That's quite a bottleneck.
Posted on 08/21/2017 6:46:06 AM PDT by rktman
Vessels from several nations are searching Southeast Asian waters for 10 missing U.S. sailors after an early morning collision Monday between the USS John S. McCain and an oil tanker ripped a gaping hole in the destroyer's hull.
The collision east of Singapore between the guided missile destroyer and the 183-meter (600-foot) Alnic MC was the second involving a ship from the U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet in the Pacific in two months.
Vessels and aircraft from the U.S., Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia are searching for the missing sailors. Four other sailors were evacuated by a Singaporean navy helicopter to a hospital in the city-state for treatment of non-life threatening injuries, the Navy said. A fifth was taken to the hospital by ambulance after the destroyer arrived in Singapore under its own power, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore said.
The McCain had been heading to Singapore on a routine port visit after conducting a sensitive freedom-of-navigation operation last week by sailing near one of China's man-made islands in the South China Sea.
The Navy's 7th Fleet said "significant damage" to the McCain's hull resulted in the flooding of adjacent compartments including crew berths, machinery and communications rooms. A damage control response prevented further flooding, it said.
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
When I read stories like this it starts to make a lot of sense why the U.S. can’t even get out of its own way in places like Afghanistan after 16 ‘effing years.
As others have said in different ways, the Russian/Chinese/NK axis didn’t steal the crew’s binoculars.
And reportedly getting ready to place another 4,000 troops there? My only thought is, if they are going for rear guard action as we pull out, okay. Bring the gear back and pull the troops out. Guess we haven’t learned much in 16 years plus what the russkies went through. If we ain’t in it to win it, get the F out.
For some reason, many people here on Free Republic automatically assume that our Navy ships are totally at fault in these incidents.
It takes two ships to have a crash.
Our Navy ships are very expensive and I’m sure that the Navy takes a dim view of having a ship damaged.
I believe the Navy will look for the “Proximate Cause” of this incident.
If I remember right from my Report of Survey Officer days, proximate cause was the unbroken string of events that caused the crash.
I don’t think that they’ll find the behavior of the sailors on the bridge of the Fitzgerald or McCain to be in that unbroken string of events.
Now, that doesn’t mean that there wasn’t “negligence” on the part of the sailors on the bridge of our Navy ships.
And that is probably why you see Non-Judicial punishment for some of the sailors on the Fitzgerald.
But their “negligence” would not necessarily be the “Proximate Cause” of these incidents.
It’s a lot of legalese, but that’s how it works.
I followed the piracy reports at http://www.cargolaw.com/ for several years starting around 1999 when they were the only game in town for that type of freebie intel.
You are correct, the vast majority of piracy reports back then were from the Malacca strait. It’s died down considerably since then but it is still present and a threat.
“””If I remember correctly, there is a live link someplace as to the current traffic in that area. It used to be a YUGE piracy issue in the area as well.”””
The collision was east of Singapore. The Straits of Malacca are west of Singapore between Malaysia and Indonesia and that is where the piracy occurs.
Check map posted at 140 to see the relative locations of the collision, Singapore, Straits of Singapore, and Malacca Straits.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3579213/posts?q=1&;page=1
That's quite a bottleneck.
I may have followed the same intel reports. Why? Not sure. I couldn’t do anything but keep up with what was happening. Kinda like 9/11. When it happened, Mrs. rktman told one of her employees it looked like OBL and they were like “Who?” She told them what I had told her previously. They were surprised when it turned out she was correct.
Nice. Thanks. Hell, I’ve been out for 46 years and I’m still interested and land locked. What the hell is wrong with me? LOL!
How about air traffic radar? Makes you wonder. Good thing the skies are big’
https://www.flightradar24.com/38.83,-117.76/7
I follow a blog of a guy who is soling around the world in a 32’ sailboat and is currently in Malaysia.
He says that sailing the Malacca Strait is like playing Frogger with the large ships.
soling=soloing.
Indeed, even more reason to pay close attention to avoid such things.
Sabotage. By Muslims, militant blacks, committed communists, homosexual activists or other undesirables.
Interesting, insisting upon your right of way to such an extent that a collision occurs.
Perhaps when a ship is on a collision course with your ship this is not a time to insist on your right of way.
EMP mines that (at least temporarily) knock out some electronics, causing loss of control?
Perhaps that's our problem - our sailors are too young to understand that reference. :-/
BTW - solo circumnavigation, in today's environment? Seems a lot more risky than back when Robin Lee Graham did it in the late '60s.
Yeah, that’s the ticket. They have sensors to pick out the particular ship they want to disable. Those crafty Chinese have deployed those mines to protect their new man-made islands and territories and to gum up the straits.
An inexperienced crew might maintain their right of way too long just following the rule book. At times you just have to use your speed and turning ability to get the hell away from another ship. Rules or no rules.
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