The Trump parade of boats on Lake Travis this morning got a little hairy when some boats were swamped and even sunk and their occupants needed rescuing. No injuries reported, though, and that’s good news.
A warship doomed by ‘confusion, indecision, and ultimately panic’ on the bridge.
The Navy she has become a sloppy ship. The Fitz was the second destroyer hit by a tanker merchant ship, this time in broad daylight, in three months in 2017.
Via the good journalists at the Navy Times
UPDATE: “There was debris everywhere,” Fort said under oath of the destroyer’s Combat Information Center. “Food debris, food waste, uneaten food, half-eaten food, personal gear in the form of books, workout gear, workout bands, kettlebells, weightlifting equipment, the status boards had graffiti on them. I’d never seen a CIC like that in my entire time in the Navy,” the surface warfare officer of more than 25 years recollected.
Comments Off on The Fitzgerald
Posted in Bureaucracy, Sailing, Science/Engineering
Tagged USN Fitzgerald
Scheduling an Arctic pleasure cruise? Better think again.
“Tero Vauraste, boss of Finnish shipping firm Arctia, warned there would be little authorities could do if a ship got into distress there, due to the lack of infrastructure. ‘The Northwest Passage is thousands and thousands of nautical miles with absolutely nothing,’ he said.”
Moreover, technology is self-limiting in that region, according to Vauraste:
“Navigation in icy waters is made more difficult by poor satellite imagery. An ice field might move at a speed of 4-5 knots, but a ship will receive a satellite picture of it that is 10-20 hours old.”
Via FoxNews.
Comments Off on Titanic risk of Arctic cruises
Posted in Sailing, Science/Engineering, Weather/Climate
You could blame Obumbles. Lots of people are. But it was our allegedly mighty Navy that made the mess he only stepped in. Presumably the immediate, on-scene commander of this humiliation has been relieved and is awaiting courts martial and a ruined career. They do that to commanders whose boats merely run aground. Not to mention the chatty noncom who ought to be booted.
Via PowerLine & Mouth of the Brazos
UPDATE: Instead of competence, this is what they focus on.
Posted in Blogosphere, Iran, Obamalot, Sailing, The War
Tagged Iran, our inept navy, Powerline
A video that’s been around at least since 2007, but I never saw it before Friday.
It teaches a great lesson in the heroism of the common man. As its epigraph says: A hero is a man who does what he can.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 