Seriously? Another Navy Collision?

We still can’t believe this morning’s New York Times headline: Rescuers Seek 10 Missing Sailors After US Navy Ship and Tanker Collide. We first thought it was a follow-up about the recent collision of the USS Fitzgerald in June, but today’s Times story involved a completely different destroyer, the apparently ‘unguided’ guided-missile destroyer John S. McCain. This is undoubtedly a tragedy for the Navy, the sailors and their families, but the accident strains belief when we consider the abundance and sophistication of collision avoidance tools available for even average sailors. AIS has become increasingly common, and is now seen as invaluable for offshore passagemakers.

The McCain was near the Straits of Malacca, the infamous maritime choke point between Malaysia and Indonesia famous for heavy commercial traffic and piracy, when it collided with an oil tanker off the coast of Singapore.

It was especially interesting to read this paragraph in the Times article: "While on operations, warships do not emit standard satellite tracking signals that other larger vessels use to avoid collision," said Euan Graham, the director of the International Security Program at the Lowy Institute in Sydney, Australia. "They don’t want other countries to know where they are going. There is a degree of stealth. So that puts the balance of responsibility on the warship to maintain watchfulness in case it’s not spotted by other vessels."

We suppose it shouldn’t come as a surprise that US Navy ships cruise around in the dark without broadcasting where they are, but it’s a complete shock that they wouldn’t know where they are relative to other ships in the area. Of more concern among cruising sailors are lightly crewed commercial ships on autopilot. But should we worry more about big, gray ships trying to sneak around after sunset? At least commercial ships will show up on your AIS.

We’re hoping for the safe rescue of the 10 sailors currently missing. The US Navy — which, according to a story published Thursday by the Times, relieved two top officers and punished several other sailors over the collision of the Fitzgerald  — seems to have a lot more explaining and training ahead.

And for all of us, watch your instruments but keep a good visual lookout 24 hours a day.