Port Royal Drydock Photos

The USS Port Royal has entered drydock for repairs. You can see the sonar dome and the ship looks a bit banged up. Here is a link to a photo on Strategy Page of the USS Port Royal in drydock.

This photo gallery from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin has two pictures of the USS Port Royal in drydock after the grounding and one picture of it the last time she left drydock.

I think the link to the Star-Bulletin is acting kind of screwy. Here are some better photos from Navy.mil

Picture of the screws

View of the stern while in drydock

View of the bow

Port Royal on the rocks

USS Port Royal Initial Damage Assessment

Update 2/20/2009: A link to a photo of the USS Port Royal in drydock can be found in this posting.

The Port Royal has a cracked sonar dome and both screws have had some blade tips sheared off. They are going to go into drydock on Friday to do a more thorough damage assessment. This story from Navy times also includes a short video summarizing what has happened up to now.

From the Navy Times

USS Port Royal Captain Relieved

Not much of a surprise here. The CO of the USS Port Royal was "temporarily relieved of command" shortly after the ship was freed from its grounding incident earlier today. I know that this is standard operating procedure in these sorts of cases and I doubt that he will return to command the ship.

Navy Times Article

I know that the CO is responsible for everything, but Captain John Carroll was in a difficult situation. Of course, CO's have to be constantly prepared for difficult situations. This was his first day out at sea with his crew and he probably didn't have much of an opportunity to observe his navigation team in action. Still, he should have been especially vigilant while the ship was operating near shallow water after dark while performing a personnel transfer. If he saw things going bad, he should have stopped the evolution and made sure the ship was returned to a safe condition.

Ultimate Responsibility is a term that everyone on a navy ship understands and everyone knows who it is that has Ultimate Responsibility. I wish that some of the civilian company CEO's felt the same sense of responsibility that our military commanders live with every day that they are in command. What do you think of the concept of Ultimate Responsibility?

USS Port Royal Grounding

Update 2/20/2009: A link to a photo of the USS Port Royal in drydock can be found in this posting.

The USS Port Royal is stuck on a reef near Honolulu International Airport. They tried unsuccessfully to nudge it free with some tugs early yesterday. Here is the story from the Honolulu Advertiser.

Here is a link to a news video about the story: Video from KITV

They have a few pretty interesting shots of the ship in the video. The news station was told by family members of the crew that the ship has no air conditioning or electricity. Looks like a pretty miserable situation.

Update: 5 p.m.: The navy is going to lighten the ship by offloading fuel, water, and people and then they will try to free it again. If you have any first hand knowledge about the Port Royal, or just like to talk, feel free to leave a comment.

AP Update

Update: 2/8/09 1 p.m.: After offloading some fuel, water, and people and using more towing power than they used before, the third attempt to free the USS Port Royal was unsuccessful. The navy is assessing options. I think it will be a while before they get the ship off the rocks.

From U.S. Navy Public Affairs on KGMB 9

Update: 2/9/09 9:10 a.m.: Looks like the fourth time was a charm. I just read that the USS Port Royal was freed this morning. I guess there will be some damage assessment and probably another drydock period in the immediate future.

From AP

Update 2/9/09 12:00 p.m.: I just read that the ship is now back in Pearl harbor. It took a total of seven tugs, a salvage ship, and a motor vessel to free it. I didn't know what the heck a motor vessel was until I saw it referenced as the Motor Vessel "Dove" which is used to move the sea based X-band radar platform. For those of you who have seen it, it is the giant white ball that you can occasionally glimpse from Pearl Harbor and the surrounding area. It looks kind of like a giant white Epcot Center. This is a picture of the radar being moved into Pearl Harbor. (This is not the Motor Vessel "Dove" in the picture, though. I couldn't find a good picture of that, but I am guessing it has some pretty serious towing power)

Credit for this Photo: Missile Defense Agency

Credit for this Photo: Missile Defense Agency