Posted on 06/26/2017 5:56:24 AM PDT by AU72
TOKYO, June 26 (Reuters) - A U.S. warship struck by a container vessel in Japanese waters failed to respond to warning signals or take evasive action before a collision that killed seven of its crew, according to a report of the incident by the Philippine cargo ship's captain.
Multiple U.S. and Japanese investigations are under way into how the guided missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald and the much larger ACX Crystal container ship collided in clear weather south of Tokyo Bay in the early hours of June 17
Those who died were in their berthing compartments, while the Fitzgerald's commander was injured in his cabin, suggesting that no alarm warning of an imminent collision was sounded.
One of the problem with FR as a serious discussion forum is that comments get spread out over multiple threads. I try to keep links to my work, but it's a bit of a pain...
Seeing as how the mods have already pulled one thread with some of my original work in it, I'm toying with creating a webpage-like collection of them as an archive (and, perhaps,putting it up on my domain...) . And, then, when the subject arises again, use that to seed a new "Fitz vs Crystal" thread...
IF I do so, I'll invite you two and a few others to join in at the beginning.
Right now, though, I'm swamped with archaeological projects -- including dealing with some old land-surveying issues -- going all the way back to Republic of Texas days...
Keep up the good work!
Thanks. I would be honored to be invited to your new page.
Thanks...I think once a bit more info trickles in, we might stop getting any for a while, and it might be six months or more...
Good luck with your other projects.
As much as I dislike FR Vanities, we may want to consider posting a vanity to record the analysis of the collision that has been done by FR posters.
I have been scanning the news media and blogs for new information about the collision and little of value has been found.
I have also been reading the comments left by the readers of news media and blogs and little of value has been found. It seems as though more people are interested in conspiracy theories than in logical analysis of the facts at the time of the collision.
Some of the stuff that could be posted in a FR vanity would be:
1. the photos of the two ships describing the damage.
2. The standard operating procedure required for Navy ships in high traffic areas. For instance, I have read the Skipper must be on the bridge if another ship is within 3000 yards. I do not know if that is true or not.
3. The marine traffic just prior to the collision. The Maersk Evora was to the ACX Crystal’s starboard and the Wan Hai 266 was to the ACX Crystal’s port. How did the USS Fitzgerald get itself caught between the Wai Hai 266 and the Acx Crystal?
4. The two islands (Oshima and Toshima) that create a busy shipping channel for traffic into and out of Yokohoma as well as Great Circle traffic to the USA.
This photo should answer your question -- and then some:
Look at the lower part of the bow. Looks like one of those underwater "rams" they used to build projecting from the lower bow on Phoenician and Roman bireme and trireme warships, right?
My guess is that bow protrusion is what lifted and rolled over the Fitzgerald -- thus producing the downward-smashing damage by the Crystal's port bow rail and hawsepipe, etc...
“Stem to Stern”
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