Posted on 06/25/2017 7:21:19 PM PDT by TXnMA
By: Sam LaGrone
The crew of the guided-missile destroyer that was struck by a merchant ship on Friday off the coast of Japan fought to save the ship for an hour before the first calls went out for help, Japanese investigators now believe.
According to the current operational theory of Japanese investigators, the deadly collision between USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) and the Philippine-flagged merchant ship ACX Crystal knocked out the destroyer’s communications for an hour, while the four-times-larger merchant ship was unaware of what it hit until it doubled back and found the damaged warship, two sources familiar with the ongoing Japanese investigation told USNI News on Wednesday.
Investigators now think Crystal was transiting to Tokyo on autopilot with an inattentive or asleep crew when the merchant vessel struck a glancing blow on the destroyer’s starboard side at about 1:30 AM local time on Friday. When the crew of Crystal realized they had hit something, the ship performed a U-turn in the shipping lane and sped back to the initial site of the collision at 18 knots, discovered Fitzgerald, and radioed a distress call to authorities at about 2:30 AM. U.S. Navy officials initially said the collision occurred at around the time of the distress call at 2:30 AM.
Meanwhile, when Crystal’s port bow hit Fitzgerald, the warship was performing a normal transit off the coast of Japan, USNI News understands. Above the waterline, the flared bow of Crystal caved in several spaces in the superstructure, including the stateroom of commanding officer Cmdr. Bryce Benson.
The impact not only ripped a hole in the steel superstructure in the stateroom but also shifted the contents and shape of the steel so Benson was “squeezed out the hull and was outside the skin of the ship,” a sailor familiar with the damage to the ship told USNI News. “He’s lucky to be alive.”
Fitzgerald sailors had to bend back the door of the stateroom to pluck Benson from the side of the ship and bring him inside. He and two other sailors were later evacuated from the ship via a Japanese helicopter to a Navy hospital at Yokosuka.
Pictures of Benson’s stateroom from the door show the steel bent back to reveal open air, and a photo of the ship’s exterior pier-side shows almost the entire stateroom was crushed.
Meanwhile, below decks, the glancing blow of Crystal’s bulbous bow had ripped a 10-feet-by-10-feet to 14-feet-by-14-feet hole below the waterline of the ship, flooding a machinery space the berthing area that was home to about half of the crew, the sailor said.
Over the weekend, U.S. 7th Fleet commander Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin confirmed the spaces that were affected by the collision.
“Three compartments were severely damaged,” Aucoin said at the Saturday press conference. “One machinery room and two berthing areas — berthing areas for 116 of the crew.”
The seven sailors who died aboard were sealed in the berthing area behind a watertight door as the ship’s company fought to keep the ship afloat, according to a description of events the Navy told the family of Fire Controlman 1st Class Gary Leo Rehm Jr., according to The Associated Press. It’s yet unclear if the ship’s watch had time to sound the collision alarm or call general quarters before Crystal hit the destroyer.
In addition to the damage to the spaces, the collision knocked out Fitzgerald’s communications for the better part of an hour. At about the same time the crew was able to reactivate their backup Iridium satellite communications to radio for help, Crystal arrived on the scene and called in its own distress call, the sailor told USNI News.
investigators are being tight-lipped about details of the investigation, even inside the service. However, information USNI News learned from the Japan Coast Guard investigation indicates Fitzgerald was operating normally when the collision occurred, raising questions more questions regarding why Benson wasn’t on the bridge when a contact was so close to the destroyer.
On Monday, U.S 7th Fleet began a flag officer-led Judge Advocate General Manual (JAGMAN) investigation to determine the facts of the collision, as well as a separate U.S. Navy safety investigation. The U.S. Coast Guard will take lead in a maritime casualty investigation.
As for the ship, five days after collision active damage control efforts are ongoing to prevent further damage to the hull. The force of Crystal’s impact combined with the flood not only dented but twisted the ship’s hull. Crews are continuing to pump water in and out of the ship to keep Fitzgerald stable.
Naval Sea Systems Command is now assessing if the ship can be repaired in Japan or would have to be transported to the U.S. for repairs.
While investigation and repairs are ongoing, the ship’s crew has been given time away from the ship in an attempt to recover from the collision. The burden of ships’ watches is being shared by other crews on the Yokosuka waterfront, Navy officials told USNI News on Wednesday. Both Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson and Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Steve Giordano both visited Yokosuka to speak with Fitzgerald sailors and their families.
Here’s the traffic in the vicinity around the time of the collision from VesselFinder. It could be the Wan Hai was much closer to the Fitz than what I’m interpreting from the comments above.
https://youtu.be/m1b58yelh_c?t=25
Interesting comment about the possible role of the anchor causing an abrupt change of course, and it seems logical. Thanks.
I realize we won’t know much until a report is issued, but it’s interesting to speculate. One of the mysteries is why the Crystal resumed course after the collision. The only speculations I find credible is that the bridge was unmanned or that the person manning the bridge panicked and resumed course until given further instructions. It certainly appears he was not primarily at fault, although perhaps he neglected to do all he could have done to avoid the collision, including issuing sufficient communications.
