Destroyer collision

The rest of this story should be interesting. It evidently happened Sunday night but nobody's talking and very few details are available.

The US Navy destroyer USS Shoup collided with a 21 foot boat with 3 people onboard about 60 miles NW of Point Loma (San Diego, California). The navy ship was conducting exercises with a carrier group at the time. No one was injured and the small boat was escorted back to its berth by the USCG according to published reports.

Lots of cut and paste articles on the net, but not much substance. The joke potential of this one is very high but I'll wait until the rest of the story comes out.

How on Earth can you be so certain? If by RAM you are trying to say the destroyer was restricted in its ability to maneuver then you must know more than anyone else so far. As far as the "dozen other infractions" what official reports have you received?

Absolutely mind boggling! You are a "captain" right? So you truly believe one of the most maneuverable vessels in the Navy is restricted in its ability to maneuver just by its being a destroyer? Do you know what restricted in ability to maneuver means? Do all these crippled DDGs have the lights permanently wired in the on position and the balls permanently displayed then?

How do you know the 21 footer "entered" the "security area"? If it was anchored or drifting or just toodling along and the DDG came screaming up and whacked it then how did it "enter" any area at all?

Like I asked, do you have a direct line to the Navy, the DDG, the CG, and the operators of the 21 footer? How do you know exactly what happened and why?

Where did the damage occur on the 21 footer? What part of the DDG hull was scraped? What speed was the DDG making? The 21 footer? What headings were each vessel on? Did the DDG have all its lights on? Did the 21 footer? What were the sea conditions? What was the DDG doing at the time?

Since you have already decided the cause you must have all that information available to you, right? I mean how else could you know what happened and be able to lay the blame on the little guy?

Geez cappy, I'm glad you aren't involved in accident investigations or have anything to do with real life seafaring ... your view of both the COLREGS and ship operating parameters is seriously twisted and your readiness to convict someone based on zero knowledge of the event itself or maritime operations in general is scary.

Ah, gee cappy, don't run away ... I really do want to know what happened and since you must have all the information why can't you share it with us?

Has the Navy asked you to attend the hearing? Will you let us know what they say?

Oh, silly me, they don't need to hold any hearings, they can just ask you who screwed up and they can take it from there. Maybe they will ask you what they should do to the DDG captain, or have you already told them to just forget it since the little guy deserved to get run over, especially for gettiing in the way of a DDG which eveyone knows can't maneuver worth a hoot. Are you going up to Bath to confer with the designers of the next generation DDGs so they won't have that little RAM issue in the future?

I guess we have already been told all we need to know. Cappy has already provided the "rest of the story." The Shoup was not maneuverable enough to avoid a little boat that violated its security zone. The captain of the DDG decided not to blow the little boat out of the water. They collided. The Feds will file a dozen or so charges.

What more is there to know?

The only problem is when they are awakened they tend to solve the problems by creating even larger ones.

We can expect to see large areas of ocean surrounding military vessels declared off limits to civilian traffic.

When the CG in Fort Lauderdale found out they were incapable of managing a mix of civil and military traffic and the communications between vessels, port authorities, and their own controllers, they stated their intention to simply close the port to all civil traffic for as long as they deemed necessary.

The western US contains enormous volumes of airspace that are closed to civil air traffic. Most of Maryland is effectively closed to general aviation because it is easier to deny that airspace than to manage it.

The readiness of so many people to automatically blame the small boat is chilling. Since most of us here make a living from civilian vessels I would expect at least a demand for some kind of accountability and information before handing over the seas to the military or placing the noose around one of your colleagues.