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Report on the Collision Between USS Lake Champlain (CG-57) and Fishing Vessel Nam Yang 502
U.S. Naval Institue Proceedings ^ | November 30, 2017 | U. S. Navy

Posted on 12/04/2017 9:46:01 AM PST by Retain Mike

USS LAKE CHAMPLAIN (CG 57) collided with fishing vessel NAM YANG 502 on 9 May 2017 in the Sea of Japan

LAKE CHAMPLAIN is a Ticonderoga Class Guided Missile Cruiser homeported in San Diego, California. Approximately 400 Sailors serve aboard LAKE CHAMPLAIN. LAKE CHAMPLAIN is 567 feet in length, 55 feet wide, and carries a gross tonnage of approximately 10,200 tons.

NAM YANG 502 is a fishing vessel with an unknown crew size. NAM YANG 502 is approximately 60 feet in length, 15 feet wide, and carries a gross tonnage of approximately 10 tons. NAM YANG 502 was en route to the Republic of Korea prior to the collision.

The collision between LAKE CHAMPLAIN and NAM YANG 502 resulted in no injuries. Each vessel sustained minor hull damage.

Summary of Findings

The Navy determined that numerous failures occurred on the part of watchstanders as follows:

• Failure to execute basic watchstanding practices.

• Failure to adhere to sound navigation practices.

• Failure to properly use available navigation tools.

• Failure to respond deliberately and effectively when in extremis.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.usni.org ...


TOPICS: Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: collision; fishingvessel; usnavy
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To: VietVet876

I remember seeing those destroyers tied up in Yokosuka. I was onboard an LST homeported there from May 1970 through December 1971. I qualified as OOD(F) and cannot imagine how any OOD would not miss that vessel. That sounds like T-boning another car in a parking lot with yours.


21 posted on 12/04/2017 10:50:44 AM PST by Retain Mike
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To: dsc

Are you kidding? They abolished SWO school?

Yup, I understand that fresh ensigns right out of their commissioning are literally given a stack of CD’s and told to report to ships of the line. The skipper is then responsible for their training.


22 posted on 12/04/2017 10:51:44 AM PST by Robe (A nation can survive its fools and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within.)
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To: dsc

Are you kidding? They abolished SWO school?

Yup, I understand that fresh ensigns right out of their commissioning are literally given a stack of CD’s and told to report to ships of the line. The skipper is then responsible for their training


23 posted on 12/04/2017 10:52:34 AM PST by Robe (A nation can survive its fools and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within.)
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Comment #24 Removed by Moderator

To: Robe

That’s a *bad* idea.


25 posted on 12/04/2017 10:56:38 AM PST by dsc (Any attempt to move a government to the left is a crime against humanity.)
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To: Grampa Dave

Forget this error. I’m on a new blood thinner and sometimes I miss read.

I saw the CG and my brain thought that it meant Coast Guard.


26 posted on 12/04/2017 10:57:39 AM PST by Grampa Dave (Build Kate's wall and keep the illegals and illegal murderers/criminals out of America! SLAP!!!)
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To: rlmorel
I think the poor watchstanding procedures are a recurring theme, sadly.

God gave them eyes. Use them.

27 posted on 12/04/2017 11:10:38 AM PST by bgill (CDC site, "We don't know how people are infected with Ebola.")
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To: oh8eleven

I toured a Navy CG cruiser a few months ago. The chief told me that he gets recruits straight out of boot camp and he puts them on watch duty.


28 posted on 12/04/2017 11:11:16 AM PST by forgotten man
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To: suthener
I’m pretty sure a front line, operational Navy combatant is not being crewed by civilians.
It's not, but my point was that it might as well have been given the total lack of seamanship displayed by the sailors.
29 posted on 12/04/2017 11:20:27 AM PST by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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To: forgotten man
The chief told me that he gets recruits straight out of boot camp and he puts them on watch duty.
Well, you have to start somewhere. But the newbies don't stand watch all by themselves ... someone has to know WTH is going on.
30 posted on 12/04/2017 11:26:11 AM PST by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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To: Retain Mike
NAM YANG 502 is approximately 60 feet in length, 15 feet wide, and carries a gross tonnage of approximately 10 tons.

