Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Another Collision

Perhaps the lookout was looking through his binoculars from the wrong end.....................

Oddly took a day to be reported locally.....

Really amazing. How can a miltary ship collide?
Yes, a narrow, busy sea area but surely the "greatest navy in the world" has procedures for these areas? Epecially after the collision erlier in the year.
I am really wondering about US Navy attitudes , especially after seeing that youtube video!
Arrogance? Competence? Training? Poor tech?
Officer of the watch, helmsman, radar operator, lookouts.......
Same for the merchant ships......perhaps less so but still not good.

I suspect that merchant ships may have an HGV "coming through" mentality.
And I suspect that some Navy captains may also think the same way.
"Give way, this is a US Navy warship"
"No you give way. I'm a hundred times bigger than you"

Appears that there are some individuals eg those on the vessels involved, who need reminding of their responsibilities under COLREGS - International Regulations for
Preventing Collisions at Sea.

Where was the lookout? One can presume that there were two skippers who regarded their vessel as the 'stand-to' vessel.

It doesn't work like that at all.

There are universally applied, well defined rules in place and in busy areas there are separation zones which are again well-defined and well regulated.

It could have been an equipment failure or human error. No doubt we'll hear soon enough.

I'm glad you wrote that, it has saved me making any comment. I already have experience of the "competence" of USN radar plot...

There may be rules but they haven't been followed where a collision results.
Just like on the road..........

I've been involved in a serious collision at sea.

It was a combination of steering gear failure on the other vessel and poor watchkeeping on both. No one deliberately broke any rules.

I've also been involved in investigating the results of two serious groundings, one in the Suez canal. Both while the vessels were under pilotage.

Not everyone appreciates that, in most cases, while entering and leaving port it's mandatory for a vessel to take on a local pilot. If he makes a mistake it's still the owner that carries the can.

I'm not suggesting that's happened in this case.

The Singapore Straits is an extremely busy waterway and normal practice would be to have additional staff on duty, certainly on the bridge.

Navigating officers aren't known as "rock dodgers" for nothing.

Quite so.

Before we mock the US Navy, lets remember that they operate a huge number of ships, and accidents do happen.

As the Grey Funnel line only has (IIRC) 6 destroyers and 13 frigates operational, it makes the chances of an incident far slimmer. When we had a large Navy there were many groundings and collisions.