Navy commander relieved of command after running ship aground

San Diego Union-Tribune ^ | 28 Jul 08 | Steve Liewer

[GATOR NAVY]

SAN DIEGO – The skipper of the San Diego-based Pearl Harbor has been relieved of command after the amphibious landing-dock ship ran aground last week in the Persian Gulf, Navy officials said Monday.

Cmdr. Xavier Valverde has been reassigned to the staff of the Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain while the July 21 incident is investigated.

The Pearl Harbor apparently hit a shoal while conducting a well-deck drill off the coast of Kuwait, a Navy spokeswoman said. The ship backed off the sand bar without sustaining damage.

Valverde, a 26-year Navy veteran, took command of the Pearl Harbor in November. He was relieved over the weekend by Rear. Adm. Kendall Card, commander of Expeditionary Strike Group 3.

Capt. Mike Slotsky, deputy commodore of Destroyer Squadron 9 in Everett, Wash., will oversee the ship temporarily.

The Pearl Harbor left San Diego on May 4 as part of the Peleliu amphibious assault group, which has been operating in the Persian Gulf for about a month.

[editor-surveyor]

"I sail and always know the depth of the water I am in."

Until the day that you don't.

[Stonewall Jackson]

Honda Point Disaster

On the evening of September 8, 1923, the largest loss of US warships in peacetime occurred at Honda Point, California, when nine destroyers of DesRon11 ran aground at high speed. Two of the vessels, Farragut and Somers, were able to extract themselves, but the other seven, Delphy, S.P. Lee, Young, Woodbury, Nicholas, Fuller, and Chauncey, were lost. Amazingly, only twenty-three sailors perished in this disaster.

All nine captains and their navigators were relieved of duty and courtmartialed.

[Peleliu1944]

LOL Very good.

[ken21]

now that would be embarrassing and career marring.

i know a guy that forgot to put the landing gear down on his plane.

this is a town small enough that everyone of any importance knew him.

[RandallFlagg]

They were with my lady, the ‘Liu?
Damn!

[rmlew]

Why the heck does it take 391 sailors for that thing?

[editor-surveyor]

"you would think the crew would know where to avoid the sand bars"

A few years ago we had a sub slam into an uncharted seamount at 26 knots. Two died as I recall.

[Retain Mike]

There but for the grace of God go I. My first opportunity to end my Captain’s career came on one of my first OODI watches. Our LST was steaming down the bay after dropping Marines for their winter training around Mt. Fuji, and I had the first watch that night. The ship had to cross the traffic in the channel below Tokyo. The channel was unregulated, but ships had generally decided there were two lanes close to shore for shallow draft ships and two more in the main channel for large merchants. Well, I lost the bubble and could not sort out the hundreds of running lights. However, I did have sense enough to call the Captain. When he arrived on the bridge the first thing he said was, “Where are you?” When he realized by my fuzzy answer I was lucky to know I was on the bridge, he led me to the chart. That is when I realized the 3rd class quartermaster was contentedly plotting me onto a volcanic rock at the entrance of the bay. I remember seeing little or no blue between the last fix and the shoreline. Once I got the ship into safe waters, he helped me sort out the running lights.

The amazing thing is he let me keep my job. I have always been amazed at his courage to persist in developing me even though I badly disappointed him more than once. I went to a reunion in San Diego and discovered all members of the ship’s company held him in the highest regard. I noticed he made a point to station himself near the entrance to the hospitality room so he could always be among the first to greet new arrivals.

[trumandogz]

Keeping your ship from running aground is the easiest part of the sailing process. All you need to do is know where you are (GPS Helps with that) know how deep the water is (Maps Tell you the Depth of the Water) and read your depth meter.

This guy must have been asleep at the helm.

[GATOR NAVY]

I couldn’t tell you what they have now but my last ship was the same class. When I retired two years ago we still had paper charts and were pretty far down on the list for getting the certified paperless system. The shooters were first in line. We did have an electronic chart display that ran on a laptop with multiple displays but it was strictly for “situational awareness” only. Still it was a very useful tool.

[Retain Mike]

As an old Gater sailor I know this works as long as the quartermaster of the watch does not record “Oh, shit!” to the log just before you have the boatswain mate pass the word “Ship is beached.”

[Jeff Head]

It's a big ship (16,000 tons) with a large propulsion plant (four 16 cylinder diesels).

So, between propulsion, comms, weapons, navigation, aviation (it can handle a couple of Sea Stallions), cargo handling, well deck handling for the LCACs or other landing craft, the food, laundry, watches, the medical facilities on the ship and doing all of that and more for 24 X 7...it all adds up.

[SmithL]

Navigation-by-Braille is rarely career-enhancing.

[MARTIAL MONK]

Fire Him

If you run aground, will you fire you?

[colderwater]

Charts/Maps can be wrong. Also, under the water where you can’t see, features can change (e.g. sandbars). If you are the captain of a littoral combat ship, in today’s navy, would you be aggressive towards the enemy (whomever it it may be), or career-preserving and risk averse.

I’m not a fan or defender of running aground but I could see it happening say, running down pirates off the coast of Somalia, bad charts or new sandbars out to ruin your day.

C.W.

[trumandogz]

If I run aground I would would be broke after I had to pay to repair a keel.

[Billthedrill]

OK, now that looks like sort of a bad day for somebody. I learned in OOD school you can get so fixated on formation steaming that you forget there’s a real ocean out there. With lumps in it.

[trumandogz]

If a chart says the water is 10 meters deep I am going to assume the water is 8 meters deep and I would have some idea about the tides for the day.

[JillValentine]

The captain who ran the Exxon Valdez aground, although acquitted of operating the ship while drunk, admitted to having at least three drinks right before boarding the ship.

[LibWhacker]

Survival of the fittest isn’t always fair, but it works.