Police: Submarine's safety lines ‘contributing factor’ in deaths of two sailors

Stars & Stripes ^ | 1/3/7 | Bryan Mitchell

[SmithL]

Ping!

[brivette]

How sad.

[Jeff Gordon]

It sounds like they got crushed between the two ships.

[AxelPaulsenJr]

The men were out on deck while the sub was underway?

[SmithL]

Yeah, they had to let the Pilot off, before heading out to sea.

[battlegearboat]

I was returning some Merchant Marine sailors to their vessel after some shore leave in Vung Tau, RVN in 1969.

The seas were a bit rough that night.

Without any hesitation, this drunk sailor just jumped at the wrong time for the Jacob's Ladder and was crushed to death between my LCM and his ship.

[Lou L]

It sounds like they got crushed between the two ships.

That's what I was thinking...or else, could they have been swept into a hull or a propellor blade? Normally, they'd have been wearing life vests...for them to die so suddenly, something else must've contributed.

[AxelPaulsenJr]

An earlier report I saw indicated the men were doing maintenance on the exterior of the sub. It is not at all clear to me as to how the men went overboard.

[rottndog]

...Wind gusts were clocked near 50 mph and waves rose to 20 feet as the sub departed Plymouth Harbor...

It's no wonder these guys were washed overboard. I wonder if this happened suddenly, or if there was rough seas throughout the transit and pilot transfer.

It's amazing this doesn't happen more often.

God bless the souls of the fallen.

[JeeperFreeper]

50 mph wind and 20 foot waves!!! But the weather wasn't "extreme"??? Sounds extreme to this ol' Marine.

[GodfearingTexan]

that sucks

[SmithL]

Timing is everything. I once embarrassed myself when jumping from a Boomer's Jacob's Ladder into a Tender's Motor Whaleboat. Luckily, I just landed on my rump in the bottom of the Whaleboat, damaging only my pride.

[NonValueAdded]

Actually, the story says the two who died had shorter lines so a crushing or a battering death is the likely story.

[Robert A Cook PE]

No, washed off the hull (still tied to the ship's safety track with the "suspect" safety lines, then were trapped/suspended underwater by the harnesses and lines.

No crushing involved.

[raybbr]

Reminds of those divers that were lost (Coast Guard, I think) that got pulled down 100+ feet in seconds even though they had line attached.

[Robert A Cook PE]

No.

They HAD to offhull (topside) to ASSIST the pilot in getting off the sub and into the small pilot boat. The pilot would have been also tied on the same way. AFTER the pilot had been helped into the pilot boat, the sub's crew has to secure topside lines and the jacob's ladder they've used to transfer the pilot (etc) before they can finish submerging.
It's not really maintenance though.

The pilot also was endangered by the same harness and safety lines, but he could NOT be left on board the sub on a mission: his job was to assist the boat out of the sheltered water past the breakwater and buoys.

It's a catch-22: You can't leave the foreign pilot on board underwater, but you can't leave a strange harbor in a foreign port leaving a foreign naval yard under heavy seas without the pilot helping you get to an area where heavy seas.

[BykrBayb]

This is right in line with earlier reports, and discussions here. I'm sure the Navy's investigation will will not only improve safety in the future, but also provide answers for the grieving families. May the hand of God guide them, and ease their pain.

[Robert A Cook PE]

See the problem is complicated by the waves; If the safety is too short, you get battered by high waves against the hull, because you ARE kept close to the hull and (supposedly) out of the water. But the beating from the waves might mean that you can't get your feet back under you against the sloping slippery hull. (In calm water though, you are kept from drowning by a short line because it is holding you up out of the water.)

In rough water, a long line lets you get away from the boat's hull because you fall all the way into the water, maybe surviving by swimming and your lifejacket, but you can't be pulled back on board until somebody else (in a short line!) stays on HIS FEET topside and pulls you back up to the top of the hull. And, as pointed out, IF another boat is nearby, you can get killed with a long lifeline because you are in the water between the two hulls.

Once you're completely in the water with a long lifeline, you can't move the lifeline's safety catch to a different location so you can climb back on board! But if your in the water, you getting thermally hit by freezing water and endangered from exposure.

[AxelPaulsenJr]

Have a question. On your FR homepage you state the universe to be between 150 and 175 billion years old. I suppose you would say that that is the universe as we know it. Wonder what God had in place before he created the universe that we know?