gCaptain’s Captain John Konrad has a excellent post today that describes in detail why he believes that the destroyerUSS Fitzgerald was at fault in its recent collision with the container ship ACX Crystal. He suggests a simple rule for avoiding collisions with Navy warships is missing: “If it’s grey stay away.”
Konrad details the likely communications failures on the Fitzgerald, which are endemic on most Navy ships. He also describes the difference in training and focus of the merchant versus the naval captain, as well as the resources available to and responsibilities of each. And, no, he does not argue that the USS Fitzgerald was solely at fault. As he points out, “Under COLREGS, whenever two ships touch each other, both ships are to blame.”
Rather than quote specific passages of the post, go to gCaptain to read it in full. It is worth reading.
@ 16:30 UTC something happened, ACX Crystal’s velocity went from 18.5 Knots to 11.2 Knots. There’s no brake pedal on the ACX Crystal.
That’s a lot of kinetic energy transferred to the Fitzgerald DDG-62…
Navy sailors made
tough call to seal
flooding ship
compartments,
unclear if survivors
were inside
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/06/21/navy-sailors-made-tough-call-to-seal-flooding-ship-compartments-unclear-if-survivors-were-inside/?utm_term=.5e1374f12655
As a retired British Master Mariner Foreign-going (Master Oceans Unlimited in US terminology) with 50 years experience at sea including investigations and instructing in Nautical Science I agree with CAPT. John Konrads explanation completely. The article goes through the operation of each vessel very thoroughly and follows maritime laws and the Rules of the Nautical Road.
Was there any reports of the USS Fitzgerald being anchored? I have not read if they were under way. I just keep reading collision and collided.