US Navy ship collides with oil tanker in Gulf

NBC News ^ | August 12, 2012

[JerseyanExile]

An oil tanker collided with a U.S. Navy destroyer near the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday but no one was hurt and shipping traffic in the waterway, through which 40 percent of the world's seaborne oil exports pass, was not affected, officials said.

"Both vessels are okay and the Strait of Hormuz is not closed, and business is as usual there," an Oman coast guard official told Reuters, declining to be named under briefing rules.

The collision nevertheless left a gaping hole in the starboard side of USS Porter, a guided-missile destroyer suffered, but no one was injured on either vessel, the U.S. Navy said in a statement. The collision with the Panamanian-flagged bulk oil tanker M/V Otowasan occurred at approximately 1 a.m. local time.

The cause of the incident is under investigation, the Navy said, adding that there were no reports of spills or leakages from either the USS Porter or the Otowasan.

[SamAdams76]

Damn. A score of promising Navy careers are now in ruins.

[llevrok]

Well, they do call the ship a destroyer. What the heck did the Navy expect it to do? Sheesh.

[Roccus]

Yup!

Size matters.

[Slump Tester]

"Damn. A score of promising Navy careers are now in ruins.

But what if some of the officers are LGBT, women or minorities? That would be racist AND sexist.

[Carriage Hill]

Holy carp! That's some serious "damage". I don't think the local Maaco® Body Shop & Collision Center is going to be able to fix that *ding*, in a few days.

[EnglishOnly]

What was the name of that Truck Driving School? Truck Master?

[mrpotatohead]

Not a problem...it’ll buff right out.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

WOW! That’s one hell of a dent.

Oh well, just rope off the deck, hang a tarp over it and send it back to BIW, they’ll fix it right up.

[donozark]

Old Army saying:”Shit runs downhill.” Methinks it applicable to Navy as well...

[cripplecreek]

Certainly damaged and it really won’t matter who is at fault.

I have an uncle who was on track to be an astronaut till he ditched a fighter jet in the Atlantic back in the 70s. He still had a very successful career in the Navy for another 20 years but the Astronaut thing evaporated overnight.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

What the heck did the Navy expect it to do?

I think they expected it to destroy....something other than itself.

[Stonewall Jackson]

Collisions and groundings are usually pretty bad for the careers of those involved.

Back in WW2, my great-uncle ended up getting his first command because of a grounding. The first CO of the destroyer Bailey grounded her on some rocks off the Maine coast during her shake-down cruise, so he was relieved of command and my relative was given the ship.

[Riley]

Bondo. A couple of tons ought to do it.

[SamAdams76]

The U.S. Navy is very unforgiving with respect to accidents with their vessels. No matter whose fault it is, the commanding officer will pay a price as this incident will always be in his file - keeping him forever from the higher ranks.

To make it to the top in the Navy, you have to be very good AND very lucky. There are no allowances made for bad luck.

[Navy Patriot]

Likely playing "chicken" on orders from Zero to raise the volatility of the Iran, Syria situation.

This sort of stuff used to go on all the time, at sea, near communist nations, and the commies would back down and turn off.

Now, it's the other way around, and the foreign shipping will ram the US warships, and do so with impunity.

There is no way an oil tanker could maneuver to ram a US destroyer if they tried, it is an incident where they refused to be bullied and cowed, a sea change in foreign attitude toward the United States.

[Oztrich Boy]

Is this a boat with a lesbian driver?

[norwaypinesavage]

Methinks the title might be misleading. When you are struck in the side, a more appropriate title might be "US Naval Ship STRUCK BY oil tanker.

Particularly, this hit looks it might be near the stern, meaning the destroyer would have had the right-of-way. That said, it's lights out for the destroyer skipper.

[al baby]

As well they should be

[cripplecreek]

The investigation ruled the ditching to be an unavoidable result of equipment failure but there was some little procedural flaw in the way my uncle did it that the decision makers didn’t like.