60' length x 15' beam x 4' (estimated) draft gives a displacement 'box' of 3,600 ft3, or about 100 m3. 100 m3 is 100 metric tons.

Even knocking off the tapered bow and rounded chines, the displacement still is WAY more than 10 tons.

Do neither reporters nor editors know how to think any more?

31 posted on 12/04/2017 11:45:56 AM PST by BwanaNdege ("The church ... is not the master or the servant of the state, but the conscience" - Luther)
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To: BwanaNdege

That makes so much sense.


32 posted on 12/04/2017 11:50:53 AM PST by Retain Mike
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To: forgotten man

What happened to Personal Qualification Standards, and having to shadow watchstanders, and boards of review?


33 posted on 12/04/2017 11:56:49 AM PST by RinaseaofDs (Truth, in a time of universal deceit, is courage)
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To: DJ Taylor

may also have his face in something else


34 posted on 12/04/2017 12:46:23 PM PST by Dont tread and Live
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To: rlmorel

Once again, poor leadership, lack of supervision, improper watchstanding, lack of familiarity with standing orders. It snowballs, leading to these collisions. Unlike the previous accidents that occurred in major shipping lanes, this was in broad daylight on the open sea. How do you not have watchstanders in the required positions?

Where are the petty officers? LPOs ? Chiefs? CIC doesn’t bother to call the bridge ?
You think someone would asked out loud, “WTF are we doing about this fishing boat?”


35 posted on 12/04/2017 1:04:50 PM PST by csvset ( Illegitimi non carborundum)
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To: csvset

I am completely flummoxed by how this happens. I mean, if you have to stand a watch on a bridge wing, and you see a 60 foot fishing boat bearing down on you, don’t you say something like “Bridge: Port wing watch, we have a fishing vessel at 110 degrees, do you verify?” or something like that?

You don’t just see it assume “Well, they have it covered on the bridge, they have the radar and all...”

I simply do not understand this, and the more I hear of these things, the more I feel that if we get into a real fight, regardless of technology, our ships are going to be screwed at a very basic level.


36 posted on 12/04/2017 1:27:40 PM PST by rlmorel (Liberals: American Liberty is the egg that requires breaking to make their Utopian omelette.)
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To: forgotten man

I am dumbfounded at that, and wouldn’t believe it even if I heard someone say it.

I hope to God that isn’t true.

I mean, there has to be some training in communication protocols and procedures, making sure they know how to set up and use sound powered gear (if they still do) and so on.

There has to be some kind of training and qualification process, even if they gundeck the darned thing.


37 posted on 12/04/2017 1:32:48 PM PST by rlmorel (Liberals: American Liberty is the egg that requires breaking to make their Utopian omelette.)
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To: rlmorel

You are totally right. A list of failures like that... it does not matter what cool techno-gadgets you give a watch stander if they are going to fail to that level. Nothing will help.


38 posted on 12/04/2017 2:51:43 PM PST by TalonDJ
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To: forgotten man

“The chief told me that he gets recruits straight out of boot camp and he puts them on watch duty.”

Mind numbing. It is like taking someone straight out of highschool and putting them in the co-pilot’s seat of a jumbo jet.


39 posted on 12/04/2017 2:53:00 PM PST by TalonDJ
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To: TalonDJ

I wonder if it is possible to repair it.

Liberalism is like a one-way ratchet, it rarely gives up ground it has gained.

But seeing Trump in action gives me hope...he is doing it in other places...why not the military?


40 posted on 12/04/2017 4:38:01 PM PST by rlmorel (Liberals: American Liberty is the egg that requires breaking to make their Utopian omelette.)
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