I’m Thinkin’ This Ain’t Exactly Career-Enhancing
My background is Army. As such, I’ve never been to sea – and thus don’t really know much about shipboard operations or life.
But I’ve just never been able to quite understand out how two ships at sea could manage to run into each other. I mean, ships are not exactly small things; they can typically be seen and sensed from substantial distances. And there’s generally plenty of room out there for each. Given common use of radar and lookouts, barring intent or electrical/mechanical issues it’s kind of hard for me to see how that could happen – even in the more crowded parts of the sea.
Yet ships collide sometimes. And such a collision apparently happened recently between a US warship and a oil tanker in the Straits of Hormuz. The USS Porter, a guided missile destroyer, is reported to have collided with the Panamanian-flagged merchant vessel Otowasan a day or two ago. There were no reported injuries or deaths, but the collision is reported to have left a rather substantial hole in the USS Porter’s hull.
Yeah, the incident occurred at 1AM local, so time-of-day doubtless played a role. And yeah, the Straits of Hormuz are pretty crowded. Still – the two ships couldn’t figure out how to miss each other?
I’m guessing the USS Porter’s captain has some ‘splainin’ to do about this. And I’m also guessing he probably might want to start thinking about his post-service career plans.
Navy vets, please weigh in here. How easy is this to avoid, and in how much “deep doo-doo” is the USS Porter’s captain?
Category: Navy
Based on the way the Navy operates and the last couple of Captain’s that have had similar incidents I would say he is most certainly done.
Short answer: The PORTER being struck on the starboard side is the key to determining which vessel is at fault. The watch standers from the lookouts down to the radar operator and other CIC and bridge watch standers dropped the ball on this. I would expect most of the PORTER’s leadership and navigation team to be relieved on this one with significant spotlight being shown on the systemic watch standing practices and proficiencies or lack thereof.
By the looks of it either:
(1) The Porter turned Starboard when the M/V was on it’s starboard side and tried to cut across the bow of the M/V during some strange overtaking situaion
(2) The Porter was going straight and the M/V was perpendicular on it’s starboard side going from right to left. In that case the Porter is the give way and should have shot the stern of the M/V or slowed or done something (unless you agree to do something different on B2B)
(3) A Head on situation and the Porter turned port towards a vessel on the port side.
Or course the M/V could have turned into the Porter at some point but by the pictures it looks like an almost perfect perpendicular hit.
Also news on the street is the skipper of the PITTSBURGH was canned because he tapped a young lady in Norfolk on his way out the door. She ended up with child and he came up with a BS story of being killed in a training accident. She and her family went to show their respects only to discover that she had been taken for a ride. Some of the Groton Ct news sites have been reporting this this morning.
@1-3
I have no bloody idea what you just said. bring it down to tanker speak
wait I understood #1….2-3 no idea.
@4 check roger.
In theory, it’s easy to avoid…in reality that’s not always the case. Are the Skipper, Officer of the Deck, and likely a few others (possibly XO, Navigator, CIC Watch Officer, and/or Junior Officer of the Deck) pretty much toast? Yeah, they’re done. What you have to visualize though, is this (not excusing anything here, just attempting to illustrate how these things can happen): Busy shipping lane. Imagine being on say, the 405 in LA or the 285 in Atlanta during rush hour…except instead of cars and tractor trailers, it’s Super Tankers and Bulk Carriers…and you are in the maritime equivalent of a Honda Accord (albeit a heavily armed Honda Accord). Many of these other vessels are running on auto-pilot or have minimal bridge manning at the late hour. Add to that Rules of the Road, in which the smaller vessel is supposed to give way to the larger, less maneuverable vessel (something the commercial traffic knows and uses to its full advantage). This is fine in theory but due to the traffic the smaller vessel may simply have no means to get out of the way. While it is the smaller vessel’s fault for allowing itself to get into that situation, the larger vessel may have done something completely unexpected…once during a transit of the Malacca Straits we got passed on the port (left) side by a Liquid Natural Gas carrier who proceeded to get 1500 yards ahead and then execute a hard starboard (right) turn. The bastard cut us off! In the case of the Porter the situation is compounded by the darkness as well as the fact that most (if not all) of the crew on watch has already stood one watch and had a full work day, only to be awakened to go on the midwatch at 2330 or so and probably only had 3 or so hours of sleep if they were lucky. It’s not unusual to work 18-20 hour days while underway, especially in an environment like the Hormuz where there is going to be a 24/7 navigation detail running in addition to fully manned… Read more »
@5
http://boatsafe.com/flash/reviewrules.html
OK lets review. You are in a shipping lane (albeit narrow) that the US Navy has controlled (or alleast protected) since 1947, you have to turn either LEFT or RIGHT, your ship either has right of way or it does not, there are green and red bouys and markers to help you with your LEFT and RIGHT turns, your ship is equipped with the latest navigation equipment that allow you to steam safety in the dark or worst of weather, and you can’t figure it out.
