HMCS Preserver smashes into dock - 4 Nov 2011

[SeaKingTacco]

A fire at 0200 is no fun.

 

[OldSolduer]

Thanks very much for the information. It may come in handy one day!

 

[Occam]

I've always assumed, or at least hoped, drills on a naval ship would be done on a "surprise" basis...

They are, for the most part.  Ship-initiated exercises are usually on the whim of the XO (Executive Officer), with the assistance of the Cox'n sometimes.  After a while, you develop a sixth sense as to when these types of exercises are thrown at you based on the loose "plan" for the period spent at sea.

All bets are off during workups, when Sea Training (a team of senior personnel representing each department of the ship) is embarked, and their job is to keep you off-kilter as much as possible.  Cutting into your sleep time isn't one of their concerns.  They're there to train you and nitpick every little fault they can find.  Workups are done periodically, roughly once every two years if I recall...though that may have changed with the new tiered readiness programs.

I've always been curious what would happen if a fire were to occur around, say, 0200...

I'm surprised some keen sailor hasn't produced a logic diagram on how to deal with this.  At 0200, it would go something like this:

Action alarm sounds - wait until bongs stop

Is it a man overboard?  If yes, go back to sleep as on-watch handles it and you shouldn't be in your rack if you're on watch.

If not a man overboard, is it a Verification muster?  (to ensure everyone is still on board the ship, and nobody has gone overboard) - If yes, stay in your bunk, because except for absolute critical personnel, that's where everyone on the ship goes to get counted.

Is it Action Stations or Emergency stations?  (combat, fire, flood, collision) If yes, get out of your bunk because you're going to be getting dressed and will be up for a while.  Other extra details: Pay attention to the announcement as to where the fire is, so that you don't inadvertently go through it on the way to your Emergency Station (yes, it happens when you're half asleep and not thinking, but it's highly frowned on for obvious reasons)

Is it Emergency Flying Stations?  If yes, and you're sleeping in the messdecks in the after end of the ship, get out of your bunk and get dressed very, very quickly.  There will be a very loud and cranky PO or CPO coming into your mess to awaken you and get you out of the mess as fast as possible, because there may possibly be an 18,000 lb helicopter crashing above you at any moment.

It's been quite a few years and I'm sure I've forgotten many of the other possible branches on the logic diagram, but you get the drift.

 

[Baz]

I have been on the other end of one of those rapid closups.

With HMCS Halifax in the mid 90's in the Caribbean I reported smoke in the cockpit in the middle of night.  At first we didn't think it was a big deal but when my voice went up an octave and got twice as loud to say "PAN, PAN, PAN" everybody knew things had chnaged.

They closed up, including aft mess decks clear, in less than 4... although I wasn't counting, it was just comforting that when we got to the ship they were ready for us.  Visibiltiy in the cockpit was less than 3 feet.

It was also nice that an American P-3 followed me home, and then asked me onto the radios a couple hours later as they went OFFSTA to see how we were doing.

Turns out it was a battery overheat.  Sucks because it also ruined arguably the most sucessful ASW engagement I have done...

 

[Colin Parkinson]

On the cutters, you didn't need an alarm to tell if the ship was on a call while you were off watch. A change in engine revs, other clues such as rolling of the ship changing as your heading changed, anchor windlass engaged, etc.

We did have a captain who was a bit of a charactor. We were anchored off an abandoned logging camp, he took the inflatable ashore, 1/2hr later he was back, rang the alarm and announced fire ashore and duty watch to respond. We all started moving at "exercise drill pace" until we noticed that one of the buildings was on fire! Certainly made for a more realistic drill.

 

[jollyjacktar]

Update.  Shared with the usual caveat.  Full story, photos at link.

HMCS Preserver crash leaves $500K repair bill
Navy ship hit a floating dock during first cruise after $45M refit
CBC News Posted: Apr 24, 2012 10:12 PM AT

The navy spent nearly half a million dollars to repair a supply ship that rammed into a dry dock in Halifax harbour last November.  Documents obtained by CBC News reveal the collision occurred during the ship's first cruise following a $45-million refit.  The Navy has been tight-lipped about the incident.  HCMS Preserver is the largest ship in Canada's East Coast fleet. At the time, it was under the control of its new Commander, Larry Jones.  This was the first time Jones had taken the ship from the dock.

Read more:  article link

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

Well! A steering gear breakdown in the narrows will ruin your day, especially on a tanker.

However, if the sequence of events reported by CBC is correct (a big caveat), I can see why the Commander lost confidence in the C.O. I won't comment on that here for obvious reasons.

As for the CORNER BROOK, I should hope CBC is going nowhere with request for document: Hello! Submarine ops are CLASSIFIED.

 

[Occam]

However, if the sequence of events reported by CBC is correct

If you look at the bottom of the CBC link provided, they posted a scan of the actual Signficant Incident Report sent by the ship, and the Initial Report filed a few days later.  Both documents go into pretty good detail as to what helm/engine orders were given.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

As for the CORNER BROOK, I should hope CBC is going nowhere with request for document: Hello! Submarine ops are CLASSIFIED.

Let me see:
Sub knew where it was and where it was going, but rock uncharted - unlikley to be a foul

Sub didn't know where it was and rock uncharted - foul

Sub knew where it was and where it was going,  rock charted- career altering event

Sub knew where it was but not where it was going,  rock uncharted - foul

Sub knew where it was but not where it was going,  rock charted - career altering event

did I miss any?