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Selected items from How could a US warship have collided with a tanker? Yahoo7 News.
WOW -- 268 vessels!!!
The buoy tender I served on was stationed in Portsmouth, VA and most of my "sea duty" took place in the Chesapeake Bay and Hampton Roads. At the time, I thought that was a busy place for maritime activity, both commercial and naval. I finished my service on a Dangerous Cargo Inspection Team in Baltimore. At that time, shipping agents had to notify the Captain of the Port in advance of the arrival of merchant vessels. It has been almost 50 years and my memory may be playing tricks on me, but a busy day would have involved fewer than 25 arrivals.
WOW -- 268 vessels!!!
Steve
Commercial vessels use standard marine radar and must also have an Automatic Identification System (AIS), which connects to satellites for vessel tracking and displays the location of other ships.
However navy vessels often fail to turn on these AIS systems, which can create problems for commercial shipping when their military counterparts use busy waterways, according to Claudia Norrgren, an associate director of VesselsValue which provides data about shipping.
Analysts say an investigation must be carried out before firm conclusions can be drawn but some suggested that the US Navy ship may not have stuck to the rules for ships in the Strait of Singapore
Ridzwan Rahmat, a naval expert from Jane's by IHS Markit, said the accident happened on the eastern approach to the busy strait, in an area governed by a system that separates shipping into two lanes.
Initial indications suggest the tanker, the Alnic MC, was following the rules but the USS John S. McCain may not have been in a proper position as it entered the waterway, he said.
He said it might be a sign of crew fatigue among the US Navy in the Pacific and there could be "a rethink on the kind of operations that the US Navy will be conducting moving forward, especially the freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea".
There are well-established rules for vessels navigating waterways around Singapore, such as a mandatory reporting system for vessels over a certain size, said Jayendu Krishna, director of Drewry Maritime Advisors.
All ships are equipped with navigational safety equipment, and naval ships are likely to have even better and more high-tech systems, he added.
There are currently 268 cargo vessels in the Singapore Strait of the same type and size of the Alnic MC, said Norrgren of VesselsValue.
WOW -- 268 vessels!!!
The buoy tender I served on was stationed in Portsmouth, VA and most of my "sea duty" took place in the Chesapeake Bay and Hampton Roads. At the time, I thought that was a busy place for maritime activity, both commercial and naval. I finished my service on a Dangerous Cargo Inspection Team in Baltimore. At that time, shipping agents had to notify the Captain of the Port in advance of the arrival of merchant vessels. It has been almost 50 years and my memory may be playing tricks on me, but a busy day would have involved fewer than 25 arrivals.
WOW -- 268 vessels!!!
Steve
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