FOX
The USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier was involved in a collision Wednesday with a merchant vessel near Port Said, Egypt, in the Mediterranean Sea, the Navy announced.
“The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) was involved in a collision with the merchant vessel Besiktas-M at approximately 11:46 p.m. local time, Feb. 12, while operating in the vicinity of Port Said, Egypt, in the Mediterranean Sea,” the Navy’s Sixth Fleet Public Affairs said in a statement.
“The collision did not endanger the Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) as there are no reports of flooding or injuries. The propulsion plants are unaffected and in a safe and stable condition,” it added. more
Odd that they haven’t named the skipper. Kind of like that Blackhawk pilot.
I smell a rat. BTW – Under what flag was the other ship sailing?
It’s all on the tower, obviously.
I kid, I kid. Don’t kill me Brad lol
Truman was almost certainly waiting to transit the Suez Canal into the Red Sea.
As a Navy Sailor in the navigation division of my boat who has traversed the Suez four times, I think I know what happened.
Ships must gather and wait during the night. Convoys through the canal are carefully timed and spaced and only occur during daylight.
Truman was either anchored off the entrance in a designated anchorage or station-keeping (using ship’s propulsion to maintain a specific spot while not anchored) but, considering the carrier’s size, likely at anchor.
A ship that size and weight cannot maneuver at slow/no speed. It is almost certain the merchant ship is at fault in this instance. They should not have been anywhere within 2000 yards of a Naval Warship and would have much better maneuverability and ability to change speed.
The big question would be why did the crew of Truman allow the merchant to get that close in the first place.
Every sailor knows the efficiency that most merchant vessels operate (especially those big roro,’s)!
Surprised there aren’t more issues with these sticks who use AI to navigate. Don’t blame the carrier.
@The Obsolete Man
In 1998 my submarine was operating in the Persian Gulf. One night our operations required we battle-surface (surface the boat with no navigation lights or radar reflectors). We noted a small coastal tanker in the vicinity on an approach course.
As the tanker got neared, our CO allowed us to break silence by illuminating our navigation lights. The tanker continued its course. As it got closer the CO authorized us to sound the danger signal (five blasts of the ship’s whistle). No response from the tanker, no change in course, determined the tanker was on a collision course with us.
CO ordered full astern to back us out of the way. Tanker passed less than 100 yards from us. Our bridge was at equal height to the bridge of the tanker and our CO confirmed there was NO ONE in their pilothouse! The tanker was on autopilot!
Incident was reported to US Fifth Fleet HQ and local authorities.
Would not be surprised if this incident with Truman was similar in nature, but again, how did the carrier crew let the merchant get that close to begin with?
The Capt of the carrier is a man with a long career.
The merchant marine ship was probably loading supplies on the carrier.
The Kitty Hawk on our 1974 Westpac cruise had an emergency breakaway once when we were taking on fuel from a tanker next to us. A rogue wave caused the two ships to crash into each other on the starboard side of the Hawk and an emergency breakaway was immediately called. Fortunately, the damage was fairly minimal although the catwalk on the side of our ship was flattened, luckily there were no personnel on the starboard catwalk otherwise they would’ve been crushed to death. I heard the emergency breakaway call over the ships PA while I was in my rack sleeping and it immediately woke me up. You never know what’s going to happen at sea and have to be prepared for any emergency that may occur.
Something to do with 497 1/2 feet of rope?
“Captain, you gotta exhale!”
As Peter B. said, probably waiting to transit the canal, and probably the merch’s screwup. Geoff is right if they’re at anchor, but they can move quite quickly if they want to. I sailed out of NAS Alameda on Vinson & Enterprise a couple times. Big E was flat out a drag racer. Once they turned and lined up with the departure lane of the GG bridge, they pulled some control rods and put 40 mph of wind on the deck in a minute or two! The whole ship shook! Greenpeace tried to cut across and though better of it when they got the horn and 1500 dependent’s middle fingers.
Sadly, this kind of thing usually leads to a set of orders with “relieved due to loss of confidence in ability to command” and a career ending at a desk job…
KR
Hmmmm. DEI again? The Navy is being very quiet. If the officer in charge was a white Naval Academy graduate, we would have seen his 3rd grade picture by now.
@Peter the Bubblehead
I joked about the tower above, but it sure sounds like somebody was asleep on the carrier’s conning tower.
And if the carrier was deterred from it’s mission for repairs, that freighter was almost as effective as any missile or drone boat. It’s almost as if some hostile made good use of the scenario you described to conduct asymmetrical warfare. If the “attack” is written off as an accident by the Navy, it’s even better for the hostiles.
aardvark,
Man, you have some great adventures in life.
I enjoy reading them.
Cheers! (w coffee in the am)
Apparently Panama flagged as per internetty thingy.
Engrish as a secondo languagio?
Gilligan!
Who said this was an accident?
Kcir, as I understand it, where a vessel is flagged is not that relevant. There are several countries which make themselves amenable to registration, sort of like Delaware does for incorporation. What really matters is who owns the ship and who is crewing it.
I wouldn’t trade my 2 Westpac cruises in 1973-74 and again in 75 for anything. I got to see half of the world in the S. Pacific, Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf before Jimmy Carter screwed up the middle East in the late 70’s. The Kitty Hawk was also the first aircraft carrier into still hostile waters after Saigon fell to the N. Vietnamese communists in May 1975 and I got to see the first of the refugees and boat people come into the Philippines at Grande Island at the mouth of Subic Bay. So, I got to see some history of those turbulent times unfold right in front of me when I was 21 and 22 years old. Which makes me appreciate America all the more and thankful to have had a small part in it. And besides when I started college at EWU in Cheney, Wash. in 1976 I was far more prepared and aware of what was going on in the world than other students were because of my experiences in the Navy at the end of the Vietnam war.
msg to usn: don’t take on fuel in yemen