Posted on 06/17/2017 7:20:21 PM PDT by proust
YOKOSUKA, Japan -- A number of Sailors that were missing from the collision between USS Fitzgerald (DDG 62) and a merchant ship have been found. As search and rescue crews gained access to the spaces that were damaged during the collision this morning, the missing Sailors were located in the flooded berthing compartments. They are currently being transferred to Naval Hospital Yokosuka where they will be identified. The families are being notified and being provided the support they need during this difficult time. The names of the Sailors will be released after all notifications are made.
I think they have scuttles in the hatches to berths IIRC especially if there are spaces below or adjoining the berthing area. I know my first GQ space was inescapable. When GQ secured {was over} someone in the shop had to come and made sure I got out OK in case they forgot to open the hatch LOL.
I never went through a flooded compartment event. But I was on full time shipyard Fire Department as One on One and went through several fires. When I got out and married I woke my wife up one night about 3:00am yelling "Get Out Get Out Now. Flooding Compartment in compartment number 3-whatever" LOL I was running around the bedroom. She eased me back to bed and we had a good laugh the next morning.
A long forgotten movie by most, was a British movie called “The Cruel Sea” about the fight against Nazi Uboats in 1939 by a British Corvette.
After they get torpedoed by a sub, there is a terrible scene where the captain and crew on the bridge can hear through the voice sound tubes the men screaming and drowning in compartments below, and there is nothing that can be done.
I shudder to think of it. But you are right. You have to keep the ship from going down, whether in peace or war. A board of inquiry won’t excuse you if you let seven men out of a compartment but lose the ship to flooding. Sad to say, but true.
And those boards are harsh, and deliberately so. They want to set an example of what a Captain can expect every time, and the lesson is, don’t expect a board to save you...it isn’t what they are there for. Sad and unfair, but...it is true, and always has been.
You know, when I was a boy, went to high school with kids of navy officers who would say things like, “yeah, my dad got relieved from command because he zigged when he should have zagged.”
I figured then it was some kind of metaphor, but in this particular case, maybe literally what happened.
Friend’s son was on the Navy vessel that was struck. Their son was found safe yesterday. He only joined the Navy about 1 year ago.
The container ship was seen making a U-turn before the collision on some ship trackers, a move that has raised questions about what happened.
All of the ACX Crystal’s 20-member Filipino crew were safe,
The container ship was seen making a U-turn before the collision on some ship trackers, a move that has raised questions about what happened.
But some doors had dogs on them making them only releasable from one side. If you are on the wrong side of a dogged down door tough luck.
To be fair, what happened at Guadalcanal and it environs was significantly more than 'seafaring' and were influenced by actions that occurred prior to those battles.
Epic night sea actions by the USN.
While I could be mistaken, I don't believe that I ever saw one like that on the Leahy-class DLG or the Adams-class DDG that I served aboard. As I recall, most, if not all, of the large watertight doors (usually condition Zebra doors) had a smaller (Xray) hatch included in them like the one below. 
You would not be able to open this door from the other side if it were dogged down. Right?
That is great news, very glad to hear that.
On the watertight doors that I’ve seen, those dogging handles go through the frame and there are duplicate handles on the other side.
Is that photo from a Navy ship? If so, I would have expected to see the condition Zebra marking near the top center of the door.
Well, that has literally happened, at least in the case of the USS Indianapolis which was sunk by the Japanese sub I-58 (Captained by Mochitsura Hashimoto) who torpedoed her while she steamed in the Philippine Sea on a somewhat cloudy night.
Capt. McVay thought visibility poor enough, and his shop going fast enough to avoid interception by submarines, even though it was known by the Navy there was one in the area that had just recently torpedoed and sunk a DE.
Also, no ship of her size had transited that dangerous area unescorted at any time in the war, so it was unusual. Captain McVay made the decision not to zig-zag, was intercepted by the I-58, was sunk, and the rest is history.
He was courtmartialed for hazarding his ship by not zig-zagging, and was penalized. Interestingly, Captain Hashimoto testified at the court-martial and testified zig-zagging by the Indianapolis would not have saved her from her fate, as he had her dead to rights. It was unusual, to say the least, to have an enemy combatant testify.
Captain McVay was not held responsible by his crew, but his conviction weighed heavily on him, and he ended up committing suicide in 1968. Part of the sentence was overturned in 2001, but not the hazarding the vessel specification.
In summary...it can happen. You can be punished for that.
Yes, it was due to heavily contested naval action at a time the USN was still learning the ropes, and the IJN was at the peak of its power...for every soldier or Marine killed in the theater, four sailors were killed.
Remarkable.
The best book I have seen on this subject that conveys it well is “Neptune’s Inferno”.
I used to live in San Diego and whenever one of my relatives or friends would come to visit in the winter months, I’d take them to San Diego Bay for some Whale & Dolphin watching. (The whales move to the warmer waters there that time of year. Snowbirds, LOL!)
Many a time one of the Navy training subs would surface RIGHT NEXT TO OUR LITTLE TOUR BOAT!
Really freaked people out, but I found it exhilarating. I know for sure that sub knew EXACTLY where we were. I think they did it for kicks...but I can’t prove it. ;)
PRAYERS UP for the victims and their family members.
(I was a Navy SEAL Wife in a previous life; it was my toughest, ‘job’ ever.)
based on what, exactly?
Read it twice. Also an excellent read: Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors by the same author. About Leyte Gulf.
That’s a lot more damage than the earlier pics suggested.
Look at that gash on the bow. Looks like it lifted up almost back to the anchor portal.
Well, the FR is equal to Coast to Coast now with all the baseless conjecture. Maybe it would be good to wait for some facts before running off on some NorthKoreanMuzzieConspiracy based on nothing. We don’t know yet if ANY of the reports we’ve gotten are true outside of the fact that there was a collision.
I’m also wondering what other traffic was in the area.
It could even have been a maneuver around a third party which affected the path of one or both ships.
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