The following persons need to be releaved immediately: CO, XO, Officer of the Deck, CIC Watch Officer, and all Officers and Chiefs on Watch who had SITAWARE during the incident.
We are lucky that no Sailors were killed. Now we have one ship down in a Navy that can not afford to be one ship down.
This is embarrassing to no end.
FIRE them all now … Courts Marshal later!
an armed honda accord. HA! great visual.
@7 Just because a vessel is smaller doesn’t mean it has to give way. The only time when the Rules of the Road mentions is situations where you have a vessel <20m which cannot impede a vessel in a narrow channel (Rule 9b Int'l) or in a TSS (Rule 10j Int'l)
From NAVY TIMES: Destroyer Porter collides with Japanese tanker By Sam Fellman – Staff writer Posted : Sunday Aug 12, 2012 14:20:47 EDT The destroyer Porter and a Japanese-owned tanker collided near the Strait of Hormuz at 1 a.m. Sunday, an impact that tore open the destroyer’s starboard side but left both crews unharmed, 5th Fleet said in a news release. The collision between Porter and the bulk oil tanker Otowasan, operating under a Panamanian flag, was not “combat related,” 5th Fleet said. The circumstances of the collision — whether the collision was in the channel, the relative speeds at impact, or which ship had right of way — remain unclear. Porter had just completed an inbound transit through the Strait of Hormuz into the Persian Gulf, said 5th Fleet spokesman Lt. Greg Raelson. “The Japanese tanker was heading … into the Strait of Hormuz” toward the Gulf of Oman, said Raelson, who added he didn’t have the exact coordinates of the collision available. “We’re just happy that neither ship sustained any injuries or casualties,” Raelson said. Navy photos show substantial damage to the Norfolk, Va.-based destroyer. In one, sailors in helmets with headlamps are seen inside the gaping hole, which appears to be on the maindeck not far from the entrance to the combat information center on the starboard side. Raelson said the damages were starboard side, above the waterline. Photos of the incident were taken by the dock landing ship Gunston Hall, which made the transit with Porter and rendered assistance afterward, Raelson said. After the collision, the ship headed into port for an assessment and repairs. “Porter pulled into Jebel Ali in [the United Arab Emirates],” Raelson said. “They’re pier-side now and getting a status for the damages.” This is the fleet’s second collision in four months. In May, amphibious assault ship Essex collided with the oiler Yukon while headed to San Diego for an overhaul. In that case, Essex’s commanding officer was relieved a month later, following an investigation. Raelson said the Porter collision is under investigation and couldn’t comment on whether disciplinary action would be… Read more »
@11, I was just trying to simplify it…lol, plenty of experience things like say, sailboats…for instance, during the America’s Cup (yes, I was there for that).
@ 5 in Bradley terms (as close to tanker terms as I can get): Imagine doing Gunnery Table 8 for about a month straight.
@ #9 I’m amused by the thought that having to use ‘LEFT’ and ‘RIGHT’ was probably tough for an old Navy man like yourself! Nice explanation for the nautically-challenged here.
My background is Army also. But from what I’ve learned about the Navy (a great service by the way) is the ships crew is lead by officers with college degrees, but they’re usually driven by kids with a high school diploma… I’m guessing the capts will loose their jobs.
Preface this by saying I’m not a coner, but I’ll go from what I know from boat quals, Section Tracking Party, shit like that:
Lots of people dropped the ball on this one. Contact coordinator should have been keeping track of ALL contacts including their bearing, bearing rate, CPA, etc. But also, it depends on who was the “burdened” vessel–if the Porter was, then they are the ones required to maneuver to avoid collision; otherwise, they are required to maintain course and speed.
