Thursday, March 28

How in the World Did a U.S. Navy Destroyer Get Hit by a Container Ship?

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All of us, anyone who has ever cruised anywhere, can relate, and also can ask the question: How did this happen? How did a U.S. Navy destroyer get hit by a Philippine container ship on a clear night, even in a busy shipping lane?

Think of times you’ve been cruising on your own boat near a container ship in a busy shipping lane. Think Delaware Bay, San Francisco Bay, New York Harbor. Think of how aware you were of their size, their inability to change course quickly, their mammoth wake. Scary. You make sure you’re well clear of these behemoths.

I knew on many transits of Delaware Bay on my Grand Banks, for example, that I couldn’t rely on my 8-knot, wide-open-throttle speed to outrun a container ship; I just made sure I was well clear on my side of the channel. And I know I was never so awake in my life as I was when I was at the helm of Atlantic Escort, a Nordhavn 57, at 2 in the morning on the last leg of Nordhavn Atlantic Rally. We were closing in on the Straits of Gibraltar, one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. Everyone else on board was asleep, and it was my watch. My eyes were glued to all the targets on the radar screen, and to the other Nordhavns whose running lights were twinkling on either side of us as we pitched up and down in a choppy sea. My situational awareness was definitely on full alert.

So what happened on the destroyer? A massive electronics failure? All the radars and AIS systems went down? The watch standers who missed seeing a 29,000-ton container ship, even if it had changed course half an hour before? The facts are that the container ship ran into the starboard side of the destroyer, killing seven American sailors and injuring the destroyer’s commanding officer, who, like the dead sailors, was asleep in his berth at the time.

It’s hard to imagine the scene at the time. Retired Admiral James G. Stavridis, himself a former destroyer captain, said, “My guess is they suddenly saw the lights of the other ship coming toward them and tried to veer off. Suddenly your ship is sinking under you. It’s terrifying.”

Stay tuned. We’ll update this story as we learn more. For now, see:  https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/18/world/asia/navy-uss-fitzgerald-japan.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&hp&_r=0

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