Via Drudge: The USS Fitzgerald, a 505-foot destroyer, collided with a Philippine container vessel at approximately 2:30 a.m. Saturday local time (1:30 p.m. ET Friday), about 56 nautical miles of Yokosuka, the U.S. 7th Fleet said.
The ship, which had experienced some flooding after the collision, and the Japanese Coast Guard were searching for the seven unaccounted-for sailors, the Fleet said.
"Right now we are focused on two things: the safety of the ship and the well-being of the Sailors," Adm. Scott Swift, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, said in a statement. "We thank our Japanese partners for their assistance."
The ship, which had experienced some flooding after the collision, and the Japanese Coast Guard were searching for the seven unaccounted-for sailors, the Fleet said.
"Right now we are focused on two things: the safety of the ship and the well-being of the Sailors," Adm. Scott Swift, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, said in a statement. "We thank our Japanese partners for their assistance."
(Link)
12 comments:
Ever see a Navy Commander's career go down the tube in a single stroke?
The Navy takes these things quite seriously.
I havent seen any discussion of exactly how this happened. Did the other ship hit head on, or was it a glancing blow? Accidental or deliberate? No one saw the threat developing?
Just judging by the photos of damage, it looks like the destroyer was T-boned, with the cargo vessel a bit to starboard such that only the port bow took damage. In short, the cargo vessel collided into the destroyer. Still, that's not much information as to how did the destroyer end up in front of the cargo vessel? Why, what should be a faster and more nimble destroyer, wasn't able to get out of the way? What were the two vessels doing within 500m of each other?
Two AM local time. Everybody asleep at the wheel? They thought it was Iranian and were trying to surrender? Needed to repair previous hail damage so insurance fraud?
I shouldn't joke. Men are missing or dead. Total fuck-up.
Interesting thing about ship collisions. It doesn't take a lot of speed to do a lot of damage. !0,000 tons meets 30,000 tons and inertia and mass do serious damage.
Maybe the captains were engaged in a game of chicken?
I wonder how many millions of dollars are on that destroyer in the form of radar and other threat avoidance technology, versus one guy, a crow's nest, a pair of binoculars, a ration of rum, and threat of flogging.
Fr Martin Fox said...
What I was thinking.
There is nothing at all to the reporting. HOW in the world does this even happen? It's like children telling a story. Honestly. They're all over the place.
The first report I heard said, "in the Sea of Japan" which is West of Japan. Then it said Yokosuka that is on Japan's Eastern seaboard on the Pacific.
The absurd childlike uneducated reporters honestly truly sincerely cannot tell the difference between Sea of Japan and Pacific Ocean.
We learned this at age nine. Perhaps living there helped. I don't know. But it does seem an awful lot of history occurred in the Sea of Japan, serial invasions and the like, and in both directions, over centuries, and all that is lost on modern American reporters.
None of them bothered to ask, it appears, HOW does this even happen?
Related.
This morning I learned some more basic Kanji. Messing around rather a lot, actually.
Downloaded an app to help me out.
Saw this spray painted on a wall:
日本の
What in the heck does の mean?
I've seen it a billion times. Possibly a hundred times.
FINE! Twenty times.
Yet couldn't find it on basic kanji charts. You'd think it would stick out like a sore thumb on account of its round shape.
Why is it written behind "Japan?"
Drew it in an android app, boom, immediate answer, it means "of."
Bagoh - and a plank. There should be a plank.
Chip, is that the one pronounced "no"?
I grew up in a small town, my neighbor across the street joined the navy and has been in since '60s. He recently retired to San Diego but still does contract work for them.
He works on their littoral ships, figuratively.
That's a shout out to those of you living in Tijuana north.
Me thinks that the Navy ship was hit.
Post a Comment