So what would the breakdown of the chain of command look like to allow this to happen, I really don't know and am asking.Heck almost made it through his first month as the boss...
http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=100742
Had been the XO since 2015. Probably loved by the crew but not respected enough to cause them to do their damn jobs!
Likely any one of 20 people could have prevented this from happening.
Bet he's off in a week and the watch team, after mast, out in under a year.
Can't understand how this could happen with Radar and visual observation from the Bridge.A point of clarification, they did not drive into anything, they got driven into.
The nautical "rules of the road" define stand-on and give way vessels based on their relative positions to each other. In this case the "hitter", the merchant ship, was the stand-on vessel, the destroyer, "hit-ee", the give way. So, the destroyer was obliged to keep out of the way of the merchant. An effort in which they were obviously unsuccessful. The merchant would be obliged to maintain course and speed, so as to not compound potential problems with the give way vessels ability to in fact, "give way".
Now, since the "hit-ee"operate 4 LM2500 gas turbines with a total of a bit over 100K shaft horse power they can generally get away with things most ships could not in terms of maneuvering. Talking huge rooster tails when they nail it at 12 knots; or the ability to change direction from moving forward to moving in reverse in less than a ships length from speed, "assuming" the watch was paying attention, which clearly they were not.
Every mishap has an element of chance, a kind of unique alignment of holes in swiss cheese if you will, that can be disrupted by a huge number of interventions both large and small, in this case those possible interventions did not occur.
Help at all?
Neither ship in the incident reported by the OP and the other party take a LOOOOOONG time to turn. BUT, was not radar enabled?We were running blackout in the Gulf and damn near got t-boned by a Greek freighter. Hailing them didn't work and we ultimately lit them up with a crazy powerful search light we had on our gun platform. It was like we hit their bridge with the sun itself. They turned that ship most ricky tick! LOL
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