I Don’t Think This Was “Career Enhancing”
I’m guessing a few Navy careers are now toast.
Two US Navy Vessels Collide in the Gulf of Aden
The two ships involved are the USNS Amerlia Earhart and USNS Walter S. Diehl. The USNS Earhart is a cargo ship; the USNS Deihl, an oiler.
Each ship suffered only minor damage, and there were no injuries. Both ships are continuing their respective missions.
The Navy has indicated it will conduct an investigation of the incident. Gee, what a surprise.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m guessing this means “someone’s got some ‘splainin’ to do” – probably multiple someones, actually. And I’m also guessing quite a few people just might be beginning to revise their resumes about now, too.
Category: Navy
Aren’t ships with the USNS designation crewed by the Merchant Marine?
Could be. In that case, I’m guessing the first sentence should read “. . . . a few USMM careers are toast.” The Navy owns the ships, and I kinda doubt they’ll be real pleased in either case.
There’s a series on YouTube about boat and ship crashes. You wouldn’t think two humongous cargo vessels could collide in broad daylight in calm waters, but they seem to manage it fairly frequently — particularly around China!
Ships tend to avoid each other by large distances, thousands of yards if possible. In this case, however, they are trying to get as close as safely possible, around 150 feet or so if I recall correctly. When you scale it up to the ten of thousands of tons that these ships weigh, add in currents, wind and bernoulli effect on the water between them, it is like driving two F-150s 6 inches apart at 50 mph while pumping fuel from one to the other, flying a drone back and forth between their beds and handing bags of groceries between the back seats, all at the same time.
It says that it happened at the beginning of the replenishment so I am guessing that they collided on approach.
I appreciate your explanation, because I am very much a land animal, and know next to nothing about ships. Thank you!
thats the best analogy of unrep I have ever read
My first thought as well.
Totally off-point I was privileged to see The USS Bainbridge put up a huge rooster tail as they pealed off the supply ship just ahead of us as next in line. It was the talk of the mess deck later.
USNS ships are owned by the Navy and part of the Military Sealift Command.
They are crewed by civilian mariners but may also have a Military contingent for communications or security.
Do these people EVER look out the window any more?
They at least should have used their turn signals…
Where I’m from turn signals are like tipping your hand in poker, they just don’t do it.
This should help the investigators.
You see? It’s like this…
The Earhart is a woman ship and the Diehl is a man ship.
When a woman ship and man ship want to make little boats, they need to get… um… physical in a manner of speaking.
Jeez Grimmy.
Coffee meet keyboard……..
OC
Well, in that case I suppose they could rename the Diehl the USNS Horndog. But I think that name might be being saved for the ship to be named for the 42nd POTUS.
I thought his namesake ship was scheduled to be the USS What the Meaning of Is Is.
Keep going, Grimmy. Then what?
Pervert.
Military Sealift Command. They have a civilian master and crew. I doubt these folks will lose their jobs. There is a mildet onboard, but they would not be involved in ship driving incidents.
you are correct chief. as a former OSC I have worked replenishments MANY times. these little bumps between 2 ships are common. not so much with Naval Ships as that could end the career of the skipper. I think replenishments are the most dangerous op a ship can perform. had a friend lose a leg when a line snapped during a beans and bullets op.
This took place during an Underway Replenishment. (Unrep)
The ships maneuver within 100 feet of each other and lines are shot from one ship to the other.
Both ships are moving while fuel and supplies are passed. This often takes place at the same time as a vert rep. Where helicopters are used to transfer materials.
The first line passed During an Unrep is phone and distance line. It gives a hard line voice phone connection between the bridges. It is also marked with flags every few feet to give a visual reference of distance between the ships.
I do not think there is going to be any Navy Vet with Sea Time that cannot tell a story about having a close call while Unrepping.
Go Rub Your Balls With Grease.
I made a couple approaches in the 50 – 80 ft range. Made some buttholes pucker, but never hit anything.
The craziest two unreps I have seen were in 1989 at the start of PACEX 89 we had USS Lang and another FF on opposite sides of USNS Kawishiwi and had to wheel to avoid vessel not under command in the SOCAL opareas and then after working with Almirante Condell we headed off to RIMPAC in 98 and Condell ran into USNS Pecos on the way over. What really sucks is we lost our spot up near Merry Point landing so they could pull in and get their bow welded back on. We got sent to the penalty box first and then to the back side of Ford Island.
Ah, PACEX. Was on USS Buffalo for that one.
My older brother was on Buffalo. I think he left there as an MMCS.
Although I like the above analogy of the two F-150s conducting an UNREP (CONREP and VERTREP), the trucks have the unfair advantage of having a solid platform (the road) they are riding on. Dealing with seas that are pushing and pulling at you and the suction that happens when two ships get that close adds a whole different level of complexity.
