From the US Naval Institute News we get the details on the collision. Carrier USS Harry S. Truman Hull Pierced in Collision, Heading to Port for Repairs. This is not breaking news, since the collison was on the 12th, but the video linked below has a lot of good information.
This incident took place near the anchorages and entrance/exit traffic at the north end of the Suez Canal, or Port Said, Egypt. The collision took place at night. Neither the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) nor USS Jason Dunham (DDG-109), a destroyer accompanying the aircraft carrier, were squacking an Automatic Information System (AIS) position before the collision. USS Jason Dunham did activate its AIS beacon at about the time of the collision.
No information on what other escorts were in the area was provided.
The hull of aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) was pierced above the waterline during a Wednesday collision with a merchant tanker just north of the entrance to the Suez Canal, USNI News has learned.
The bow of bulker MV Besiktas-M collided with the starboard quarter of Truman, leaving a small gash in the side of the carrier above the waterline and piercing the hull, according to two Navy officials.
The MV Besiktas-M is not a tanker, it is a bulk carrier.
You can find images of the damage done to both the USS Harry S. Truman and MV Besiktas-M at the article along with before (much before) pictures of the aircraft carrier from file photos. According to Sal Mercogliano of What's Going On With Shipping, the damaged sponson houses the ship's incinerator, and some berthing compartments. The sponson is just aft of the aircraft carrier's aft elevator, but you cannot see in the photos whether or not the functioning of the elevator is impacted.
Sal Mercogliano of WGOW Shipping has a couple of videos on the incident. In the one at this link, he covers the vessel tracking data for MV Besiktas-M at the time of the collision. First in isolation, and then displaying all of the traffic, and ships in the anchorages at the time of the incident. I have the video queued to that section. The entire video is interesting, but it is 24 minutes long if you watch the whole thing.
This is of course not the first time in recent memory that US Naval vessel has collided with commercial ship, or gotten into other problems. Although it is early days in the investigation, it has become fairly standard for the Navy to relieve the commander of the vessel in situations like this. The captain is ultimately responsible for the ship and crew. Even if the USS Harry S. Truman wasn't squawking its position via AIS, the crew should have been monitoring that system. By international agreement, SOLAS I believe, though I would need to confirm that, every commercial vessel above a certain tonnage is required to broadcast AIS data. That includes GPS position, speed, rate of turn, size of vessel, info on cargo, etc.
There is probably going to be a requirement to return to the US for repairs. The US Navy has limited ability to do anything but simple repairs while ships are deployed. That is discussed in the video linked above. MV Besiktas-M was empty (or mostly empty) and relatively small as commecial ships go at 550 feet long and has a deadweight of 53,000 tons. MV Ever Given (which grounded in the Suez Canal in 2021) by contrast is 1312 feet long, and has a deadweight tonnage capacity of nearly 200,000 tons.
A few years back, after the last spate of US Naval vessels colliding with commercial shipping, I wrote a post on the Rules of the Road Sea. COLREGS – International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea. You can l
I had previous watched some of the WGOWS vids. I usually wait for completion of official investigation. Due to lack of AIS from US ships, there is speculation of course and speed.
ReplyDeleteWhat gets me is the merchant was steaming NW and the Truman SSW while still NE of the merchant. Yet the collision was at Truman stbd quarter.
Truman had three options (not being there is not an option) to avoid collision. Turn to port; turn to stbd, all back. The third is least favorable. Steaming into and in a mooring field is as if operating in a constricted channel. Obviously Truman chose wrongly. Say goodbye to several careers.
Now an oiler (the only oiler) and a carrier group are out of the Med. Both ships are very necessary to the ability of carrying out orders from Fleet and above. Talk about dulling the point of the spear.
Does it matter how many carriers if they are incompetently manned?
I usually wait for the official reports for airliner crashes, but reports on ship accidents usually don't say much. Since both crews are responsible for avoiding a collision, both captains are responsible. They might issue new SOLAS regs eventually - that is why all commercial ships (above a certain tonnage) are required to squawk AIS data today. It made the approaches like the area around Port Said much safer. It really made a difference on the US Inland Waterways, because the Ohio River twists so much that visibility is very limited.
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