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Posted on 06/17/2017 7:20:21 PM PDT by proust
YOKOSUKA, Japan -- A number of Sailors that were missing from the collision between USS Fitzgerald (DDG 62) and a merchant ship have been found. As search and rescue crews gained access to the spaces that were damaged during the collision this morning, the missing Sailors were located in the flooded berthing compartments. They are currently being transferred to Naval Hospital Yokosuka where they will be identified. The families are being notified and being provided the support they need during this difficult time. The names of the Sailors will be released after all notifications are made.
I have tracked many hundreds of container ships in open waters, and I have never seen one do anything like that. They are efficient, which is the whole point of merchant shipping. If they change course, it's a few degrees at a time, except when entering port. If they need to wait for the tide or for their dock space to open up, they slow down, they don't circle. If I saw a container ship actually maneuver like that, I would wonder if it was evading attack or had been taken by pirates. This was the merchant captain/crew doing something very unusual.
As strange as the container ship's track is, I'm still amazed that they were able to ram a warship with gas turbine propulsion. The Fitz can go from zero to 30+ knots quicker and with more maneuverability than almost any other large ship in the water.
True but when the Zebra order comes down that's it the hatches get closed. My GQ station used to be inside an inescapable compartment. I was in an equipment room under the Photo Lab that supplied supplemental cooling. The hatch did not have a scuttle in the middle to exit. Once it was shut and dogged that was it.
Except during drills or real emergencies. They may have sealed the berthing compartments after sounding the alarm, when everyone should have been up. It still doesn't make sense to say they were trapped, not when the doors can be opened from either side, except that the sailors still inside may have been injured and unable to move on their own.
Thanks for your input.
I would have expected the Crystal to make one loop back and to stand by to offer aid, etc..then proceed to port. It’s the other seemingly erratic directions it goes in that are baffling.
What?!? That makes no sense. Sailors sleep round the clock.
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It takes time for a compartment the size of a berthing space to flood. I am sure they didn't slam a water tight door on living shipmates. God I hope so....
I think you cannot lose.
So....
you think the Commander will be made Captain ?
Almighty God, Father of mercies and giver of all comfort; Deal graciously, we pray thee, with all those who mourn, that, casting every care on thee, they may know the consolation of thy love; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
I am ‘thinking’ the bulbous bow of Crystal penetrated hull below waterline.
Hopefully death was instantaneous.
Perhaps that kept Fitzgerald from turning turtle?
BTW: Wouldn’t a hit at speed cut right through our ship??
Yes, high tide was the only thing I could think of. I’m not a sailor, but living here in DC know that the ships that come into Alexandria often have to wait until high tide to do it if they need the water level, or low tide to get under the Wilson Bridge.
Your question is definitely valid: “Was anyone even in command of the merchant ship’s bridge?”
In peacetime someone would have to hold a gun to my head to make me shut the door on living shipmates. In wartime I could see doing that.
Each division is assigned a berthing compartment. In the compartments racks are stacked three high and IIRC 12 to a cubicle roughly and on larger ships as many as 200 racks in a compartment. We did not time share racks with shipmates just the compartment and cubicle.
Whether anyone was sleeping {this happened at night so obviously many were} depends upon the divisions mission. In Engineering for example it would be rare for someone to be sleeping during the day unless on a no duty order or permission granted by a work center supervisor because the person had worked all night for special unscheduled repair etc.
In Engineering a typical day at sea could be muster on station at 0700 and working until 1800. Then at some point that evening or night the person would stand a 4 hour watch. Two 4 hour watches a day at sea was common one in the daytime one at night. On a good night a person got to stand the 1600-2000 watch and got to sleep until about 0630 next morning to start over. Watches got staggered so every few days you could do that. Some divisions operated on a 6 & 6 schedule especially snipes down in The Hole. That did not mean you'd get 6 hours sleep.
Officers berths were different they had staterooms. Junior Officers may be 6 to a room and senior officers 2 per stateroom.
It may not have been on purpose. But keep in mind berths on many ships are at or below waterline. If a compartment has let's say 100-200 racks it would likely not be possible to check them all. Also many guys kept their curtains closed on their racks. In an extreme flooding situation you don't have time to check them all and the survival of the ship comes first. When they said guys were missing I had a feeling they were still inside the ship in a flooded space. This was likely already known by either a witness or by doing a muster and determining their likely location at time of impact but until the bodies are recovered you report them as missing.
Has anyone yet speculated that the container ship’s autopilot may have been remotely hacked without it’s crew’s knowledge?
At the beginning of my 22 year Navy career, waaaay back in 1969 in my bootcamp days, I had the honor of singing with the Naval Training Center Recruit Chorus and naturally this was one of the songs that was always on the program. Hearing this brought this memories flooding back leaves me a blubbering wreck. Thanks for posting.
And for the Sailors lost at sea under any circumstances, Fair Winds a Following Seas, shipmates.
That was the way I remember it. When GQ was sounded, it was immediate closure of certain hatches. I never remember anyone saying “Is there anyone in there” before closing them. But I did not live down where you were.
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my guess:
Intentional ramming of the US ship immediately after UTURN in water by terrorist sympathizer from the muslim quarter of the island nation of the Philippines.
A coordinated attack by muslim collaborators on some of the other 400 ships that navigate that pathway every day.
Who believes that none of them could be muslim? OR that they would plot to take this action out, on their unholy days of ramadan?
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