[Renfield]

Oopsie!

[CodeJockey]

The ship may be there for months, and the total cost for repairs may be over $50 million.

Let's see. AIG Bailout 85 Billion and we're talking 50 million for repairs. Chump change.

I think 1,000 million = 1 billion. Sorry if I am wrong, but I don't normally work with such large numbers.

So we gave AIG 85 X 1,000 million??? Let me repeat, 55 million is chump change.

[Buck W.]

“The ship may be there for months, and the total cost for repairs may be over $50 million.”

That’s just a few AIG bonuses.

[I Hate Obama]

Our warships can probably withstand missles, but not construction debris? It was probably made in China.

[slumber1]

Did they set sail from a tropic port on a 3 hour tour.........a 3 hour tour!

[astyanax]

As a proud (former) member of the (former) U.S.S. Valley Forge (CG 50), I suggest a 2nd nominee for a sinkex!

[jjm2111]

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.

[tvdog12345]

Look, Daddy! I’m driving the boat!

[Secret Agent Man]

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).

[Political Junkie Too]

That's what you get for naming your ship after a pirate safe haven.

-PJ

[NormsRevenge]

Professional mariners don’t do that sort of thing in clear weather and calm seas.

—

Damn the shoals! Full Steam Ahead!

(drink)

[rednesss]

"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."

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????

[TruthHound]

Pics & video:
http://loscuatroojos.com/2009/02/12/uss-port-royal-aground-in-hawaii-captain-is-toast/

[waud]

Replacing the reduction gears would make this near impossible. They’d have to rip the ship in half just to get access. Those things are huge.

[Publius6961]

It's not been announced how it hit the shoal, which is marked on charts.

My BS meter is twitching...

Another example of potentially 100% accurate but also 100% useless.

Marked on charts?
When? After the event?

Charts available to the Department of the Navy? To the DOD?
To the crew of the USS Port Royal?

Who is tasked to keep these charts current?
The captain?
The Pentagon?
Some lowest-ranked sailor?

Will there be a Court Martial?
If not, why not?
Will the procedings ever be made public?

I am afraid this story is just beginning...

If the buck stops here; I assume obama will be suspended pending explanations of the bailout mess? Before the facts are known.

[A.A. Cunningham]

090219-N-4003L-002 PEARL HARBOR (Feb. 19, 2009) The guided-missile cruiser USS Port Royal (CG 73) sits in drydock at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard as it is readied for repairs following the Feb. 5 grounding about a half-mile south of Honolulu Airport. An assessment of the ship and the repair efforts needed are ongoing. The ship entered drydock Feb. 18. (U.S. Navy photo by Michael F. Laley/Released)

090219-N-4003L-003 PEARL HARBOR (Feb. 19, 2009) The guided-missile cruiser USS Port Royal (CG 73) sits in drydock at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard as it is readied for repairs following the Feb. 5 grounding about a half-mile south of Honolulu Airport. An assessment of the ship and the repair efforts needed are ongoing. The ship entered drydock Feb. 18. (U.S. Navy photo by Michael F. Laley/Released)

090219-N-4003L-001 PEARL HARBOR (Feb. 19, 2009) The guided-missile cruiser USS Port Royal (CG 73) sits in drydock at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard as it is readied for repairs following the Feb. 5 grounding about a half-mile south of Honolulu Airport. An assessment of the ship and the repair efforts needed are ongoing. The ship entered drydock Feb. 18. (U.S. Navy photo by Michael F. Laley/Released)

090207-N-0000X-007 PEARL HARBOR (Feb. 7, 2009) The Pearl Harbor-based guided-missile cruiser USS Port Royal (CG 73) takes a starboard list as the USNS Salvor (T-ARS 52) tries to free the ship after it ran aground Feb. 5 about a half-mile south of the Honolulu airport while off-loading personnel into a small boat. The salvage ship USNS Salvor (T-ARS 52), which included an embarked detachment of Mobile Diving Salvage Unit (MDSU) 1 personnel, the Motor Vessel Dove, and seven Navy and commercial tugboats freed Port Royal off a shoal on Feb. 9. (U.S. Navy photo/Released)

[Clioman]

I’m thinking this is not the best way to create stimulus packages for shipyards.

[ASOC]

Google Earth fails to show the area -wonder why?

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=Honolulu++airport+map&um=1&ie=UTF-8&split=0&gl=us&ei=Il3ASeSLOqCSsQOpjcUv&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&resnum=1&ct=title

[Jonah Hex]

Bottom line, she's going to take a lot of work to make her operational for fleet duties. But give our engineers and shipyards credit: they turn out miracles every day.

Remember the San Francisco after she encountered the seamount at speed? After making it to the surface and back to port (which was dicey BTW, with the bow sonar array crushed, forward hull twisted, and forward MBTs opened to the sea), a lot of folks were willing to write her off. She's now scheduled to return to the fleet this spring after getting a new bow, donated from her sister decommissioned boat Honolulu.

O Trinity of love and power!
Our brethren shield in danger's hour;
From rock and tempest, fire and foe,
Protect them wheresoe'er they go;
Thus evermore shall rise to Thee,
Glad hymns of praise from land and sea.