re: Apparently the US Navy has forgot how to sail

Quick question....how hard is it to throw it in full power reverse? If my boat is about to run into something, I put it in reverse

you cant just throw a thousand foot ship going 30 knots in 'reverse'

We still use sails?

quote:

---

There are two general rules

1. Law of tonnage, the biggest ship gets the right of way

---

this is not a general rule, a navigation rule, or any type of rule

let me guess, youre in the navy?

quote:

---

And many times the USN ship will follow proper rules of navigation but the commercial ship will be the one who fricks up the situation.

---

recently its been the navy at fault. those commercial ships have professional mariners on them.

That just emphasizes how shitty the navy training is. Tonnage has nothing to do with whether a ship is the stand on or give way vessel. Its not in 1 rule in the rules of the road

Look man, it was 20 damn years ago so I could be wrong but that was what I remember being taught when you see another ship ahead that is on a collision course with you

Here's an exerpt from the USS McCain collision. I have no excuse for the USN on this one:



The ship’s commanding officer, Cmdr. Alfredo J. Sanchez, had been on the bridge since 1:15 that morning, and the ship’s second in command had arrived around 4:30. The presence of the McCain’s highest-ranking officers was appropriate for the high volume of merchant ships transiting the straits.

With the sky still black, Commander Sanchez noticed that the sailor steering the ship was having difficulty managing the helm and the complex arrangement of throttles that controlled the power to the McCain’s twin propellers. He ordered that the tasks be divided, one sailor steering at one station, another manning the throttles at another. The move, intended to make operating the ship more manageable, ended up taking away the helmsman’s ability to steer. A secondary and unnoticed effect of the commander’s decision was the inadvertent transfer of steering to the console now designated to control the throttles.

The helmsman, confused and with apparently no control of the ship, said he had lost steering. The ship began turning to the left. As those on watch failed to understand the events unfolding around them, Commander Sanchez ordered the ship to reduce speed. Yet when the sailor operating the throttles tried to slow the destroyer, he managed only to reduce power to one of the propellers, meaning only one reduced speed while the other continued at regular propulsion. The mismatch lasted for more than a minute, causing the McCain to veer left and into the path of the Alnic MC, a 600-foot merchant ship.

The crew eventually managed to synchronize the ship’s steering and throttles, but it was too late. With no attempt from either ship to contact each other and their warning horns silent, the Alnic MC’s bow slammed into the McCain’s left side, punching a 28-footwide hole in the warship that spanned deep under the waterline.

Im just giving you shite.

Its just a weird rule to teach if it were an actual rule. If you were around the same size as the other ship, whats the next rule for that?



Yea thats a bad situation. With the amount of people on the bridge of a navy ship, unless there is mechanical trouble, there is now way they shouldnt be able to do those tasks.

Gotta have all that diversity and sexual harassment "training" instead.

quote:

---

We’re supposed to be the greatest naval power in history.

---

Historically speaking the US has not been the greatest naval power. Currently? Sure. Historically? No.