GPS error grounds US Navy minesweeper

It is a bit far fetched to say that a GPS error caused this grounding. The charts of that part of the world are based on ancient (by modern standards) techniques, and many may be as much as a century old. Digitalization may even increase these errors.

Beyond this--there are many reasons that this ship should not have grounded. Radar, Forward looking Sonar, crew watch standing. Double checking digital vs paper charts and known positions of the light house.

This occurred in the middle of the night--and I suspect that at least several Navy careers are over.

When navigating this part of the world, every one of the skill sets and techniques are necessary.
 
That was an expensive boat. They reported can't get ungrounded. I wonder if they called Tow boat US or Seatow? :D Anyhoo the are going to have to cut it up to get it out of there. Got to wonder who was on the bridge. I bet that made an awful noise. Capt Runaground's career is over. He will be home helping his kid with his paper route. I guess they did not have paper charts or a compass. :roll:
D.D.
 
It is hard to believe that with satellite imaging that the reef position was not understood by the UNITED STATES NAVY, and that the ships electronic nav systems didn't know that there was danger ahead. That ship is only 25 years old...very modern for U.S. ships. Makes me wonder if we will ever be ready to protect the people of the United States against all enemies domestic and foreign. When I run aground it is because I'm not a professional surrounded by professionals and I do stupid things. I hope there will be a follow up from the Navy about how it happened exactly.
 
There are 10s of thousands of small sub or near sub water obstructions thru the world--not all are charted. We have found several, just sailing along in remote areas. When we do, we go back over the area, verify the position and then report the obstruction (it might be 30 feet, no problem for us in small boats, but can raise Heck on an air craft carrier!

Sometimes an obstruction may be on one chart set and not another, such as NOAA or DMA vs Admiralty. There are many chart systems.

As I noted digitalization may cause errors. But, many--most of these are not well seen on satellite images. Reason is because they are jus sub surface or very small--and there is not much shipping --except Minesweepers and Submarines. There are lots of atolls with wrecks all over the world. Many of these are fishing boats which should have local knowledge.

In this case, there is a light house which is a fixed reference point, with known GPS co-ordinates. Why the watch keeper was not aware of this is beyond me. When piloting in remote waters, one needs all of the information available. All of these structures are recorded in sailing directions or other similar publication. We always carried Light Lists, sailing directions and charts aboard (sometimes up to 2,000 charts). Plenty of room for many charts on a mine sweeper.

I don't see this as a Navy or Safety problem--it was just one or two individuals who were not prudent...and as Charlie says, they are gone!

Too many of these happen. Such as the cruise liner.
 
Bottom line --

Be vigilant when at the helm! Use your eyes, have your depth sounder alarm set, and your radar on when conditions require it -- and use your thinker.

Charts, digital or paper, won't show the log drifting ahead or the boat that sunk last night in the channel ahead or the sand bar that drifted into the channel with the last flood tide.

Sure -- pay attention to the charts, but don't lose or divert your attention from the immediate conditions around you. HEADS UP!
 
It really amazes me the people that run aground and where they do it at. The La conner channel , local pass, has a bad rep for groundings and being silted in, which it was until the dredged this winter, but every boat that I know of that has grounded there did so on a minus tide or cut the corner of the well marked channel. Last summer Susan and I towed a sail boat off the channel that had grounded and turned side ways in the channel. I asked what his draft was , forgot the exact number, and even if the channel was not silted in a little he still would not have been able to motor in the channel on a minus 2 tide. Ok he was a local yokal from Seattle on a little used sail boat. But the week before a pro crew 80 ft sail boat did the exact same thing on a low minus tide. This was a new million plus modern yacht with a paid crew???? really guys. Over the last 6 years the same locally ran tall ship out of friday harbor has hit three well mark and know reefs. One of them twice. This is again a paid crew on a tour boat that sails the same route almost daily!!! really??

So seeing a story of a navy ship, one out of how many at sea right now, hitting a reef does not surprise me. I mean who remembers the Enterprise getting stuck in S.F. bay? or the ferry in canada that sunk after hitting a rock on a route that is has traveled thousands of times with the captain and the first mate on the bridge??
 
Tom,

You could add the passenger ferry that got stuck in the Port Townsend canal yesterday apparently citing "confusion" about which side of a red Bouy he should have passed. Take a look at the chart...Seems to me that when there is a red one and a green one, then you go between them in the bit that is marked as "Channel" and avoid the green and muddy bits.. Duh!.

Yeah I have a picture of the M$ boat in the Swinomish, parked on the mud just ouside both red and green markers, I think it is even in my album here.

:-)

M
 
"A smart man makes a mistake, learns from it, and never makes that mistake again. But a wise man finds a smart man and learns from him how to avoid the mistake altogether."

Roy H. Williams
 
I wonder what the real value of this vessel was --listed as $277 million, but she was 25 years old. I realize that she will be probably not be replaced and that in itself is significant.
 
I see the note about the Navy missing something with this boat no longer in service. This reminds me of what happened with mines in the Gulf War.. Minesweepers of other navies had some success in locating mines. There was only one occasion, by my memory, that a US ship found a mine, and it was the LPH my son was on, which ran into one, and made the cover of Time magazine.

So it may not matter that the Navy is down one minesweeper.
 
Plan C":342qnca2 said:
So it may not matter that the Navy is down one minesweeper.
Click to expand...

It ALWAYS matters when the total numbers are going down instead of at least, holding steady. It's just one more place we cannot be, one more mission that may not be carried out when/if needed.

And many ships (ours and others have "found" mines). Some on purpose, some (USS ROBERTS (I had to fix that one), USS PRINCETON(your son's ship) to name two :cry ) by accident. Not so many lately, BECAUSE of the minesweeps. As one of the talking heads said recently, "you never hear about all the kids that DIDN'T run away from home!"

It's (arguably) safer, but harder, to do it from a CH-53 towing a sled. I lost an uncle in WWII who was a Navigator on a B24 LAYING a mine field on a harbor from 50 feet at 150 knots. Sometimes they went off when they hit the water...that will ruin a good mission!

THIS was a year ago but, I know they are still there, needed more than ever now that we've got deployments being cancelled b/c of stupidqeustration including only one carrier in the region. Other than NK, there isn't a "hotter" place in our world today!
 
Back
Top