Posted on 01/20/2013 9:47:53 PM PST by JerseyanExile
This is a Navy Times article, and as of such, cannot be posted, merely linked to.
The mother of all groundings was the “Honda Point” grounding, 1923. 9 destroyers, in a 14 destroyer squadron, grounded in California. My dad was a boatswains mate on one of the ships
I thought the protocol was to use both paper and electronic, but maybe not on smaller ships.
Most paper charts should be viewable online these days.
I wonder if the captain and navigator of this ship were in any way promoted through affirmative-action or such?
The officer that salvaged the Mighty Mo, was Rear Admiral Homer Wallins. He was the Commander of the Norfolk Naval Shipyard at the time. As a Captain, Wallins was the officer responsible for the salvage of all of the sunken or damaged warships in Pearl Harbor after the Japanese attack.
I guess we were anchored between a half and three quarters miles off the coast. One of the Alpine Express storms hit and we had to cut the Liberty Boats loose and send the crews to the beach behind the sea wall. Buddies told me later it was one scary trip. I was a Boat Snipe but not on duty at the time.
The Old Man came over the 1MC and yelled get the damn ship underway and get it underway now were dragging anchor. We were headed into the beach. That's one reason carriers anchor out and steamed in the MED. The screws started turning and the anchor lifting about the same time. It was a close call.
It wasn't really anyone fault just one of those things. The Captain was highly decorated and spotless record. he was also one of the longest held in the Hanoi Hilton. He had been shot down and collar bones broke.
His ship and career were saved. I'd say the Admiral onboard was nervous as well LOL.
The only grounding I was involved in was a 50 foot Utility Boat in Venice. You heard the old saying the two most dangerous things in the Navy was a Nuke with a crescent wrench and a Ensign with an idea? We were anchored for Liberty and had been running all day. We knew our route and had our landmarks down real well for night runs.
At Dusk Navy Regs require an officer be on the boats. A Squadron Officer came onboard with his map and began plotting the course to fleet landing. We told him we pretty well knew our markers. He showed us the map again. Orders is orders. LOL. We took off and did it his way. About 20 minutes later the engine speed increased screw on the boat was out of the water as the boat came to a stop. We were in very shallow water. The boat drug bottom due to pitch being underway.
I had plenty of shallow water experience getting a boat out of such places from my youth when I'd be camping on the lakes in East Tennessee. Coxun was a buddy and he wasn't happy and figured we were stuck there. I said back it up very slow to keep the bow from coming up keep it level. I'll sound the depth with the bow hook but we got to go out the same way we cam in. We were out pretty quick and got reoriented to the markers we knew were right. Officer was silent the rest of the night LOL.
I'm not sure. But I do now this much about ships electronics. It would be very wise to have paper back ups on actual paper at least for assigned area anyway. Paper doesn't crash, doesn't get a virus, and is not dependent upon maintaining cool compartment tempatures. Keeping the electronics spaces cool was my actual job on ship including navigation equipment.
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