Question for sailors: How could a destroyer be rammed broadside by a supertanker?

[MarathonMike]

I've looked at several accounts of this terrible collision and it just doesn't make sense to me. The collision appears to have been nose on, mid ship. Wouldn't the destroyer been "aware" visually or otherwise of the tanker way before the eminent collision? Couldn't it have made an evasive maneuver to at least make it a glancing blow?

 

[bodecea]

Broadside?

 

[MarathonMike]

Does T-boned work better?

 

[OldLady]

I've looked at several accounts of this terrible collision and it just doesn't make sense to me. The collision appears to have been nose on, mid ship. Wouldn't the destroyer been "aware" visually or otherwise of the tanker way before the eminent collision? Couldn't it have made an evasive maneuver to at least make it a glancing blow?

I read another poster yesterday who said these huge ships can only turn/switch direction very slowly. Seems to me something was fishy, though. Posters also said there are all kinds of warnings that go off when another ship is within a certain radius.

 

[depotoo]

Unusual path of the container tanker

 

[Iceweasel]

I'm thinking it was deliberate. The other ship did a weird loop and rammed it.

 

[OldLady]

Unusual path of the container tanker

Smuggling/piracy

 

[Iceweasel]

Smuggling/piracy

A Navy destroyer? Nope.

 

[OldLady]

Smuggling/piracy

A Navy destroyer? Nope.

So we've been attacked by Manila, then? Or Japan?

 

[IsaacNewton]

A destroyer has a top speed of maybe 35 knots (or more), a tanker 12 knots though a tanker would usually travel at 8-10 knots. As soon as I heard of this I thought there was something not right. Even if a crew on a tanker were hell bent on ramming a US navy ship it should never get close. Worst case scenario is the tanker didn't respond to warnings from the destroyer, the destroyer could have just gunned the engines and moved.

Unless of course it was in 'the Japanese Bermuda Triangle'!

 

[Scamp]

Years ago our enemy attacked the USS Cole using a small fishing boat with a bomb on board. It was deadly. The Cole is the same class guided missile destroyer as Fitzgerald. Obviously our enemy could possibly use a container ship to ram us. Surely the Navy knows what kind of damage a ramming container ship can do...

 

[OldLady]

A destroyer has a top speed of maybe 35 knots (or more), a tanker 12 knots though a tanker would usually travel at 8-10 knots. As soon as I heard of this I thought there was something not right. Even if a crew on a tanker were hell bent on ramming a US navy ship it should never get close. Worst case scenario is the tanker didn't respond to warnings from the destroyer, the destroyer could have just gunned the engines and moved.

Unless of course it was in 'the Japanese Bermuda Triangle'!

So why haven't they been able to figure out what happened yet?

 

[MarathonMike]

Well sure, but the tanker is many times the mass and much much slower to turn than a destroyer. That is what I don't get. The destroyer would have had to sail directly into the path of the tanker to get hit where it did. Like I said, I can't make sense of it.

 

[eagle1462010]

I posted some information on this thread.......
Collision at sea

 

[IsaacNewton]

Years ago our enemy attacked the USS Cole using a small fishing boat with a bomb on board. It was deadly. The Cole is the same class guided missile destroyer as Fitzgerald. Obviously our enemy could possibly use a container ship to ram us. Surely the Navy knows what kind of damage a ramming container ship can do...

Apples and oranges. A tanker as noted travels at most at 12 knots (modern frieghters can likely travel at up to 18 knots but a tanker has no reason to travel at near full speed because it greatly decreases the longevity of the engines which are, as you could guess, quite expensive. A destroyer's max speed 35-40 knots. A small boat with a large engine could travel at 40-50 knots so they are in fact a far greater danger.

A tanker should never be a threat to any US Navy ship. Ever. Somebody f'd up really bad and likely more than one person.

 

[IsaacNewton]

A destroyer has a top speed of maybe 35 knots (or more), a tanker 12 knots though a tanker would usually travel at 8-10 knots. As soon as I heard of this I thought there was something not right. Even if a crew on a tanker were hell bent on ramming a US navy ship it should never get close. Worst case scenario is the tanker didn't respond to warnings from the destroyer, the destroyer could have just gunned the engines and moved.

Unless of course it was in 'the Japanese Bermuda Triangle'!

So why haven't they been able to figure out what happened yet?

I'm sure they do know but the situation is being vetted for who's career will take the damage or end. Way of the world.

 

[Scamp]

The track of the container ship shows that it made a u turn and came back and rammed the Fitzgerald. This is a very crowded shipping area, surface contacts all over the place. Of course they saw the huge container ship. It is likely that the Destroyer Fitzgerald was traveling at slow speed and thus, could not make an evasive maneuver fast enough and also without endangering other ships.

 

[depotoo]

This tanker has a speed upwards of 25 knots. According to its reported speed it was around 18 knots when it collided.

A destroyer has a top speed of maybe 35 knots (or more), a tanker 12 knots though a tanker would usually travel at 8-10 knots. As soon as I heard of this I thought there was something not right. Even if a crew on a tanker were hell bent on ramming a US navy ship it should never get close. Worst case scenario is the tanker didn't respond to warnings from the destroyer, the destroyer could have just gunned the engines and moved.

Unless of course it was in 'the Japanese Bermuda Triangle'!

 

[depotoo]

It was actually reported at 2:20 by our Navy.

 

[Iceweasel]

Smuggling/piracy

A Navy destroyer? Nope.

So we've been attacked by Manila, then? Or Japan?

Unlikely any country was involved. ISIS or some other nuts.