Additionally CONREP is one case where you want to guy shooting at you (line gun) to hit the mark and not miss (think monkey fist to the face).
I’ve been on ships that conducted CONREPs from both of the ships involved in the collision. I’m glad this didn’t happen on my watch!
It was either the Rappahannock or the Walter S. Diehl that we used to UNREP with. Every time they sent the shot line over I swear that guy aimed for our mast and got it tangled with something. He was the one that looked like a cross between Santa and Jerry Garcia.
Great video of Unrep
Just for pespective that is about 81,000 tons worth of ship side by side by side.
Enigma4you…Thank you! Except for brief movie moments, I’ve never seen that happen. It was amazing to watch. I slowed it down too so as see more also. My hat’s off to those crews who do this! There’s a lot on inherent danger there.
Anyway, I am again convinced, I made the right choice with the Army. “I figured I could dig a foxhole quicker than I could shit an island”. Never cared for the deeps. Dying is one thing but the thought of dying and having a giant grouper sucking my face off was too much. I’ll take bullets and hand grenades, thank you.
In one of my previous lives, I did a tour as the OIC of a MILDET on a USNS oiler. The detachment was myself and twelve enlisted. Lots of interesting times, including being the first USNS oiler to refuel one of the newly recommissioned BBs.
We once traded paint one night with a fishing boat outside of Hong Kong, which resulted in an OPREP up the chain. The ship’s captain was against it since lookouts reported no one topside, but I pointed out there was no way he could be sure that no one on the boat got our hull number.
Yeah, happened to me. Was the Officer of the Deck (OOD) during an UNREP in which we “bumped” the UNREP ship as a result of a loss of propulsion on the bridge. The CO was on the bridgewing and the Senior Watch officer was conning. Had the strike group admiral come aboard and do the investigation, it got blamed on the failure of the helm and no one got fired (thankfully). However, many a CO and bridge crew have lost their jobs as a result of these things happening.
You don’t “bump” another ship without someone losing their job, or at least being instantaneously being transferred to another command (and still essentially losing their job). I imagine at least one person in O country would have to take a fall for that ordeal (most probably the Navigator), and not just some solitary E-3 to E-4 standing helmsman.
A little off topic, but still in the ballpark.
I was a CTI/Russian LInguist in my enlisted life and was never PCS’d to a ship. I sure made a LOT of TAD trips though.
My very first deployment was on USS Henry B Wilson, DDG-7 in 1983. I was so clueless that I had to ask the PO1 I was with what I saluted first, the Q-deck or the flag. REALLY clueless.
Anyway, once we pulled out of Bremerton, we floated off the Straits of Juan de Fuca for about a week. Fun times, Interesting op and the crew treated me really well.
At the end of it all, I was informed that DDG-7 had to go back to San Diego ASAP and they weren’t going to pull into port just to let me off. So, on my first deployment, I got to experience high-lining up close and personal.
The appointed hour came…and went. The BMs took forever to set everything up. I mean like over an hour. I finally asked one of them whether they’d done this before. He told me that the BMC had done it a few years back. He was probably just messin’ with the boot, but I have my doubts.
The time finally came and I hopped into the chair and they started doing their thing. I will never forget the rushing water shooting through the channel created by the ships. Never. And the entire crew on Wilson cheering as I went over. Fucking awesome.
Now, the ship I went to was the HMCS Provider. That’s a story for another day, but those Canadian squids live LARGE. One of them told me there was a two year wait to get into Canadian Navy. I believe that.
Any excuse to tell a sea story….. which I may have told before…
May, 1971. ROTC 3rd class training cruise. Fleet Oiler USS Chukawan carried a few dozen midshipmen from Rota to the North Atlantic to deliver fuel and middies to USS Intrepid and her escorts, one of the last ASW HUK groups. Yours truly was transferred to the USS Joseph P. Kennedy DD-850 during UNREP, in the aftermath of a storm with seas still running maybe 20 feet…. in a bosun’s chair. Talk about a thrill ride.
Ain’t it a rush?
Ah, this talk of high-lining reminds me of Navy boot camp and the USS Recruit. 🙂 We were mustered up and given several demonstrations of proper technique in the fine art of high lining personnel via a bosuns chair. We promptly started hauling on the ropes, causing the chair to make huge oscillations culminating in the dummy in the chair to fly out. About then I decided submarines would probably be a smart choice.
Google UNREP USS Hepburn.
I was the EOOW and Oil king during that vid clip!
A minor colllision during UNREP is a hazard during the Navy’s most hazardous manuever. Not all collisions during UNREP are avoidable.
This was a “kiss”.