By lex, on February 6, 2009
My dear ol’ da served in the merchant marines up until the mid-50’s, rising to be the master of a nationally flagged ship. He had a crusty old chief engineer who didn’t like the course made good he was getting on his cruise bell, and suspected that the hull had become fouled with barnacles.
The engineer somehow talked my pops into setting the ship on a well surveyed sandbar when the tide was on the make, arguing that the sand would serve to scrub their bottom clean and add a couple of knots, saving the company both maintence and fuel costs. It worked, and dad proudly reported his success to corporate management. Who, when he returned to New York, congratulated him for his out-of-the-box thinking, and asked him never to do anything like that again.
I somehow suspect that this will not be exactly like that: *
The USS Port Royal, a guided missile cruiser, ran aground about 1030 PM Thursday night a half mile off one of Honolulu International Airport’s main runways. There is no indication of a fuel leak and no injuries were reported.
At high tide Friday morning, Tugboats tried to free the ship but the lines broke. A Navy spokesperson says they a evaluating the situation. It is not known if there is damage to reefs in the area.
Guy had only been in command since October. Damn shame.
** Link added – 03-30-18 – Ed.