Even if the CO/Nav party wasn’t responsible, this doesn’t necessarily mean the CO’s job is safe. One of the JO’s on my first boat went on to be the CO of the USS Newport News. He got “zoofed” by a Japanese tanker, meaning the Venturi Effect caused by the tanker actually sucked up the NN into the stern of the tanker. Nevermind the fact that the boat was at constant speed and depth and the tanker basically ran him down from behind.
Bottom line, he got run over but still lost his command.
LISTEN to NHSparky: Closest Point of Approach (CPA). Even this former BT knows that with this concept in mind this NEVER should have happended. When in doubt, ask the question, which way should I turn? The answer is: away!
Yup–depending on situation, type of ship, how big of balls the CO has, where transiting, he may want to be personally appraised if CPA is anything less than 2000-5000 yards, again depending on situation.
When CPA is ZERO and you do nothing, that ain’t good.
Off Subject! @ 13 …. I was associate crew memebr of Ted’s Courageous (boy could he drink) during 1983 America’s Cup in Newport and onboard guard ship USS Valdez (FF-1096) when Dennis Commer of Liberty lost to Australia giving up the cup and destroying the longest winning record in US sport history!
@ NH … BAM!
I’m with Hondo as far as any Navy experience….bluefish, blackfish and fluke fishing off Long Island is the extent of my “vast” on-water experience.
Having said that, I think an obvious historical incident comes to mind: The USS Cole.
If the Porter can collide with a Japanese tanker as larger as this one….it seems like not only did someone drop the ball – a whole bunch of balls were dropped along with those that’ll be chopped off in the near future.
T see Marime Traffic Live go to: http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/default.aspx?centerx=52.891¢ery=25.1465&zoom=14
Arleigh Burke Class Destroyers
Cost of Ship minus weapons – 1.1 billion USD
Cost of Weapons and control systems for ship 778 million USD
Total cost of platform 1.8 billion USD
Crashing into a tanker with your almost 2 billion dollar command?
Seems definitely NOT career enhancing….
@20 I was on the USS John A Moore (FFG-19) in ’95 during the AC trials (I should have been more specific earlier) when the USS Abraham Lincoln went blasting into the restricted waters of the course at flank speed. There’s a lot of accounts out there, but here’s what really happened: big FLEETEX, we were playing Orange Force. Lincoln is maintaining steerageway about 8000 yards outside the restricted waters, nestled in a heavy fog. I was the EW on watch, she was lit up like a Christmas tree and we were in EMCON with only the Furuno up. We close to within 1000 yards, taking advantage of the dense emitter environment, the fog, and all of the America’s Cup traffic and call “GOLF, GOLF, GOLF” (I should note here that the CO we had at that time had giant brass cojones…he also had us pull off a PACFIRE in the Malacca Straight later that year). Lincoln takes off at flank speed making a beeline for the course/restricted waters. We pursue for a bit, then realize they are neither turning away from the restricted area nor slowing down. We call over BTB to them warning that they are about to enter the AC course, to which they reply in essence, “we don’t care, we’re an aircraft carrier”. I strongly suspect that they didn’t think a race would be running at that time due to the fog. We go all back about 2000 yards short of the course and watch them go sailing merrily along. Needless to say, there were a lot of stars waiting on the pier when they pulled back into North Island.
For all those who need translation of Country Singer’s last post. In 1995 the Twiggets up above did “this and that” and we Engineers down below had no idea what happended.
Master Chief–love that map. Back it up to about a 100-mile scan and prepare to be amazed.
Think 405 Freeway at rush hour, but without roads, lanes, signals, etc. Talk about playing in traffic.
@26 LOL! Translation: we snuck up real close on them in the fog during an exercise and opened up with guns (vice missiles which would have been “MIKE, MIKE, MIKE”) and they skedaddled directly into an America’s Cup race, damn near running over the boats racing as well as the boats watching.
Oh yeah MCPO, the Snipes knew what was going on, they had the word to (and did) throw the battle shorts when the pursuit began, lol.
It’s an unwritten rule that you never turn to Port in a situation like this.
