Casualties & Reports
USS John S. McCain : 21 August 2017 : Collision with Ten Fatalities : collided with Motor Vessel ALNIC MC in the Straits of Singapore.
ProPublica – Years of Warnings, Then Death and Disaster : How the Navy Failed Its Sailors
USS Fitzgerald : 17 June 2017 : Collision with Seven Fatalities : collided with Motor Vessel ACX CRYSTAL in the waters of Sagami Wan in vicinity of the approaches to Tokyo Wan.
ProPublica – FIGHT THE SHIP : Death and valor on a warship doomed by its own Navy.
USS Lake Champlain : 09 May 2017 : Collision : collided with fishing vessel NAM YANG 502 in the Sea of Japan.
USS Antietam : 31 January 2017 : Grounding : occurred in Tokyo Bay, Japan (Anchorage A-10).
USS Guardian : 17 January 2013 : Grounding and Total Loss : ran aground on Tubbataha Reef on 17 January 2013 at 0222 (H). The grounding caused damage to a protected reef and necessitated a lengthy and expensive salvage effort that resulted in the total loss of one of 14 MCMs in the United States Navy inventory.
USS Porter : 12 August 2012 : Collision : collided with MV Otowasan, an oil tanker, near the Strait of Hormuz. The collision ripped a 3-by-3-meter (10 ft × 10 ft) hole in the starboard side of the destroyer, forcing her to Jebel Ali, Dubai for repairs. No one on either ship was injured.
Navy Times released the following USS Porter bridge recording of the conversation between Cmdr. Arriola and the OOD leading up to and during the collision….
The following blog posts were provided by the U.S. Naval Institute’s Captain John Cordle, USN(R) :
Collision Investigations : What I Learned, Part I
Collision Investigations : What I Learned, Part II
Collision Investigations : What I Learned, Part III
USS Port Royal : 05 February 2009 : Grounding : The 2009 USS Port Royal grounding was a ship grounding by the United States Navy guided missile cruiser Port Royal off Oahu, Hawaii, on 5 February 2009. In the incident, the ship ran aground on a coral reef, damaging and necessitating repairs to both the ship and the reef. The incident received wide press coverage in Hawaii, at least in part because of the damage caused to a sensitive coral environment.
USS La Moure County : 12 September 2000 : Grounding and Total Loss : The USS La Moure County ran aground while conducting an amphibious assault exercise off the coast of Chile. Improper use and reliance on Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, poor Bridge Resource Management (BRM), and failure to take into account the Combat Information Center’s recommendations were just some of the links in the human error chain. Since the cost to repair the ship was too great, it was struck from the Fleet, and on July 10, 2001, it was towed into deep water and sunk as part of an annual United States-South American allied exercise named United International Antisubmarine Warfare (UNITAS).
The Grounding of USS La Moure County Powerpoint presentation
USS Missouri : 17 January 1950 : Grounding : The USS Missouri grounding occurred 17 January 1950 when the battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) ran aground while sailing out of Chesapeake Bay. No one was injured, but the battleship remained stuck for over two weeks before being freed from the sand. The ship was so damaged that it had to return to port and enter dry dock for repairs.
Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet FOIA Reading Room
U.S. Navy – Honda Point Disaster – 7 Destroyers Aground-Foundered – September 1923
U.S. Navy Historical Center – Photos
Studies
A REPORT ON THE FIGHTING CULTURE OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY SURFACE FLEET – US Congress (2021)
Comprehensive Review of Recent Surface Force Incidents – U.S. Navy – October 2017