(Yes, this is a real book.)
Posted on 06/21/2017 6:16:08 AM PDT by artichokegrower
Every ship, regardless of nationality or purpose, is required to carry one terse book . This book is titled the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions but is better know by its acronym “COLREGs”. The chapters are short and to the point and ship officers are required to make marks of 90% on COLREGs tests taken to keep up their licenses. In order to pass this stringent requirement sailors have developed mnemonic aids to help them remember the contents. When the crew loses control of steering, the COLREGs demands that the ship display two red lights in a vertical line. The mnemonic for this rule is “Red over Red, the Captain’s dead”. Sailboats are required to display a red and green light and its said “Red over Green, sailing machine”. There are many more like this but one important rule for avoiding collisions with Navy warships is missing: “If it’s grey stay away.”
(Excerpt) Read more at gcaptain.com ...
For this reason I am 99.9% confident the USS Fitzgerald will be found at fault… and so will the ACX Crystal.
Kinda long but informative article.
Wonder if the public will ever learn who was the officer on the deck when the accident occurred. It may tell the American people much about their “new” Navy.
There was a retired Navy guy on the radio yesterday who said that this accident was probably caused by a Junior Captain who was aware of the Tanker and that they were on a collision course and decided that rather than turn to avoid, he felt if he held course he could get past the tanker like a car thinking he could beat a train to the crossing.
Seeing as the CO was a Commander, I don’t think there was a “junior Captain” on board.
The announcement of Courts Martial will be public.
How could such a collision take place in the 21st century, an age of sophisticated radar, satellite intelligence, global positioning systems, etc.?
I want to know why this tanker whipped a nearly 180 degree course change and came at them. This does not excuse the destroyer from fault though.
An unnecessarily long-winded explanation. Simply put, the smaller, more maneuverable vessel is responsible for avoiding a collision with a larger, less maneuverable vessel in open waters. Basic boating rule.
Flipped A “Uy”
Missed His offramp?
Ping
How could such a collision take place in the 21st century, an age of sophisticated radar, satellite intelligence, global positioning systems, etc.?
Do enough complicated stuff long enough, and extremely rare things will happen.
Simple insurance scam with wartime implications. The perps are definatly going to make it look like your fault when they mean to crash into you.
7 dead sailors, we still play tiddly-winks and argue about R-O-R.
Thanks for posting. It was very informative & helpful for us non-sailers.
Yep. The Navy does not have junior and senior Captains on a ship. There is only one.
It appears now that the cargo ship (not a tanker) collided with the destroyer before the U turn. The cargo ship subsequently turned around to investigate and perhaps render assistance.
I think it was intentional. The cargo ship made several major course changes that ships like that just don’t do.
I would of launched torps at them and dealt with that aftermath ;-)
(Yes, this is a real book.)
No, it didn’t The reported time was off. The Crystal rammed the DDG before the “major course changes”.
Exactly, in maritime training school they teach cargo and tanker captains to be very deliberate in their courses inside major shipping lanes.
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