US Navy Oops!

Perhaps the sub was in 'Stealth Mode' with it's invisibility cloak on.

"...and thus Captain So-and-So was at once and dramatically introduced to his career ceiling..."

Luckily it was their own sub, and not someone else's

Minesweeper

And on the same note, after going in and out of Subic Bay for decades, how could a US Navy ship run aground?

The focus of the investigation is on a ‘faulty’ digital chart.

Experience

But the Navy has had thousands of passages thru those waters.

Faulty navigator and observers. Probably 4 people looking forward and nobody saw the shoal? No follow up on one course instruction?

Yep, Some careers were changed that day.

A cut and paste from the Sydney Morning Herald (Aust Newspaper). Brings to mind the joke about the lighhouse keeper radioing the ships captain. That said, need to take what you read in the papers with a grain of salt.



Stranded ... the Guardian aground on Tubbataha Reef. Photo: AP

MANILA: A Philippines official has accused a US Navy minesweeper of ignoring warnings to stay away before it became stuck on a World Heritage-listed coral reef.

The accusation on Monday by the superintendent of Tubbataha marine park, Angelique Songco, added to growing anger in the Philippines over the incident.

The US Navy has apologised but may still face fines.

Park rangers radioed the USS Guardian to say it was nearing the Tubbataha Reef on Thursday, but the captain insisted they raise their complaint with the US embassy, Ms Songco told reporters.

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She said shortly after the warning, the 68-metre vessel became stuck on part of Tubbataha Reef, a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the Sulu Sea about 130 kilometres south-east of the western island of Palawan.

The site is protected by Philippine law, and is off limits to navigation, except for research or tourism approved by Ms Songco's office.

Ms Songco said it was too early to assess the damage to the coral. The vessel was still stuck on the reef and was being battered by big waves.

The commander of the US Navy's 7th Fleet, Vice-Admiral Scott Swift, apologised in a statement from Japan on Sunday.

"As a protector of the sea and a sailor myself, I greatly regret any damage to this incident has caused to the Tubbataha Reef," Vice-Admiral Swift said.

He acknowledged that protecting the reef was vital, and that the navy took its obligations to preserve the marine environment seriously.

He said the crew members had left the vessel, and there were no traces of any oil leaks.

The Philippine Navy said three of its ships had been put on standby near the area to assist in efforts to remove the Guardian from the reef. Two civilian tugboats had been contracted by the Americans.

The Guardian had been en route to Indonesia after visiting a Philippine port north of Manila when the incident occurred, the US Navy said.

Agence France-Presse

Brilliant!

......."captain insisted".......Dumb-ass And how many on board knew better but couldn't say anything?

I agree with ScrumpyVixen, this story does remind me of the "lighthouse and the Capt" joke. Eerily similar.

Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.
Prov 16:18

The Argentine Navy one-upped us:

"Argentina's Defense Minister Arturo Puricelli ordered the Argentine Navy chief, Admiral Daniel Martin, to conduct an accountability inquiry around the sinking of the "Holy Trinity", at the base of Puerto Belgrano....ARA Santísima Trinidad is a Type 42 destroyer of the Argentine Navy, the only destroyer of her class built outside Britain. She participated in the 1982 Falklands War. She was built at the Argentine AFNE Río Santiago shipyard and commissioned in 1980."
From Maritime Executive.

Judy

Part of the CNN article from today:

The U.S Navy minesweeper that grounded on a Philippine reef last week has taken on water and sustained too much damage to be towed off, the Navy says.

"It's got hull penetrations in several places, and there is a significant amount of water inside the ship," Rear Adm. Tom Carney said at a briefing Thursday.
The Navy said it will use ship-borne cranes and heavy-lift vessels to lift the minesweeper, the USS Guardian, off the Tubbataha Reef.

"As the crane ships arrive, we will take items off the Guardian to lighten the weight of the ship so we are able to remove it from the reef," Carney said.

"The option that we had hoped to tow the ship off the reef is not available. The ship is too badly damaged."

The Guardian would be removed from the area on a barge or other ship, Carney said.

"The ship cannot move on its own, and it is not operational," he said.

This picture of the minesweeper appears as though they were only about 50 or so feet from deep water. A friend of mine told me the whole Phillipines area is pretty gnarly and you have to be really careful. At any rate, the Captain's next job is likely to be a Walmart door greeter.

Lighthouse

Here you go:
Navy Ship vs. Lighthouse - YouTube

What a shameful ending for a beautifully hand crafted wooden-hulled minesweeper built by the old Peterson family out of the Great Lakes - fate can be so cruel....

Update

Reports are its say its 50% through salvage/dismantling now...

Pics: The USS Guardian is cut to pieces from a reef in the Philippines - Navy - Stripes

Update

Associated Press

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii – Four officers of a U.S. Navy minesweeper that ran aground on coral reef in the Philippines are being relieved of their duties.

The U.S. Pacific Fleet said in a statement Wednesday that initial findings indicate all four sailors failed to adhere to standard navigation procedures at the time of the Jan. 17 grounding of the Guardian.

The sailors are the commanding officer, the executive officer and navigator, the assistant navigator and the officer of the deck. They've been reassigned.

Workers recently finished dismantling and removing the minesweeper from Tubbataha National Marine Park.

The park's superintendent has said the grounding damaged about 4,000 square meters, or nearly 5,000 square yards, of reef. The U.S. could face a fine of more than $2 million for the dama

Read more: US Navy relieves 4 from grounded minesweeper after probe finds they didn't follow procedures | Fox News

Blast Fishing

Could they have done more damage then all of that 'explosives fishing' done by the local populations over the past 50 years.

OVER SEAS May 99: A Closer Look at Blast Fishing in the Philippines

Blast fishing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://confluence.furman.edu:8443/display/Lipscomb/Destructive+Fishing+Practices

I'm surprised there was even a reef still there to run into

Now now now ... let's not ask embarrassing questions. Besides, there is far more money to be made by bureaucrats from "reef remediation" than there is from taxing penniless fishermen.