It is bad enough that nature can bring on a typhoon or hurricane to bear on all who travel the oceans. Being a US Navy vet, I have fond memories of life out on the ocean so blue. However, there seems to be an element of danger in these waters that few landlubbers can’t relate to except on the road. It is the landlubber’s version of a distracted driver, a ship that is inattentive to its own course, speed and surroundings. Lately, this has been a repetitive issue for the US Navy 7th Fleet home-ported out of Yokosuka, Japan.
Back in 2017, the Washington Post lamented that maybe this was a case of a force stretched too thin. While this is a convenient cover story where an admiral that is ready to retire is forced out a few months early is enough to make the taxpayers believe justice was done. It turns out in the case of the USS Fitzgerald, that both the OOD (Officer of the Deck) and the CIC (Combat Information Center) officer were having a “spat”. The CIC officer, in retaliation, turned off the radar allowing the situation where the ship hit a huge container vessel that anyone’s grandmother could have seen on the radar. A spat is not typical of what you have on navy ships mind you, at least when I was there in the 70s and 80s. Maybe it has to do with the fact that these were women officers on the USS Fitzgerald? (Yes I said that, the sexes are indeed different, but this is not a label that applies 100% across the board. I have seen my share of male passive-aggressive “spats” and they ain’t pretty nor are they masculine)
But I digress, so yesterday it was reported by the US Navy via CNN that:
“A Russian destroyer …. made an unsafe maneuver against USS Chancellorsville, closing to 50-100 feet, putting the safety of her crew and ship at risk,” US Navy spokesman Cmdr. Clayton Doss told CNN in a statement.
“This unsafe action forced Chancellorsville to execute all engines back full and to maneuver to avoid collision,” Doss said.
The US guided-missile cruiser was traveling in a straight line and trying to recover its helicopter when the incident occurred, he said. “We consider Russia’s actions during this interaction as unsafe and unprofessional,” Doss said.
Did anyone have an iPhone handy? Because you know, these days especially, it is helpful to have a video since the people talking only lie when their mouths are open.
OK, that video is too late to show what really happened. It also helps to know the “rules of the road” (‘Handbook of Nautical Rules #15) out on the ocean:
(#15) When two power-driven vessels are crossing so as to involve risk of collision, the vessel which has the other on her own starboard side shall keep out of the way and shall, if the circumstances admit, avoid crossing ahead of the other vessel.
Which ship has has the other ship on their starboard (right) side? Yeah, you guessed it, the USS Chancellorsville out of Yokosuka, Japan, home-port for the US Navy 7th Fleet. Home of the “asleep at the wheel” Officer of the Deck because you can’t blame the helmsman as they are only allowed to accomplish speed and course changes that the OOD commands. I have been there and done that.
Furthermore, rules 16 and 17 make this all clear:
(#16) Every vessel which is directed to keep out of the way of another vessel shall, so far as possible, take early and substantial action to keep well clear.
(#17) Where one of two vessels is to keep out of the way the other shall keep her course and speed.
So what happened BEFORE the video above? I will settle for a picture that shows the wake!
Moon of Alabama does a great job of putting it all in perspective as always:
It is evident from the picture that the U.S. navy cruiser had the Russian destroyer on its starboard side and that both ships were on a collision course. It was therefore the U.S. ship that had the duty to ‘take early and substantial action’ to keep out of the way and that it had to avoid crossing ahead of the Russian vessel. The Russian ship correctly kept its speed and course until the situation required a last-minute maneuver to avoid an imminent collision.
The US ship did NOTHING, just like the USS Fitzgerald did nothing before hitting that container ship two years ago!
Roundabouts in the ocean might help, but at the end of the day, you can’t fix stupid. All one can do is insure justice is served if a collision happens and that there are appropriate compensation awarded to the offended party.
I really do not think that the 2019 US Navy is up to task for what Trump would like to accomplish across this globe (to make America great?), to be able to antagonize the Chinese and Russian fleets just as he antagonizes them with trade wars. In this regard, he is very GOP (Grand Old Party – Republican Political Party USA) and very Lincoln. Like Lincoln, he has a YUGE navy and a YUGE defense budget to blow while he attempts to overwhelm the “enemy” by sheer numbers instead of finesse or strategy. He will do ANYTHING to get his tariff revenue. Pure Lincoln.
Look for more of this in the future, pretty soon, like in 1864 when the numbers killed under Grant are released weekly (tens of thousands dead), the public will be inoculated to this ineptitude and just desire that the war be over while shielding their eyes from truth.
-SF1