Keeping the blogosphere posted on the goings on of the world of submarines since late 2004... and mocking and belittling general foolishness wherever it may be found. Idaho's first and foremost submarine blog. (If you don't like something on this blog, please E-mail me; don't call me at home.)

Friday, January 11, 2008

Indian Submarine Bumps Merchant Ship

Vigilis has a lot of information on the news that INS Sindhughosh (S 55), an Indian Kilo-class submarine, had a minor collision with MV Leeds Castle. According to this story in the Indian press:
At the time of the collision, the submarine was plying in shallow waters of the Arabian sea at periscope depth when the large merchant ship grazed over it damaging the submerged vessel's aerial radar and fin, sources here said.
Luckily, it appears no one was hurt, and the sub returned to Mumbai under her own power. Some in India are already blaming the potential failure of boat's indigenously-produced sonar system for failing to detect the merchant; as us U.S. submariners know, however, sometimes not even the world's best sonar can keep a boat from coming out on the wrong side of the "big ocean / little ship" probabilities.

6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

It seems the Merchant ship bumped the sub. Seems odd all the headlines indicate it the other way around.

1/11/2008 7:34 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

ew-3, you are correct about varying reports, including varying degrees of submarine damage.

Was the sub visible to the merchant? Was its periscope even up? Was is it im the process of surfacing, or operating at shallow depth? It was not using its radar apparently. There are many unanswered questions involved.

1/12/2008 11:19 AM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

a number of concerns on this incident.

before coming up to pd did they do a stern arc clearance to range the mv if the sonars held it?

assuming there was a layer, when above the layer if they detected the mv why didnt they go emergency deep?

if they were already established at pd who was watchkeeping on the search periscope & why didnt they see it?

why didnt the soundroom call close quarters?

1/12/2008 6:38 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dude,

Didn't you see the movie "Hunt For Red October"? Although "stern arc clearance" sounds way cooler, we call it "clearing the baffles". Sounds like you're from some ferrin sub force.

1/14/2008 12:01 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

8yrs in my friend, RN.

1/15/2008 4:34 PM

 
Blogger Zoe Brain said...

Shallow Waters, reverberation, and busy shipping lanes make every excursion to PD something of an adventure.

1/19/2008 2:37 AM

 

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