UK Royal Navy minehunter HMS Chiddingfold collided with HMS Bangor while maneuvering in Bahrain harbor on January 18th. No one was reported to be injured but Bangor was seriously damaged, with a large hole ripped in its fiberglass hull.
Both ships are specialist minesweeper vessels, part of the UK’s long-standing presence in the Gulf.
“We are aware of an incident concerning two minehunters alongside in Bahrain. There are no casualties as a result of this incident and it would be inappropriate to comment further whilst investigations are ongoing,” a spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence told the BBC.
This is the second time that HMS Chiddingfold has been involved in such an incident. In 2021, also off the coast of Bahrain, it struck HMS Penzance, a ship of the same class as HMS Bangor.
HMS Bangor is due to be decommissioned next year. HMS Bangor is a Sandown-class minehunter commissioned by the Royal Navy in 1999.
HMS Chiddingfold is a Hunt-class mine countermeasures vessel commissioned in 1984.
Thanks to Alaric Bond and Larry Witmer for contributing to this post.
Please see – https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/21/royal-navy-warships-crashed-into-each-other-due-to-faulty-rewiring-say-sources?fbclid=IwAR2nMt48eLHIOGz2hQw8f8gzV4TWUWALVzM4GjWqYvKJhzSHt8Bh81jQMWw
The usual caution about press reports applies.
Mine hunters, Wooden ships iron men
I find it fascinating when something happens no one is to blame. Yet it happened anyway. How did 2 US Navy destroyers wind up in collisions in the Pacific at a time when the maritime service companies were embroiled in a huge fraud? Pieces were put into play whether it is incompetence, faulty wiring that should have been discovered on testing, on the US ships people were “not” trained properly and /or were asleep at the switch. Are you kidding me? I’m just an old NCO, but I made sure my team was ready to rock and roll.