It seems to me that this was a Head-on situation if the Porter was leaving the Strait and the M/V was entering. If that’s the case it should have been a simple Port to Port passage even without radio comms. So either the PORTER turned to starboard for some unknown reason or the M/V did something crazy. CO might be able to save his job if the M/V did something negligent and the PORTER couldn’t maneuver to avoid because of shoals. I’ll take a collision over grounding, especially that close to Iran.
MCFAUL’s CO kept his job after a collision off of VACAPES a few years back but he had some major juice and a N/MC Life Saving Medal.
Is it safe to say that if you are in a little boat/ship you want to stay out of the way of bigger boats/ships? Seems like that would be a great place to start when navigating anywhere at sea.
Would expect that the Navy has all sorts of plans and contingency plans to the back-up plans to keep this sort of thing from happening. So, yeah, unless the CO et al had career expectations other than as paper clip custodians, yeah, their careers are now on a different path.
Let’s see if I got this right: COs of two ships in the Straits of Hormuz decide they want to occupy the same space at the same time? Was anyone actually paying attention out there? Oops!
Edit to my post above…PORTER turned to “port” for some unknonwn reason.
“A collision at sea can ruin your whole day.” — Thucydides
Damn but I do love all this Navy talk. Especially since I’m usually the one trying to decipher the Army acronyms and buzz words. Of course, I’m also happy that no one was hurt in the incident.
Never stood any watches or worked in the lofty environs involved so also can’t offer anything useful either.
Country Singer #29: There’s a term I haven’t heard for a looong time – Battle Short.
@Edward1811, upon reading that the Porter was outbound and the m/v was inbound I have to agree about turning port.
Looks like they might have intentionally turned to port and cut across misreading the radar picture and/or being confused by background lighting or something strange.
One thing I just thought of it that they could also have tried to overtake a vessel ahead of them by passing on that vessels port side not knowing or realizing there was a vessel there. Then they either realized ‘oh shit’ and cut across the bow or maybe had a loss of steering and ended up across the bow.
Either way, doesn’t look good.
Two Words for all those non-Navy types: Collision Regulations (COLREGS) In summary both skippers F’d up because they both collided! 13. Overtaking An overtaking vessel must keep out of the way of the vessel being overtaken. ‘Overtaking’ means approaching another vessel at more than 22.5 degrees abaft her beam, i.e. so that at night, the overtaking vessel would see only the stern light and neither of the sidelights of the vessel being overtaken.[4] 14. Head-on situations When two power-driven vessels are meeting head-on both must alter course to starboard so that they pass on the port side of the other. ‘Head-on’ means seeing the other vessel ahead or nearly ahead so that by night her masthead lights are actually or nearly lined up and/or seeing both her sidelights, or by day seeing a similar aspect of her.[4] 15. Crossing situations When two power-driven vessels are crossing, the vessel which has the other on the starboard side must give way and avoid crossing ahead of her.[4] The saying is “If to starboard red appear, ’tis your duty to keep clear”.[7] 16. The give-way vessel The give-way vessel must take early and substantial action to keep well clear.[4] 17. The stand-on vessel The stand-on vessel shall maintain her course and speed, but she may take action to avoid collision if it becomes clear that the give-way vessel is not taking appropriate action, or when so close that collision can no longer be avoided by the actions of the give-way vessel alone. In a crossing situation, the stand-on vessel should avoid turning to port even if the give-way vessel is not taking appropriate action. These options for the stand-on vessel do not relieve the give-way vessel of her obligations under the rules.[4] 18. Responsibilities between vessels Except in narrow channels, traffic separation schemes, and when overtaking (i.e. rules 9, 10, and 13) A power-driven vessel must give way to: a vessel not under command; a vessel restricted in her ability to maneuver (this may include vessels towing one another[8]); a vessel engaged in fishing; a sailing vessel. A sailing vessel must give way… Read more »
The captain has probably already been relieved and flown off the ship. Happened back in 87 in the Bahamas. A destroyer ran right up onto a marked, and well-known reef, the next day a helo came and took him away. No excuse for this accident…none.
