Posted on Aug 20, 2017
Navy destroyer John S. McCain collides with merchant vessel
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Posted 7 y ago
Responses: 4
I'm sure navigating safely is way more complicated than this grunt imagines, but it is just baffling to me how these collisions can happen. I was under the (maybe false) impression that our ships are these high tech wonders that can see everything way out there. How can we see missiles coming but not oil tankers? Or are we really sailing in the dark, relying on a sailor looking out with a pair of binos to see other ships?
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SN Greg Wright your right brother this is not a good sign two major accidents in one year with loss of life is bringing up serious problems in the way of Naval ship navigation and pilot training. I believe the navy needs to launch a navy wide investigation into the training of crews and need to really need to make changes this is a big problem the loss of life alone justifies this.
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LT Brad McInnis
PFC (Join to see) SN Greg Wright The sad thing is that after Fitzgerald, I am absolutely 110% positive that every ship reviewed their standing orders for maneuvering around other ships and had training on it. All of the cool tools and toys will not protect you if the sailors don't know what to do with the info, or ignore it. I don't know what happened here (knew the CO back when we were Department Heads), but I still can't wrap my head around another incident so soon...
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LT Brad McInnis - your right sir I just hope they will take the lead and really investigate the hell out of this I'm not sure if they need update the procedures or what not but obviously the current SOP's are not cutting maybe even new training needs to be added.
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1stSgt Nelson Kerr
Vessel details for: ALNIC MC (Oil/Chemical Tanker) - IMO 9396725, MMSI 636017930, Call Sign D5NJ9...
Vessel details: ALNIC MC. Discover the vessel's basic Details, including the vessel IMO / vessel MMSI and vessel Call Sign. Type: Oil/Chemical Tanker Vessel, Registered in Liberia. Find dead-weight-tonnage, Gross Tonnage and the Year of Build vessel details. Vessel details about ALNIC MC include Current Vessel Position, Voyage information, and photos. ALNIC MC Particulars IMO 9396725, MMSI 636017930, Call Sign D5NJ9
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Not enough information to determine cause or fault. But, any collision is a failure of proper navigation on both ships. The first piece of advice I had standing my first OOD watch was, "Get us from point A to B without hitting anything." I stood about 1000 watches. Never hit anything by accident, on purpose a few times.
It's not hard to two ships to collide. Indecision, inattention and over-confidence are main weaknesses. Navigating is not hard. During RefTra in Gitmo, we (USCG) practiced sailing in/out of harbor using only electronics, no visuals. We also practiced sailing with no electronics. I managed to get to Bermuda without radar, GPS, LORAN, or other methods other than eyeballs and celestial measurements. The Navy needs to reevaluate how their bridge teams operate.
It's not hard to two ships to collide. Indecision, inattention and over-confidence are main weaknesses. Navigating is not hard. During RefTra in Gitmo, we (USCG) practiced sailing in/out of harbor using only electronics, no visuals. We also practiced sailing with no electronics. I managed to get to Bermuda without radar, GPS, LORAN, or other methods other than eyeballs and celestial measurements. The Navy needs to reevaluate how their bridge teams operate.
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Thanks for sharing SN Greg Wright. Sad news for the Navy since this is the second collision with a commercial vessels which has been more hazardous for the Navy destroyer than the commercial vessel.
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