Posted on 03/17/2009 12:08:03 PM PDT by Renfield
The damage appears to much worse than initially thought, as a result of the USS Port Royal, an American cruiser, running aground on February 5th. The ship was returning to its base in Hawaii after the first day of sea trials. The ship slid into a shoal of sand and rock, which was actually construction debris from a nearby air port. The Port Royal had spent the last four months in a shipyard, getting a normal batch of upgrades and maintenance. The 9,600 ton ship has been in service for 15 years, and is the 27th, and last, Ticonderoga class cruiser to be built. It took four days to get the cruiser off the shoal, which was done by removing about a thousand tons of weight from the ship. It's not been announced how it hit the shoal, which is marked on charts. The Port Royal draws 33 feet of water, and the shoal is 22 feet under water. The captain of the Port Royal was relieved, which is normal for a grounding such as this.
Initially, he only damage mentioned was to the propellers (the tips were torn off), and a leak in one of the sonar domes. There was no hull breach. But even then, it was believed that the propeller shaft and shaft bearings would have to be replaced as well.
The actual damage turned out to be far worse. The drive shafts and the steel supporting them were twisted out of alignment as the ship was rocked back and forth. It's feared that this damage might be so bad that the drive shafts, reduction gears and engines might have to be replaced. This could cost tens of millions of dollars.
The sonar dome has to be replaced, and the hatches for some of the missile cells (silos) were also twisted out of alignment and have to be replaced. Some of the sensors and antennae on the main mast were twisted out of alignment by the shock of hitting the reef, and have to be repaired or replaced. Instruments and sensors on the bottom of the ship were destroyed or damaged by the grounding. The water exhaust and intake ports in the hull were jammed with debris, and have to be repaired or replaced (otherwise the sanitation, air conditioning and ballast systems will not work)
So after one day of sea trials, the Port Royal is right back to the shipyard and dry dock. The ship may be there for months, and the total cost for repairs may be over $50 million. There will probably be courts martial for whoever screwed up the navigation that put the ship on a known shoal. Professional mariners don't do that sort of thing in clear weather and calm seas.
Did they set sail from a tropic port on a 3 hour tour.........a 3 hour tour!
It drew a lot less before global warming melted all the polar ice caps.
LMAO!
Construction debris to me says material that’s harder than just sand. If it’s a man-made reef it might not be on the chart. Notice to Mariners might not have had it. Full crew complement? I don’t think we’re getting the whole story.
As a proud (former) member of the (former) U.S.S. Valley Forge (CG 50), I suggest a 2nd nominee for a sinkex!
I’m a graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. When you graduate from there, you get a reserve commission and go straight into the Navy Reserve. One summer, I did my “two weeks” (actually 3 and change) teaching at Annapolis’ summer cruise for the midshipment aboard their 100 foot or so Yard Patrol craft (YPs). The boats left Annapolis with each a contingent of newly minted third classmen (sophomores), a few seniors, a couple of commissioned officer instructors and the boat’s actual enlisted crew.
The cruise was a lot of fun, teaching the mids how to navigate, dock, tie up the boat, etc. They were mostly very intelligent, but common sense is not something that was drilled into them at Annapolis.
While steaming in New York harbor the midshipman in charge of my watch wanted to turn into the side of unladen oil barge because “that is where the trackline said to turn”. When I heard the “left standard rudder command”. I ran to the helm, grabbed it pointed at the wall of steel on our port side and mentioned that turning into it probably wasn’t the best of ideas.
The boat behind me, with it’s own Surface Warfare qualified officer/instructor DID turn into the barge and only didn’t collide by a matter of feet.
There are other instances from the very same trip, but I don’t feel like typing for half an hour. Some very smart people had a hard time looking out the window and using their brains.
Look, Daddy! I’m driving the boat!
The story says that the man-made shoal was on the charts. I suppose it is possible it was not, but until I see evidence to the contrary I am going to believe the story. I do not have the charts for that area. It’s a LONG sail from the Chesapeake Bay.
I guess we can expect similar results here on land as more and more people start using GPS units in their cars, right?
“Turn Right.... HERE!”
SCREEEEECH... CRASH!!!!!!
Crap. Feel bad for the captain for the mistake but man.
ALso makes you think these ships will not be able to sustain a good deal of damage and keep working (at all, or for very long after).
I don't think you read the whole story, as posted.
It sounds funny, but it’s easy to GPS’ify your driving.
“Relieved” is military parlance for being replaced at your post. So in this case, it’s a verb not an adjective.
We rely a bit too much on electronics for safe navigation these days, IMO. Fathometers, GPS and like equipment don’t do much good if:
- Operators are not adequately trained in their operation
- The equipment is not adequately maintained
- Fixes were not being taken often enough
- Fixes were being taken, but whatever they were using for inertial navigation was not being updated with the new fixes
- The submerged obstruction was not properly charted
- Charts in use were not the correct ones
- Charts were not updated with the relevant Notice to Mariners
There are others, but these things almost always boil down to human error, particularly when steaming in otherwise familiar waters.
I’ve found from personal experience grounding my boat that a fish finder is of limited usefulness when the depth changes dramatically, particularly at high speeds when there is precious little time to stop, slow or maneuver out of the way.
-PJ
Ticonderoga-class cruisers are named after battles.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Port_Royal
Professional mariners don’t do that sort of thing in clear weather and calm seas.
—
Damn the shoals! Full Steam Ahead!
(drink)
Easy to fix. All we need to do is have the AIG executives donate their bonus to the upgrade of the ship and take a tax deduction in the process. God only knows Obama will only retire the ship and use the savings of it not operating for for food stamp programs.
I'm no rocket scientist, but couldn't they have slung lifting bags under the hull and simply displaced a lot more water and lifted it until it rode much, much higher in the water, and then they wouldn't have had to destroy it while trying to get it unstuck???
1,000 tons of water = 2,000,000 lbs. 2,000,000\8.33 lbs/gal = 240,000 gallons of water. 240,000\7.5 gals/cubic foot = 32,000 cubic feet of water. pi*r'3=area of sphere. That comes out to lifting balloons equal to the volume of about a 22' balloon, spread down over 1,000' of boat. All it would have taken was some divers. For $50 million that's a lot of divers for a lot of time. And even if they couldn't have gotten slings under the hull, drop a few welders in the water and weld attaching points to the side of the hull. Who's the brainiac that decided to use brute force instead of high school math and physics????
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