Royal Embarassment

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Hopeful2013

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Hello everyone. I am Hopeful2013's daughter and I have some rather embarrassing news. I don't know if you all have heard about the Port Royal but she ran aground... RIGHT NEXT TO THE HARBOR:jaw:!!! I live in Hawaii, I have seen the Port Royal in its current situation, and let me tell you, I AM grateful no one was hurt, but in the Public Relations area, things couldn't get worse. The Port Royal ran aground with an admiral on board, and about 500 yards from the Honolulu International Airport's main runway. This incident happened TWO days ago on Thursday night around 2000 and she is still stuck today, on Saturday. I went to an area where I could sort of see what was going on tonight and there was crowd gathered there. Just to name a few there was an Army guy (making fun of the Navy for wrecking billion dollar toys), a Navy Vietnam veteran who was (naturally) very unhappy about the state of affairs, a Navy wife whose husband was on the Port Royal, and me, decked out in Naval Academy gear. So we all ganged up on the army dude and he left :biggrin:. The CO was new to the ship and no one is quite sure what happened, but one thing is for sure; this captain's naval career is over. I would love your thoughts on this predicament. Also, as most of us will hopefully soon be officers in the Navy, let's make an agreement; let us be vigilant and not cause this sort of embarrassment for the Navy.:shake:
GO NAVY
(PS. Check the News tomorrow morning. She (hopefully *fingers crossed throws salt over the shoulder and spins clockwise*) should… SHOULD be off the sand by then



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It happens. Sometimes mechanical error but most often human error. In 1950, the USS Missouri was departing Hampton Roads and, at a high rate of speed, went to the wrong side of a buoy and drove herself a half mile up onto a mud flat, lifting the hull partially out of the water. To make matters even worse, it was also at high tide. It took three weeks and the digging of a channel to get her afloat. The brand new captain was court martialed.

To this day, fishermen refer to the new "channel" as the Missouri hole.
 
Update from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin

Navy hopes third try a charm for stuck ship
By Rob Shikina


POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Feb 08, 2009

The Navy was to make a third attempt this morning to refloat a 9,600-ton Pearl Harbor warship that ran aground Thursday night.


Navy Warship Remains Stuck Off Hawaii Reef


A second attempt to dislodge the navy vessel, USS Port Royal, failed.

[ Watch ]



This time, the USS Port Royal will be about 215 tons lighter. The Navy removed some of the 250,000 gallons of diesel fuel yesterday and half of the 360 crew members, said Terri Kojima, a Navy spokeswoman.

A lighter Port Royal, combined with a peak high tide and the pulling power of an oceangoing tug, some smaller harbor tugs and the salvage ship Salvor, should do the trick when a third effort was to be made to free the ship at around 3:25 a.m., Rear Adm. Joseph Walsh, deputy commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, said yesterday at a news conference.

"The issue becomes one of how much weight is on the ship versus our ability to pull that weight off of the reef," Walsh said.

Two previous attempts, yesterday and Friday, were unsuccessful.

The USS Port Royal, a $1 billion guided-missile cruiser, had just ended a four-month routine maintenance visit to Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and was finishing the first day of sea trials when it ran aground at 8:30 p.m. Thursday.

Walsh said the ship is structurally sound and that there has been no leaks of fuel, oil, or other contaminants. But an underwater rubber encasement that surrounds sonar equipment at the bow may be taking in water.

Coast Guard Lt. John Titchen said a Coast Guard HH-65 dolphin helicopter is flying over periodically look for oil sheen on the water.

"We're confident the Navy is doing everything it can (to protect the environment)," he said.

The Hawaii Responder, an oil spill response vessel, is also on standby, prepared to surround the ship with a boom if it starts leaking fuel.

The ship was in its normal spot for transferring crew members off the ship at about 8 p.m. Thursday night when it went aground, Walsh said.

The Port Royal wound up in about 22 feet of water, aground along the length of her port (left) side on a bed of sand and rock of the type that was used to construct one of the nearby airport's runways, Walsh said.

Walsh noted that the shoal was known to the Navy. "Clearly, the ship is not where the ship should have been. The investigation will determine exactly why the ship got to the point where she was in shoal water," Walsh said.

The shoal does not appear to be a live reef, Walsh said. Navy and other officials will inspect the area once the ship is freed.

Kojima said the cause of the accident, damage to the ship and possible discipline for the captain and crew will be assessed after the vessel is removed.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
 
No Joy on 3rd attempt

Third attempt to free USS Port Royal fails
By Associated Press


POSTED: 09:21 a.m. HST, Feb 08, 2009

The Navy says its third attempt to free a $1 billion warship that ran aground off the coast of Hawaii has failed.

Tugboats and a salvage ship tried unsuccessfully for four hours early today to pull the USS Port Royal off a rock and sand shoal. The guided missile cruiser ran aground Thursday about a half-mile south of the Honolulu airport.

Pacific Fleet spokeswoman Agnes Tauyan says the Navy is reassessing its options.

The Navy had removed fuel, water and some personnel from the 9,600-ton vessel on Saturday in an effort to lighten it.

The 15-year-old Port Royal ran aground as it was finishing the first day of sea trials following four months of routine maintenance at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard.

No one was injured and no contaminants leaked.

The Navy says its third attempt to free a $1 billion warship that ran aground off the coast of Hawaii has failed.

Tugboats and a salvage ship tried unsuccessfully for four hours early today to pull the USS Port Royal off a rock and sand shoal. The guided missile cruiser ran aground Thursday about a half-mile south of the Honolulu airport.

Pacific Fleet spokeswoman Agnes Tauyan says the Navy is reassessing its options.

The Navy had removed fuel, water and some personnel from the 9,600-ton vessel on Saturday in an effort to lighten it.

The 15-year-old Port Royal ran aground as it was finishing the first day of sea trials following four months of routine maintenance at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard.

No one was injured and no contaminants leaked.
 
Uck

:frown:
Grounded warship discharged raw sewage off Oahu

By AUDREY McAVOY, Associated Press Writer Audrey Mcavoy, Associated Press Writer – Tue Feb 10, 11:59 pm ET AP – HONOLULU – The USS Port Royal discharged about 5,000 gallons of raw sewage when the warship was grounded a half-mile off Oahu, the state said Tuesday while warning the public to avoid the area.

The ship released the sewage between late Saturday and 10 a.m. Sunday. The guided missile cruiser got stuck on a rock and sand shoal late Thursday and wasn't pulled free until Monday.
 
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