubling and puzzling. I am not a radar expert. And I recall some comments about close in radar problems. I imagine a high traffic area would make it worse. But surely....we have better tech than that. And if not.....why not lookouts in high traffic areas?

Both collisions were with large ships. And lives were lost. Troubling events.

Radar is just about useless at those close ranges for actual steering, you need it but you can't trust it. It's all about people looking at contacts with a MK1 eyeball, making range estimates, making slight adjustments to the heading and hoping nothing happens to make the pucker factor into a nightmare.

 

There had to be a ton of errors by multiple people that night, or worse, warnings ignored by someone. I know the RFC is justified in my mind, with a permanent one to follow, and possibly a court martial.

In most militaries -- and naval services tend to take it to a higher degree than others -- those in command are responsible for the actions of those in their command. This certainly results in times when someone down low screws up in ways that the commander has no reasonable way of knowing that they did or of preventing it and the commander still being relieved. The rational is then basically that the commander had the responsibility to establish a culture in which their people were highly unlikely to screw up in that way -- it also is intended to serve as fair notice to their replacement that they better damn well make sure that the right culture gets implemented.

Sometimes this is done in a way that is not fair -- but while everyone knows the phrase, "with rank goeth privileges," few comprehend the degree to which, "with rank goeth accountability."

Now, this is not to say that there aren't times when the politics (both within the military and in the civilian leadership thereof) doesn't result in lower-down folks taking the brunt of the blame and punishment while leadership skates even when the leadership fully well should get thrashed. It happens -- and most military members, including those in comparable leadership positions, are not at all happy when it does.

I'm not a seaman of any sort, so I can't comment meaningfully on what went wrong or should have happened differently -- I have little choice but to let the proper authorities make their decision and trust in them to do so properly. But that doesn't mean I can't have an opinion. It would seem to me that this might well be an instance when the shipboard culture was allowed to become one in which the ship was hazarded beyond any reasonable justification. If so, then one question that needs to be asked is if it was a culture on this ship, or was it a wider culture that has developed. Given two ship collisions in just a couple months, it is definitely a question that needs to be asked (though coincidences DO happen). It could be lax discipline or lax training. It could also be a gradual overreliance on automated systems and sensors and other systemic factors that the captains had little or no control over. Even if that's the case, though, the captain is responsible for the safety of the ship and that includes constantly evaluating the procedures that are in place, identifying weaknesses, and overcoming them.

 

I'm not a seaman of any sort, so I can't comment meaningfully on what went wrong or should have happened differently -- I have little choice but to let the proper authorities make their decision and trust in them to do so properly. But that doesn't mean I can't have an opinion. It would seem to me that this might well be an instance when the shipboard culture was allowed to become one in which the ship was hazarded beyond any reasonable justification. If so, then one question that needs to be asked is if it was a culture on this ship, or was it a wider culture that has developed. Given two ship collisions in just a couple months, it is definitely a question that needs to be asked (though coincidences DO happen). It could be lax discipline or lax training. It could also be a gradual overreliance on automated systems and sensors and other systemic factors that the captains had little or no control over. Even if that's the case, though, the captain is responsible for the safety of the ship and that includes constantly evaluating the procedures that are in place, identifying weaknesses, and overcoming them.

It's too early to tell with this last collision but both places are bottlenecks that have been eating ships forever.

USS Ranger (CV-61) bow the morning after the collision in the Straits of Malacca 5 April 1979.

 

It's too early to tell with this last collision but both places are bottlenecks that have been eating ships forever.

USS Ranger (CV-61) bow the morning after the collision in the Straits of Malacca 5 April 1979.

What, if any, disciplinary action was taken against anyone for that incident? I wasn't able to find any information on that.