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My initial guess is that the nature of the damage is going to doom the Fitz.
It’ll probably get scrapped because facilities do not exist to reshape the hull.
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The video of their paths is really interesting. You asked someone else to do the math. While I didn’t do the math exactly, I think a case can be made that the Fitzgerald was much, much, closer to the Wan Hei than to the Crystal, but I’ve made several assumptions that you should check.
The data:
1. From the video, the Wan Hai and the Crystal are very close to running exactly parallel, so I assumed they were exactly side by side. (Just before the collision in the video, the Wan Hai position hadn’t been updating, so it appears to be well behind the Crystal, but the next update has it well ahead after the collision. (compare frame 1:05 with 1:06)
2. The video has a time stamp and speed of the ships, but no indication of distances, so I used a ruler to measure the distance traveled in six minutes and got about 1.5 inches on my screen. At approx 20 mph, that meant that 1.5 inches translates to about 2 miles.
3. The Wan Hai is 1.5 inches from the Crystal (on my screen) and is running parallel to the Crystal, and even with it (approximately).
4. The report from the captain of the Crystal had the Fitzgerald at 40 degrees off port at 3 nautical miles distance. I’m assuming that means that it was what it sounds like, 40 degrees left of a line running along the Crystal’s path at a distance of approx 3.5 miles.
So, that’s the assumptions.
Now, draw a 2x2 mile square box with the west corners (from the bottom, labeled A, B, C, and D, i.e., going clockwise from the bottom left. The Crystal would be at point A on the box. The Wan Hai would be at point B on the box, two miles away from the Crystal. The Crystal is moving toward point D, and the Wan Hai toward point C.
On a 45 degree line from A, at a distance of 2.8 miles you would be at point C on the box, and on a line directly in the path of the Wan Hai. At a 40 degree line from A (from the Crystal) a point 3.5 miles out would also lie very close to a point directly in the path of the Wan Hai. Also, the video shows the Wan Hai actually ahead of the Crystal after the turn (frame at 48 seconds, with both ships moving perpendicular to the blue line), so the Fitzgerald would have been almost directly in the path of the Wan Hai and approx two miles away from it.
Here begins the speculation: The Fitzgerald became aware of the Wan Hai, only about two miles away and heading in its direction, but maintaining it’s 80 degree course would take it away from the Wan Hai (in the direction of a line running from A to D.) That line, unfortunately, was the course of the Crystal, which had every reason to believe that the Fitzgerald would eventually maneuver around it. But on the bridge of the Fitzgerald, the Wan Hai was the concern and the threat of the Crystal was never successfully relayed to the bridge. (It’s really difficult to believe it was never detected at all.)
For this to work out, the Fitzgerald, however, would not have continued on the original 80 degree course at a faster speed than the Crystal. It would have had to execute a starboard turn because it hit the Crystal after the Crystal had only traveled about four miles from the turn. That’s not possible if the original course and a faster speed are assumed. But then, a starboard turn away from the Wan Hai’s path would make sense, so it could well have been executed.
P.S. This would be a lot easier to demonstrate with a diagram.
My main speculation has been that more than two ships were likely involved. That’s based on what happened in the Porter collision, where the first ship drew all the attention and the second one encountered was a surprise. Given what I’ve described above, approximately that same scenario appears quite possible.
A couple of points:
The video of the tankers’ paths indicated they turned north to a path of 70 degrees, so they would have been heading 80 degrees prior to the turn, not 60 degrees. Thus the Fitzgerald would also have been heading 80 degrees if they were on the same initial heading.
If I’m correct and the ship the Fitzgerald was concerned about was the Wan Hai, then a call from the Crystal about conflicting routes might have been misinterpreted as coming from the Wan Hai, which the Fitzgerald had already taken action to avoid. If that was the case, it would have been of little concern. (Obviously this is pure speculation. There might have been no call at all, or someone with more knowledge of these matters might claim that no such misinterpretation is even possible.)
I was just re-reading a Naval Institute article and great comments: Fitzgerald: When A Big Ocean Gets Small that gives a good idea (to someone like me) what goes into Navy crews keeping ships from plowing into each other all the time. For their part, merchant mariners insist a ship like the ACX Crystal does not traverse busy shipping lanes 'on autopilot' with an empty bridge. The ACX Crystal is described as a 'medium-sized' container ship. There are certainly much larger commercial vessels that it would have to be concerned about in those waters, so I kind of doubt the 'autopilot' theory unless the Crystal crew was suicidal.
I've been trying to follow the more recent FreeRepublic thread here: EXCLUSIVE-U.S. warship stayed on deadly collision course despite warning-container ship captain - many good comments by everyone. A nice education so far for me from some knowledgeable people on how these 'ship' things work.
I wish we knew more from either the US Navy or Asian Container Express, but I'm guessing neither one will want to say anything in public for a long, long time. I have very low expectations that either will be forthcoming with all the details unless they can't avoid doing so. More likely than not, we'll get the watered-down MSM 'public' version that will leave many questions unanswered. Frustrating, considering the lives lost.
Communication is around number three, for example in the air, priorities are aviate, navigate, communicate. I suspect that sailors have a similar set of priorities.
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