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 ...
Still don’t understand how with sophisticated radar and navigation technology presumably on Navy ships and a plodding blocks long container ship that there wouldn’t have been at least a collision warning if not time to take some evasive action. How could our Navy ships survive in combat if they can’t dodge a huge slow moving container ship?
Probably means the "OOD" or Officer Of the Deck. This is the person the Captain puts in charge of the ship when he goes to bed.
There is an OOD on the bridge of a naval vessel 24/7 when the ship is at sea. This allows the Captain to attend to all of the things he has to do as the CO. Even when the Captain is on the bridge the OOD handles the ship, and it navigation.
I read about some REAL seamanship years ago. During WWI a four-piper was escorting some troopships at when one of them, fully loaded, swerved into its path. The skipper realized that if he maintained speed, he would T-Bone the Trooper and probably sink her with a huge loss of life. He couldn't go Flank Speed as the Trooper would cut him in half with, again, huge casualties.
He sped up just enough to have the Trooper slice through forward of the No. 1 gun, killing about a half dozen sailors. The report said the Trooper saw what was going to happen and had the davits swung and and was lowring the rescue boats before she even lost way.
“probably as sn/2c or a sn/3c”
How very politically correct of you.
You make a very good point not made by any other that I can recall. There is no scraping on the Fitzgerald that I could see. Only an impact line on the Fitz and the container vessel. Even if they ran parallel after collision there should be some marks shouldn’t there?
Some of the best laughs I’ve had in several days reading the reviews of this book!
What got the thread of humor started in the reviews of this book?
Happen to scroll down and check out some of the other titles at that link I provided?
I wound up in the rabbit hole of tears.
Yes, that was a long side trip from “How to Avoid Big Ships” to the GCaptain commentary and others on the event.
I’m still struggling to understand how it was allowed to happen.
OK, I’m going back in!
It’s like blaming a cow for running into your cheetah. Stupid. DDG is at fault. Big dent in the green side of the boat.
not politically correct. Just a fact.
“not politically correct.”
I don’t think that term means what you think it means.
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This is pure bullshit!
The Fitzgerald was deliberately attacked; the radar tracking proves it beyond a shadow of doubt.
We don’t need smoke screen articles like this; if we did, we would be democrats.
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>> “How could such a collision take place in the 21st century, an age of sophisticated radar, satellite intelligence, global positioning systems, etc.?” <<
Simple:
The freighter was determined to sink the destroyer.
Their first try was a miss, so they looped back for another shot.
Watch the radar track folks!
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A nutcase you surely are!
The hit was deliberate.
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No.
The freighter missed on their first attempt, and returned for a more successful hit. Then they ran away!
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You bet it was intentional!
Their first attempt missed so they took another shot.
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True, but then the cargo ship should have been sunk before impact.
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