Admiral Rockwell Tory
Diamond Member
To Rockwell Tory: Having stood lookout on 35 or so ships amounting to thousands of hours I am pretty sure I know how to spot lights, and how to report them.
Throw in an almost equal amount of time as an unofficial lookout when I was doing quartermaster duty. Basically, the mates on watch spent most of their time in the chartroom. Occasionally, he would come out and check the radar. I could walk over and check the radar if I felt like it. I never did because I put more trust in my eyes.
So in addition to the designated lookout the quartermaster would also keep an out for lights at night, and ships during daylight hours, whenever the ship was on autopilot.
NOTE: Lookouts on merchant ships stand their watch on the bow when weather permits. On either wing of the bridge, or on the monkey bridge depending upon the master’s orders or the licensed officer on watch. The monkey bridge is the open deck above the wheelhouse in the photo:
https://tse3.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.twi4i2UBiYglH_c6aI6tygEsDQ&pid=Api&w=261&h=181
To Rockwell Tory: Your are either putting me on, or you are trying to save face for making a boo-boo. There is no way a lookout can fail to see a running light regardless of the angle:
https://tse3.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.EjFT7LOGdJ5m4pHLRvIhTAEsEs&pid=Api&w=180&h=181
To Rockwell Tory: I agree on that. The testimony given from both ships will be critical.
To Rockwell Tory: No captain is notified of reports from lookouts. In this case, the officer on the bridge might have misjudged the immediate danger. By the time the Crystal was too close it was too late.
You are talking merchant ships, correct?
On my cruiser, a bridge team consisted of an Officer-of-the-Deck (OOD) , Junior Officer Of the Deck (JOOD), plus most sections had a Junior Officer Of the Watch (JOOW), and that is just the officers. We had a port and starboard lookout, quartermaster, helmsman, lee helmsman, Boatswains Mate of the Watch (BMOW), aft lookout on the fantail and a messenger of the watch. I am sure that the watch stations were similar although slightly smaller on the Fitzgerald as there may be no need for a lee helmsman on a gas turbine powered ship.
As to the running lights, if the Crystal is approaching the Fitzgerald from abaft the beam with a target angle of anywhere from 300-330 (from the merchant), it is impossible to see the starboard running light using your own diagram as a reference. If the Fitzgerald was in the upper left corner of the blue box with a heading towards the top of the box/page, the starboard running light of the Crystal could not be seen. That is the purpose of the red and green running lights as to determine the ship's aspect at night.
My Captain's standing orders (on every ship I served on) required he be notified by the OOD when any ship had a CPA of less than X amount of yards if he was not on the bridge. The orders required a specific set of information to be given and every OOD knew it by heart.If the CPA was less than X yards, he would often come to the bridge. In a high traffic area, the Captain often never left the bridge and would often sleep in his bridge chair. Our Captain's sea cabin was just inside the bridge wing door on the starboard side, so he was literally 5 steps fro the bridge.
I served on a destroyer tender as a radar operator, a helmsman on a submarine, JOOW on an aircraft carrier, and OOD on two guided missile cruisers. I was also a qualified Command Duty Officer which meant I could get the ship underway in case of an emergency, without the CO or XO on board. I later served as an engineering officer on a amphib assault carrier.
We apparently are talking two different worlds here, but you can rest assured that my estimates are accurate based on the damage that I have seen on pictures of both ships.
