Another collision with a commercial vessel in a short period of time. After the first one I speculated that there was some hacking or tampering with navigation systems. Seems more likely now.
No it doesn’t.
I’m going to take this opportunity to express my disdain for the practice of naming edifices, structures, vessels, and foundations after living persons.
The ship named after the Senator’s father and grandfather.
USS John S. McCain
This warship is named after Senator McCain’s father and grandfather, both dead.
Edit: Ninja’d.
Thank you. My disdain for the practice remains, and I am happy to concede that it does not apply to the ship in question.
Yeah, the fact that we have a USS Gaby Giffords is terrible.
I prefer the term “unseemly,” but her status as an admirable figure does not change my position.
Also - and this has bothered me for a while - don’t give the ship the full name, middle initials included. Just the surname is enough. If it worked for Chester W. Nimitz, it’ll work for John S. McCain.
Don’t all naval vessels have radar and someone watching them? And in this day and age, wouldn’t that also include software that would process the data and warn when it’s on a collision course? How about merchant vessels- do they have radar as well? Two tragic accidents in a short time- it all seems so avoidable.
You can go all conspiracy theory on us if you like, but the first one has been admitted to have been a crew stuff up. If it involevd hacking or tampering with systems, it seems likely the navy would have said “the collision was caused by a steering failure” or similiar, even if they didn’t want to admit to hacking or tampering.
Further, the very fact you are referring to “navigation systems” in this context suggests to me you don’t know what you are talking about. Navigation systems have nothing to do with close quarters collision avoidance. Even if every electronic system on the ship was deader than a doornail (or giving wrong information), unless you are assuming that the hacking extended to making everyone on the bridge temporarily blind or comatose, the collisions should not have happened since there are supposed to be several Mark I eyeball systems in full operation.
May be examples of overreliance on the technology and past performance leading to complacency. After all how often DO these ships have collisions in those busy waters? I agree questions will be raised about the state of basic mariner’s skills. That they are both units of DS15 is going to get some sweat-inducing attention put on Squadron/Fleet leadership.
What technology specifically? Collision avoidance is primarily a matter of human judgment and control.
Ship collisions aren’t too uncommon. The collision occurred near the Singapore Straits which are some of the most challenging (in terms of the potential for collision) in the world. There are few masters that go through there without at least a small amount of sweat on the upper lip.
Maybe the guy watching radar didn’t have any coffee.
There is a very high probability that both ships knew about the other well before they hit and knew of the risk of a collision and were trying to avoid precisely that when they… didn’t.
Radar isn’t the point.
One of the reasons maritime “rules of the road” came into being was a concern about the disturbing number of collisions between vessels well aware of one another, that basically manoeuvred into one another while trying to do the opposite.
Granddad was a hero at the Philippine Sea. Balls of brass run in that family.
This is the fourth serious ship collision in the 7th fleet this year! I wouldn’t be surprised to see a shake up in the 7th fleet’s command.
The McCain’s command would be aware of the Fitzgerald’s crash two months ago. It seems like they’d have their best crewmen on duty in crowded waters
Other than USS The Sullivans, are there any other people who have to share a ship name?
After the Fitzgerald collision, I read that the protocol was that the captain should have been brought to the bridge anytime a ship gets too close (under 4000 feet?), although that obviously wasn’t done in that case.