I’ve got both, active Navy and active Army backgrounds. Let me give this a stab to help those with just an Army background understand this better. The Ship’s Combat Information Center, or CIC, functions similar to the Army’s Tactical Operations Center, or TOC. During combat, what happens in a TOC is similar to what happens in CIC. The concepts are also similar when you have operations going on. Now, when the ship is in transit, they have the bridge and the CIC keeping an eye on the surrounding area for other traffic, islands, and sea floor topography. This is kind of like riding an armored vehicle downrange, where you have the TC, driver, and gunner, scanning their sectors for hostile threats and for other traffic. On board the ship, the CIC uses radar and sonar to keep tabs on what else is floating out there, as well as how much water you have between the bottom of the ship and the sea floor. The bridge is also like a TOC, for visual navigation as well as internal ship operations. The bridge also has radar repeaters and fathometer (sp) readouts. Usually, the folks on the bridge could use their binoculars to scan their sector to see what else is floating out there. To supplement the bridge, you have a lookout on the left side of the ship (port lookout), on the right side of the ship (starboard lookout), and a lookout in the back of the ship (Aft lookout). This is similar in concept to an armed convoy downrange, where the front vehicle’s gunner has a sector facing forward of the convoy, the last vehicle’s gunner has a sector facing behind the convoy, and the gunners in the middle vehicles face alternating sectors left or right of the convoy. To remember the difference between port and starboard, use the phrase, “I left my girl in port.” Now, here’s the basic idea. CIC scans the surrounding area with their radars. If they see something out there, they call up to the bridge, or one of the lookouts, to verify what they see.… Read more »
@ 39 Everything sound good (in fact great way to sum up).
But “I left my girl in port,” does not apply automatically anymore.
Should be, “I left my legal domestic partner of no specific identifying gender in port”.
Either way:
Left = Port (or as we sea dogs know it – Larboard)
Right = Starboard
For CI, all military aircraft are preflighted by us snuffies’ with a HS ed or GED. I was a crew chief on UH34sin under 2years in service. Feel better about flying now.As for the Skipper and bunch of others they are gone. Pulled 3 floats off the coast of the RVN, takes a long time and distance to turn one of those big boats. Joe
@39 Was also in the Navy and Army. I was an OS in the Navy and worked in the CIC. This was in the early 80’s so we did not have all these new fangled radars. We kept a plot and navigation chart. In restricted waters we took radar ranges on key points of land to navigate. We also did what are called maneuvering boards on all contacts to calculate Closest point of approach. We could only recommend a change of coarse as it was up to the bridge on what action to take. A destroyer is very maneuverable and a tanker is a floating brick. We always gave them a wide berth. How they could not see what was happening is beyond me. Than again I wasn’t there and this should be an interesting report.
Joe Williams #41: Reckon we shared some ocean views? Gulf of Tonkin views, that is.
’65 – ’69 DLG/DDG types. FTM 1144.
Rule number one-Do not command a ship named Porter, your career will be short.
Google USS William Porter DD-579 during WW-II.
Princeton, Valley Forge and Iwo Jima that we did amips off of the coast of RVN. AW1 Tim ,does the Navy set battle strations or Something for recovety when there is possibly a crash landing and because the helo is landing with battle damage and leaking fuel badly? I think I remember a clear flight deck and crash crew. I was sort of a walking zombie for a week. Joe
Good one Master Chief, and thanks. 😀
Chuck, I was also an OS in the Navy, figured that I was going to leave specifics, like DRT, “scope,” maneuvering board, status board, JL talker, ASTAB, ACDS, JOTS (JMCIS/GCCS) etc, out and to try to keep it simple. 😀
My first ship had a conventional CIC platform, so I could relate to your explanation. You didn’t need the more advanced CIC platforms, though, to see a big blip on the radar screen (scope) go strait for your ship.
On every ship I was on, any ship, boat, etc, that came within a certain distance of the ship resulted in the CO getting called to the bridge.
Master Chief, thanks millions for that link. That site is a veritable treasure trove of information on shipping. I suppose because of OPSEC there’s no military equivalent?
@ 47 You can thank Al Gore. He invented the internet (and global warming). All shipping is GPS tracked. All other vessels are then electronically designated, tagged and tracked. What you have there is exactly what is underway.
# 48 was me. For all those who love to watch shipping lane traffic or better yet all shipping in the world right now live, then go here: http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/
It beats porn any day!
The ship is in Jebel Ali –> http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/