[LonePalm]

Driving a Bird Farm was not something I experienced.

As I remember from the Kennedy/Belknap collision a SWO had the deck on the carrier. When he saw that a collision was unavoidable, he ordered left full rudder to turn TOWARDS the Belknap. That act may have saved a hundred lives.

For the non-ship drivers in the audience, when a ship turns it leans AWAY from the turn. By ordering a turn towards the Belknap he raised the angled portion of the flight deck by about 20 feet meaning that it didn't scrape off the entire superstructure of the Belknap above the main deck.

Unfortunately, an aircraft fueling tank in the port sponson was ruptured dumping kerosene on the Belknap resulting in a ferocious fire.

As bad as this was, only seven sailors on the Belknap were killed, most in CIC as I remember. Unfortunately for him, the OOD of Belknap survived. The OOD of the Kennedy received a commendation.

WWG1WGA

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[The Klingon]

My second Commanding Officer was Weapons Officer on the Belknap during the collision...horrific story...the Belknap’s Yardarm got caught in the catwalk of the Kennedy ripping apart some fueling stations...this caused aviation fuel to pour onto Belknap fueling the fire.

[reed13k]

Yes - this was on of the two collisions that we constantly studied. The other was the infamous “too close for mo-board we’ll eyeball it in” HMAS Melbourne-USS Frank E. Evans.