Having your ship sunk is probably the worst thing that can happen at sea. The next worst things are being in a collision and running aground. I’ve experienced both of those. Here is how one of the incidents occurred.
USS Nantahala was in here home port of Newport, Rhode Island. She had been undergoing some routine maintenance and repairs/One of those repairs was welding shut a small crack in one of the forward fuel cargo spaces. The ship had shifted liquid cargo, fuel and ballast aft to give the welders a dry surface for their work. Ballast had not been shifted back when we were assigned to give a public relations “day at sea” to a few local VIPs like a mayor and a police chief. It would have been a simple one day trip out with a few training drills and exercises. But it didn’t quite go according to plan.
I was on the bridge when the morning draft report was delivered to the captain. It showed we were some 35 feet under water astern. That was about as deep as the water was alongside the pier where we were tied up. I mentioned this to the captain, but he simply dismissed my comment with a gruff “Very Well!”. Our guests arrived, and so did the pilot. The pilot asked me about our draft aft. it looked to him like we might be resting on the bottom. I told him about the draft report and that the captain had seen it. He also approached the skipper and mentioned the potential problem. The captain informed him that he knew, and we should just go ahead and sail.
A tug took a line from our fantail in order to pull it away from the pier. After that we expected to just back up into the main channel and proceed to sea. The tug started pulling. The ship didn’t budge. Apparently the captain wanted to void the embarrassment of delaying our sortie for several hours while the engineers shifted ballast, Always short tempered, he became quite upset.
“Cast off the tug!” he ordered, “I’ll take us out without his help.”
He ordered the starboard (inboard) engine to go astern, and the port engine to go ahead. That would make the ship twist in lace and have the same result as if the tug had pulled the stern clear. The two screw propellers churned up a lot of mud, but the ship did not move at all. Our stern was resting on the harbor bottom. We were solidly aground.
There were no other options. Our sortie was suspended while the engineering department shifted fuel, and water, ballast back to the forward tanks. When they finished, we were able to sail. The days activities were cut a bit short. We returned to the pier and put our visitors ashore. The next day a team of divers came out to inspect our screws and shafts for possible damage caused by trying to move the ship while she was aground. Fortunately, there was no damage. It isn’t pleasant to be aground, but this experience was probably the best case of being aground you could ever imagine. The only damage was to the captain’s ego and image.
Wetherhorn 