She is still stuck!

RE: She is still stuck!

Steve

Sounds like a good idea. Sort of like a modern Tribal class. By the way not to change the subject, but the tribal HMCS Haida still exists as a display vessel in Toronto.

Glenn

First Steve sells off leaky subs to Canada, now he wants to sell Australia a leaky destroyer. 🙂

Regards

RE: She is still stuck!

Coanda,

“according to the report he ‘ran to the bridge’ so it would appear he wasnt on the bridge, and therefore not solely responsible for the safety of the boat.”

Apparently the skipper was actually on the Lynx and he ran damn near the full length of the ship when he realised what had occured. This is strange behaviour really as, if there’s one sure-fire thing that upsets a ships company its seeing the boss go by at full tilt. Naval Officers don’t run unless a) they are in a flap or b) they are being chased by something big and nasty!.

The captain will have to face some searching questions following this though. If the OOW is found to have been inexperienced or in any way unprepared for the responsibility of ship handling in the conditions that existed that night then the Captains judgement in leaving him in charge will come under intense scrutiny. There did seem to be the hint that the Captain was doing a “mea culpa” and taking responsibility for the incident over from his officer as well.

As to whether we’ll see the vessel returned to the UK for repair or not I’d doubt it. Any kind of quick-fix patching would not survive a transit half-way around the world. I’d expect to see her towed into Sydney for sufficient repairs to get her seaworthy for the return to Portsmouth. Once at Portsmouth she’ll be placed in refit/extended readiness state, I’d expect, and an announcement will be made, quietly, after a few months that she’ll pay off early because of the costs of getting her back to match fitness!.

Glenn,

As to the F100’s for the RAN I’d say not a good choice – too small. What the Aussies (and the Canadians in a few years) really could use, IMHO, is a nice big Type 45 hull with the Dutch Signal APAR active array (beats the pants off any of the SPY-1 junk!) and with a 64 cell Mk41 VLS. IMHO gives you everything you need in terms of seakeeping and range and allows you to keep commonality with your current US weapons fits. Also if we can get you and the Canadians in the project we might all get ships for a nice low-ish price!?

Regards,
Steve

RE: She is still stuck!

I know nothing of naval matters, hell I dont even like boats, but I doubt she will be scrapped.

From my opinion the British are so prideful and maybe arrogant they will tow her back to the Portsmouth or whereever it is they go and put her into dry dock and fix her and put her back out to sea.

Yes it may take a few million, and a few years but the British will not want to appear weak to the world.

RE: She is still stuck!

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 15-07-02 AT 00:59 AM (GMT)]>Just how desperate are the RAN for an AAW destroyer Glenn!?
>:-)

Good one Steve! LOL. Not that desperate yet, at least not officially. Unofficially? The stories on covering our shortfall in AAW in various mags just keep popping up. The latest issue of APDR magazine has the F-100 on the cover, hint, hint perhaps? So, you think there is little chance of a USS COLE style save for this vessel? That is fixed up and put straight back into service.

Regards, Glenn.

RE: She is still stuck!

according to the report he ‘ran to the bridge’ so it would appear he wasnt on the bridge, and therefore not solely responsible for the safety of the boat.

at least there was some decent reason as to why the OOW turned into wind. lynxes can take off in forty knot winds, but isnt it nice when you dont have to work quite that hard??

coanda

RE: She is still stuck!

If the ship is still stuck there couldn’t she be stabilised and turned into a prison ship? I believe we in the UK have some experience of running a penal colony somewhere down that way…

Seriously, I think Jonesy said it all. The Captain is being philosophical because it seems he probably wasn’t in actual command at the time. It is just an accident in poor conditions. I don’t think it matters whether the ship is repaired or scrapped now. The good thing is there were no casualties.

Rehards,

kev35

RE: She is still stuck!

Well, from what I’ve heard the OOW ordered a radical course change into the wind to help the ships’ Lynx to land-on in bad conditions. The story is that this junior officer didnt check his position before doing this as, if he had, he would have noticed this rock clearly marked on his chart and not needed to consult any instruments.

I’d seriously doubt that any form of active sonar was transmitting at the time when the grounding occured and any flow noise picked up passively would be routinely filtered out by the OM’s so there would be little that sonar could have done to alert the OOW to the danger anyhow. I’m guessing that this rock is totally submerged (certainly not seen anything visible in the photo’s) so the surface-plot rating probably wouldnt have seen any radar targets to cause an alert either.

All told it just looks like a terrible goof on the part of the Officer of the Watch who probably thought he was acting correctly but, in his distraction, he forgot to make the most basic checks!. This is why the Captain has taken it so philosophically, quite simply, he knows that this has just been a stupid f&ck-up and apart from the official bollocking there is little more tht can be said or done about it.

The shame of it is that prelimanary estimates put the damage somewhere near the £30-35 million mark to make good and there are the, expected, rumours that the Treasury wont cut loose 35 mil to spend on a 22 year old ship. She may therefore simply be paid off.

Just how desperate are the RAN for an AAW destroyer Glenn!? 🙂

Steve

RE: She is still stuck!

Anybody can give a concise explaination why the sonar failed to warned the ships’crew?