 

Something is amiss here ... the USS McCain also had an incident. http://abcnews.go.com/US/uss-john-mccain-collides-merchant-ship-singapore-search/story?id=49327836

@WBahn believe me I know the naval services hold those in charge to a higher degree. In fact, when I was TAD to teach at a course, I told those in attendance that I am the one the Commandant holds responsible for Loran Station Boise City, and before than when I was the OIC at Loran Station Nantucket. I was at a conference once and was questioned about some unusable time the previous night. I told the Operational Commander that the XPO was acting and he is the best person to contact to get the story. I did contact him on the next break. Not acting fast enough on their watch has gotten some an Article 15.

I too will wait for the due process. I know I was slightly shocked by the relief of the Command Master Chief.

 

What, if any, disciplinary action was taken against anyone for that incident? I wasn't able to find any information on that.

Following the collision USS RANGER's CO was relieved by Capt. Roger E. Box, USN. with only one person lightly hurt from a head bang.
http://uss-rangerguy.com/collision.htm

http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~pbushmil/atomized_jr/2009/04/07.html

It made Liberia a free market perfection. The collision's impetus was a misreading by the MV Fortune of our ship/airport running lights. They read the lights to indicate we were on a different course than we were, and assumed we had better charts and knew what we were doing, so they put themselves on what they thought was a parallel course. They actually put themselves on a course to cut in front of us. We were just beginning a transit of the Straits of Malacca at the time approximately 24 miles from Singapore. The straits are a narrow and very busy shipping channel between Sumatra and the Malaysian peninsula. Lcdr "Crash" Kramer, and Lcdr "Tasmanian "Thies - we gave them nicknames afterwards - the OOD and Navigator who were present on the bridge at the time compounded the MV Fortune's initial error. They disagreed whether to turn to port and try to regain a true parallel course, or to starboard and pass below their stern (the correct answer). The Captain was asleep in his cabin at the time and not available as tie-breaker. No action was taken in time and we hit them amidships at 5 knots.
...
April 5, 1979: Near the eastern approaches to the Straits of Malacca. USS RANGER collided with the Liberian tanker FORTUNE suffering substantial damage but no injuries while the tanker is holed in the port side from the main deck to the waterline. Following the collision USS RANGER's CO was relieved by Capt. Roger E. Box, USN. ( USS Ranger CV-61)

They note that Captain Box replaced Captain Thomas G. Moore after this. That happened a month or so later after the USS Ranger nearly swamped a barge tug leaving Yokuska, the USS Ranger tried to assume helm control while the tug still had a line on us. There had already been a maritime court of inquiry that had assigned joint blame for the big accident. Captain Moore was gone within hours of that second incident. The Navy at the time routinely assigned command of Aircraft Carriers to fighter pilots like Captain Moore. As I think about it, these improvised repairs worked well enough, there was a least one period of very heavy seas when we spend three days on the edge of a typhoon off of Luzon. Nothing broke off that couldn't be winched back in place. In late August we returned to Yokuska (near Yokohama) where the Ship Repair Facility had built us a new bow section and we went back into dry-dock for a few weeks to have it fitted on. It was on this occasion that I got up to Kita Kamkura and Tokyo. From there we pounded back to Hawaii at flank speed to test it out. Every single thing on the ship rattled against something else for a week. Pens danced on desktops and the typewriters seemed to type by themselves. Your pillow rattled against your head when you tried to sleep.

 

Following the collision USS RANGER's CO was relieved by Capt. Roger E. Box, USN. with only one person lightly hurt from a head bang.
http://uss-rangerguy.com/collision.htm

http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~pbushmil/atomized_jr/2009/04/07.html

Hola @nsaspook

Could you explain briefly, "flank speed"?

 

Hola @nsaspook

Could you explain briefly, "flank speed"?

It is a term (used by the U.S. and perhaps others, but not British Commonwealth nations) which means "go as fast as you can". It is usually only used in emergencies and usually can't be sustained for an extended period of time. It's not the same as "full speed ahead", which (IIRC) is the maximum sustainable speed that the vessel is rated for under normal conditions.

 

Hola @nsaspook

Could you explain briefly, "flank speed"?

It means move your ass as fast as possible with the only possible speed increase being ludicrous speed.