NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Fw: Grounding of cruiser PORT ROYAL
From: Lu Abel
Date: 2009 Jul 16, 20:06 -0700
From: Lu Abel
Date: 2009 Jul 16, 20:06 -0700
I wouldn't blame the problem on electronics, but rather on violating the fundamental rule of navigation -- to use ALL available information. Silt indicating the ship was operating in shallow water was ignored. Alarms indicating a disagreement between the GPS and inertial systems were ignored. Even having a competent deck watch instead down below serving galley duty was wrong. I suspect the captain was under pressure to return the Port Royal to service quickly despite delays in its shipyard work (two weeks, according to the article); he gambled and lost on shortcuts in returning the Port Royal to operational status. I guess there's a thin line between being a bold leader (which is what gets you promotions) and a stupid one... Brad Morris wrote: > This is another clear case of over-reliance on the electronics without one little thought in their heads about how the position might be wrong, even though the electronics warned them about a 1.5 mile difference between the inertial (laser ring gyro) system and the GPS system. Why they thought that the inertial system would be better than either the GPS or the Mark 1 Eyeball systems astonishing. > > So the "captain" is put back on shore duty and a large complement of officer's careers are ruined. For those that were actually culpable, they deserve the punishment, as they could see that they weren't in the right spot. What were they thinking? One of those articles states that they could see silt being churned up (shallow waters) and that they could see fixed locations on land. At what point did they think that was OK, especially after the electronics warnings about GPS errors. > > Best Regards > Brad > > -----Original Message----- > From: NavList@fer3.com [mailto:NavList@fer3.com] On Behalf Of George Huxtable > Sent: Tuesday, July 14, 2009 1:28 PM > To: NavList@fer3.com > Subject: [NavList 9089] Fw: Grounding of cruiser PORT ROYAL > > > I wonder whether this will be of interest, about the grounding of a US Navy > vessel off Pearl Harbour in February.. > > You'll need to copy-and-paste the links, I suspect. > > George. > > http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090707/NEWS08/907070350/Hawaii-based+ship%E2%80%99s+grounding+detailed > > > http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090712/COLUMNISTS32/907120367/Navy+ship+grounding+detailed > > > > > "Confidentiality and Privilege Notice > The information transmitted by this electronic mail (and any attachments) is being sent by or on behalf of Tactronics; it is intended for the exclusive use of the addressee named above and may constitute information that is privileged or confidential or otherwise legally exempt from disclosure. If you are not the addressee or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to same, you are not authorized to retain, read, copy or disseminate this electronic mail (or any attachments) or any part thereof. If you have received this electronic mail (and any attachments) in error, please call us immediately and send written confirmation that same has been deleted from your system. Thank you." > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ NavList message boards: www.fer3.com/arc Or post by email to: NavList@fer3.com To , email NavList-@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---