WATCH: Time-Lapse Shows Zumwalt DDG1000 Transfer and Float Off

gCaptain ^ | November 5, 2013 | Mike Schuler

[artichokegrower]

n October 28, 2013, the first of three new-generation stealth destroyers for the U.S. Navy, the ZUMWALT (DDG 1000), was launched at Bath Iron Works shipyard in Maine.

[artichokegrower]

Awesome video

[artichokegrower]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moSkXCUJHjY

[Travis McGee]

I'd like to know how they anchor, without tearing up the sonar dome?

An anchor angled to one side is fine under perfect conditions, but I've seen Navy Standard Anchors literally snap flukes when the anchor chains became twisted up due to changing winds and currents. An anchor chain leading off gently to starboard can quickly become an anchor chain under the hull and sonar dome with this bow configuration. I'm sure they have pondered this problem, I just want to know what there solution is. If they say, "Don't worry, we'll just be very careful and only anchor in settled conditions with steady winds and currents," I will just shake my head and wait for the report that says a 50 million dollar sonar dome was torn off, and the Zumwalt is out of commission for the next year.

[ThunderSleeps]

Maybe they are planning on always dropping three hooks? One off either bow, centering up between them, then a third from the stern to keep it stable? I don’t know, I think you’re right. What company makes the dome, think I want to invest in it...

[skinkinthegrass]

impressive.

[rktman]

Lets see. DDG-1000=zumwalt; DDG-1001=lbj; DDG-1003=Michael Mansoor. I think that’s the line up. If they actually build a fourth one maybe it can be the “hillary”. The only really worthy name is Mansoor.

[ßuddaßudd]

ßump

[maine yankee]

Drove by her on the big bridge again last evening.

Superstructure lit up like daylight.

Also spoke with a couple BIW welders. They said she will be in Bath until spring of 2015.

[Travis McGee]

I just want to know. It might even be in a centerline compartment below the waterline behind the sonar dome. I don’t see any sealed anchor-locker doors on the hull sides at all. If they plan to drop anchor off the deck, the inboard cant of the hull sides (”tumblehome”) will mean the chain will totally tear up the paint even under good conditions.

But I can tell you from much experience that a plan to “only anchor in settled weather” is very foolish. Sometimes you just have to anchor in bad weather, with a strong current against the wind. Then the tide or wind swings, and the chain, tight as a guitar string, is going to lead over and under the sonar dome and do a lot of damage.

I really wonder where the anchor is. Centerline under the hull could work, but a watertight door there would be full of its own problems, such as, being jammed open, preventing the boat from moving faster than slow-ahead until divers went down and fixed it (if they could.)

[Travis McGee]

I had the great fortune of sailing on the Victory Chimes last summer. The Maine coast is just stunningly gorgeous, I waited far too long to learn this.

Camden Maine

[Travis McGee]

Found it on a web forum.

“The anchor for the USS Zumwalt class is released from under the hull, from an anchor room there, between the two gun stations forward. Drops right out of the hull and is raised back into its compartment.

If you look at the following Post Graduate Thesis by Joanna M. Carter of Northrop Grumman, Pascagoula, Mississippi, while attending the US Navy Post Graduate School in Monterey, CA, from pages 34-36 she compares anchor handling on the USS Constitution sailing frigate to the handling system on the USS Zumwalt:

Shipbuilding Integration, Joanna M. Carter (PDF)

The Zumwalt’s anchor is highly automated and is designed to be operated by a single sailor, while the Constitution had six anchors and it took 150 sailors to operate them. The cap stands on the Zumwalt are below deck, so they cannot be seen by enemy radars. The entire system drops from there straight down so the anchor is dropped out of the bottom of the hull.

[Travis McGee]

(See above)

Sure hope it works perfectly under the worst conditions.

A jammed anchor chain and/or anchor door would be a mission kill.

[andy58-in-nh]

One of my favorite towns. It is blessed with a truly gorgeous harbor, and is most spectacularly viewed from the 800-foot top of nearby Mt. Battie, which takes less than an hour to climb on foot, and is well worth the modest effort.

[CodeToad]

A ship built for electronics and not the sea.

[central_va]

There is a huge stockless anchor under the keel you can’t see. This is the main anchor. No bow anchor is a little weird but as long as there is a main anchor all is well. If the main one breaks off then pier mooring is the only docking solution.

[Travis McGee]

We did drive to the top of the Mountain, what a view of Camden and the islands off shore! At any time in summer, schooners are sailing in and out. We walked all over town, and want to go back. Prettiest town on the prettiest coast I’ve seen in America.

[Travis McGee]

I googled it and found a discussion about the anchor, and posted it upthread. It’ll be great as long as it works, but anchors and chains often get twisted, jammed and fubared. If that door is jammed open, and requires divers, it’s a mission kill. And anchors and chains are NOTORIOUS for jamming at bad times.

[central_va]

Losing the main anchor is not a mission killer at all. I was on a frigate(FF) that lost its main anchor half way thru deployment. We didn’t get a replacement for 3 months. The problem is when fuel gets low the lack of anchor makes the bow ride high.

[Travis McGee]

In 1983, while anchored off the coast of Beirut in wild weather, this ship (Pensacola, LSD 38) broke it's giant Navy Standard Anchor. The ship did a few 360s with two anchors out, and the port anchor in the picture snapped off a fluke right at the base. I know it's not the same with a single centerline anchor, my only point is that anchors and chains will do really gnarly things that nobody expects on a blue-sky sunny day.

And a jammed underwater anchor door is a mission kill.

[skeeter]

I wonder how she’ll handle heavy seas - probably a pretty wet ship.