Alan Shepard Grounding Investigation

A nearly 700-foot-long U.S. Navy cargo ship ran aground in Bahrain in 2023 almost immediately after its top officer left the bridge to eat dinner, a service investigation found. The decision by the master of the USNS Alan Shepard to leave the bridge and place a junior officer in charge was one of the key reasons for the ship’s grounding, according to a recently released summary of an investigation by U.S. Naval Forces Central Command. The incident last year on July 15 left the Alan Shepard stuck in the shoals for more than seven hours but caused only minor paint scratches on the hull and left no one injured, the investigation said.

Read more at: https://www.stripes.com/branches/navy/2024-05-06/alan-shepard-aground-investigation-13768299.html
Source - Stars and Stripes

I sailed with Desouki when he was a Chief Mate.  Would not trust him with a bath toy, let alone a real ship.

"The ship transited toward a designated waiting area. At 4:49 p.m., the master of the ship handed control to the third officer, told him to stay the course and keep the ship within the waiting area.

The master, the navigator and the chief mate all then left the bridge to eat dinner, according to the findings.

The third officer, who was not named in the report, navigated the ship into the waiting area but became distracted by a fishing boat, the report said. He turned the ship to the right to avoid the fishing boat, but in doing so ran the Alan Shepard into the nearby shoals.

Roughly 20 minutes separated the ship’s master leaving the bridge and the Alan Shepard running aground, according to the investigation summary and publicly available maritime data reviewed by Stars and Stripes.

The investigation blamed the grounding on officers failing to follow navigation procedures and the ship’s master not being present on the bridge as required by policy, the summary said."



Oof

I don't want to blame the 3rd officer for everything, but who was he? How long had he been in this position?

Ensign Pulver to the bridge?

That would have been a mistake.

Dinner? At 4:49?

Shouldn’t that be supper?

In these threads I like to mention that Chester Nimitz, one of the best if not the best admiral in USN history, was court martialed and convicted of negligence for running a destroyer aground in the Philippines in 1906.  Went on to become the Navy's leading diesel engine expert, developed underway replenishment, made CNC Pacific Fleet for practically the entire war and CNO after the war.  Zero tolerance for educational fuck ups would have cost us dearly.

https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2019/june/beware-permanent-demise-temporariness

The junior mates are always the ones on watch. Some ships have a watch-standing CM, some don’t. The Capt should be on the bridge for maneuvering, heavy traffic, or any time the mate calls him up to help or if they’re in doubt. Them leaving the bridge to go eat is perfectly normal as long as the ship was not in any of the above situations, which it wasn’t. The mate on watch fucked up, and wasn’t paying attention. He should have called the Capt the moment he was having issues. However, the Capt is still responsible for the ship, even if the mate makes a horrible decision without his knowledge when everything was fine minutes before. The downside of leadership/ being a ships captain. There my have been other requirements for that area for the Capt to be on the bridge,( which was mentioned), but can’t attest to that. If so, then that will not be a good look.

Edit: From what I’ve seen, dieslengineer was in the merchant marine for awhile as well. I’m sure his assessment of the Capt is correct, as I’ve seen a few dumb ones.

There are lots of examples like this.  One of the navy guys got his dungarees in a bunch in another thread cause I made a positive reference towards Adm Rickover.
Lots of famous military men had a dustup or two during their careers.

I agree with everything you say but will just add that the personality of the capt plays a big role.  Some have egos bigger than the ship they command and the subordinates are hesitant or even scared to call the capt for anything.  
This type of behavior was highlighted in the aftermath of the El Faro investigation.

That's aperitif time.

It was crab legs night. Lay off guys.

He is no good.  Ethically challenged is a nice way of putting it.

Was it the main meal of the day?

There may have been a communication breakdown caused by confusion from this supper/dinner issue that caused the adverse ship parking event.

The real investigative concerns are: was this a crash or collision?  Was it accidental or negligent?  Was anybody a former Marine? Did they have a spare clip for the line throwing gun?

"Fire you?  We just spent a hull to train you!"

Yeah, that’s not good. I’ve had one leave me on the bridge after a few minutes when I called him up when I was a new mate. Lots of traffic and I was scared shitless back then. I looked at my AB and said “did he just leave?”

Luckily I figured it out and haven’t had to read about myself yet in the news :)

I have no experience in these matters just quoting the article:

"The investigation blamed the grounding on officers failing to follow navigation procedures and the ship’s master not being present on the bridge as required by policy, the summary said. The ship’s standing orders said the master is supposed to be on the bridge near shallow waters, such as those in Bahrain."

*chuckles sensibly*

Mermansk brushing incident?!?

Did they do a chromosome check?