Navy Destroyer Collision

How is this even possible? What if a real bad ass ship came up and sucker punched it? It would have sunk it.

 

I've been wondering about that. Were both captains floating along with their eyes closed ?

 

They aren't telling us something...

How can you NOT see a cargo ship.

 

It boggles my mind. I understand that the straights they were in are one of the most congested in the world. My vessel had a piece of shit Raytheon from the 70's and we could tell what was around us at least 50 miles out. I'd say it goes down to failure of proper watches, and the CO is going to lose his command regardless of why it happened...all that matters to the Navy is that it happened.

 

To the sailors who lost their lives...RIP.

 

With all the sensors on those ships, the only logical answer is it was Kaiju and this is all a cover-up.

 

I'm reading the cargo ship was on autopilot at the time, and it took the crew almost an hour to respond meaning they didn't have anyone on the bridge who knew how to operate it. Conjecture, but a sudden autopilot turn might explain why the impact occurred on the front of the cargo ship and the side of the destroyer.

 

All I know is that I've been out in weather that the Navy was afraid of (that's our motto) and I knew exactly what was around me. Electronics today are beyond what I could have even comprehended 30 years ago but nothing takes the place of a manned watch at all times.

 

I'm like you guys been wondering what part of the story is missing here.

 

Yep something smells on the story as told. RIP to the sailors and quick return to sea on for the vessel

 

I've been doing quite of bit of reading from available sources on this matter and I hate to say it but to me it all boils down to poor seamanship. I large container ship on autopilot and some cocky sailors on a Navy ship resulted in an accident. It happens. I remember when a Navy hydrofoil ran aground in Key West under full foil and it came down to simple human error...the CO didn't read his chart properly. With all of the modern technology available, shit still happens.

 

I was on the USS Eisenhower and we were returning from a cruise and were in 'the channel' and the harbor pilot was in command of getting the ship back to the dock safely. He failed miserably.

I was on the shore power sponson and getting set to hook up shore power when I noticed that the big freighter in the channel was getting pretty close. Weird, since it was anchored, but OK. It turns out that we were only going forward at about 5 knots. Unfortunately, the rudders on a carrier were not really that effective at <10 knots, and there was one hell of a side wind that day, directly perpendicular to our direction of travel. To make a long story short, we hit the freighter and did some serious damage to both ships.

I saw the captain's (can't remember if it was his in port, or at sea cabin) desk take the plungs, along with most of the emergency life rafts on that side of the ship hit the water. All of this was well within sight of the pier and was certainly able to have been seen by those waiting for our arrival.

We finally did make it into the pier, about 2 hours later than intended, but not long after that......it all hit the fan and got pretty ugly for those on the bridge at the time, right or wrong.

Sometimes the truth really is stranger than fiction.

 

And why in the world is that navy ship so rusty?

 

Not enough seamen on it?

 

Too many salty seamen.

 

Sad that several families lost a son, a father, or a brother.

 

Russian hackers. Duh.

 

Here is a link indicating it was intentional. http://therealrevo.com/blog/?p=161348

 

You tend to not fire on ships in known cargo lanes in times of peace. They obviously had stuff turned off for some, bad, reason.

 

If this is true, they were ignoring Maritime navigation rules, resulting in liability under international law.
If it was on auto pilot, they were remiss in the following rules;
https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/?pageName=navRulesContent#rule5 (and rules nine, ten and eleven)
The cargo ship also failed to yield 'right of way' as the cargo ship collision occured on the USN starboard side.