USS Fitzgerald in Collision, 1 Sailor injured, 7 reported missing

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Picture of ship involved in collision, the ACX Crystal.
 
Here is the merchant vessel. Think of that bulbous prow and where it hit below the waterline

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In my unprofessional opinion it does not appear to be a glancing blow but rather a full on t-bone! No wonder people got hurt. It will be interesting to hear more about the circumstances and which ship was responsible for the collision.
 
skismuggs said:
Radar? US ship probably jam packed with electronics. Just curious now. Thanks.
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Have wait for the investigation results. Lot of stuff that could have gone south not counting weather, sea state, engineering casualty on either ship, noise on all that radar, who's driving, lousy decisions, bad math........
 
I am sure the CO's heart is riven in two for his sailors and his ship, for whom and which he was accountable and responsible. The burden of command is just that.

As noted above, there can be many contributing factors. The stopping distance for big ships moving at normal cruising speed can be football fields long. Container ships have very small crews and are thoroughly automated. There will be a thorough investigation, down to the training records of every individual on the bridge, the command climate of the ship (were people afraid to speak up), nav plots, operational routines, warning systems, data logs, weather, the CO's standing night orders, everything will be looked at, on both sides.

Looks like training kicked in, and damage control and dewatering got started right away, with other ships sending DC crew and corpsmen. The collision must have been violent. A medevaced CO...
 
Senior leadership in the Navy continues to shine, at the expense of lives and readiness.

The Navy needs a good house-cleaning at O6 and above, to include the occasional O5 (who I'm guessing commanded this rig).
 
scoutpilot said:
Senior leadership in the Navy continues to shine, at the expense of lives and readiness.

The Navy needs a good house-cleaning at O6 and above, to include the occasional O5 (who I'm guessing commanded this rig).
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O5 in command. You are correct. He took command of the ship in March. Again, while ultimate responsibility rests with him, it is far too early to know what happened.
 
The last report I read said the Commander and 2 others were medevaced off the ship and are still in the hospital in stable condition.
 
BTCS/USN said:
0220 at sea and darken ship, both watch sections half asleep and not paying attention. It happens.
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"Watch Section." The "Watch Section" on the container ship probably consisted of one officer and an unlicensed lookout. That is how everyone except for the Navy runs a ship these days...

Capt MJ said:
As noted above, there can be many contributing factors. The stopping distance for big ships moving at normal cruising speed can be football fields long. Container ships have very small crews and are thoroughly automated.
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Football Fields is an understatement. For a "controlled," non emergency slow down the rule of thumb is one turn a minute on the load program, and then 5 minutes a bell after that. So from 90 turns to stop (You'll still have 5 knots of head way when you ring stop), we're talking about 45-60 minutes. In an emergency there are ways to over ride the program, but even then, you likely won't get enough start air on the engine for an astern bell until you're down the in the 5-7 knot range. It takes a lot longer and is much more complicated than most SWOs who race around on gas turbines understand.

There were a few SWOs that would teach naval science classes when I was at KP. The disconnect between us and them was huge. This is the second major collision like this in four years? While I'm sure there will be tons of technical analysis about the cause of the collision, I hope big Navy takes a look at the management issues that I think have become systemic.
 
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Which ship had the right of way according to maritime rules?
 
Recent news...7 sailors found, very sad and unfortunately dead on the ship in the damaged sections.
 
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