Who taught the US Navy how to drive?

[John K]

2nd time in a month...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-40995829

Goes without saying any loss of life is a shame, but what the hell is going on?

You would think these American ships would have the most advanced systems available, capable of hearing a shrimp fart 50 miles away and still they manage to hit oil tankers.

Admittedly a 300mtr long oil tanker is quite inconspicuous and easy to miss...

So how the hell is this happening? I suspect macho posturing is involved somewhere (no guessing on which side) but this is getting silly...

[Captain Colonial]

Well, the first ship that was hit by a container ship had a good portion of its senior crew relieved of duty, but this one might be a different story.

The maritime rule of navigation is that you give way to vessels on your starboard, and the first ship was hit on her starboard side, and so was clearly at fault.

The latest one was hit on her port side, so cannot be 100% at fault.  I suspect it will be a combination of inattention on the tanker's bridge, both visual observation and radar monitoring, and not listening to the radio traffic and any warnings the US Navy ship broadcast.  But we shall see.

Remember as well that tankers and container ships have lousy braking and steering systems.  Emergency braking usually takes 2-3 miles.

[XTR2Turbo]

this comes to mind

 

[Captain Colonial]

10 minutes ago, XTR2Turbo said:

this comes to mind

 

Amusing but sadly false:

http://www.snopes.com/military/lighthouse.asp

 

[XTR2Turbo]

it was hell of a hit.  Look at the damage in this video.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/21/us-destroyer-uss-john-s-mccain-damaged-after-collision-with-oil-tanker

 

[TAFKARM]

guest. 

[pistonbroke]

Rule 27 of the international collision Avoidance regulations state that any ship not under command or restricted in her ability to maneuver shall show day marks of black ball - diamond - ball 

You can see the  US ship is clearly flying said signal  for whatever reason it is the duty of any another vessel approaching to stay clear , though not easy to see the marks from a mile or so distance and as said large ships cannot alter or stop  easily 

[John K]

13 minutes ago, pistonbroke said:

that any ship not under command or restricted in her ability to maneuver shall show day marks of black ball - diamond - ball 

I have to get those flags for Mr Grumpy...

[XTR2Turbo]

but are they displayed because of the incident or were they there before ?

[pistonbroke]

64 dollar question ?

[SootySport]

Regardless of giving way to starboard or flying flags,  the smaller ship should always gives way to the larger ship due to it being less manouverable.