Indian warship collides with trawler

[Subho]

Problem with military navy ships is they stay in harbour for much of the year.Very little sailing time and freedom from IMO regulations and arbitration results in poor seamanship being practised by the sailing crew.Mind you its only the sailing staff incharge of running the vsl rather than Troops which i am pointing out.Having sailed with ex Indian Navy engineers and mates i can say that they are mostly having 'chalta hai' attitude and competence is not at par with foreign going indian seamen who are most highly paid and valued in Shipping industry.The ukranians,russians ,filipino ,chinese are much less paid than indians and srilankans.

 

[hkdas]

Don't they have a proximity alert systems to prevent the collisions?

in peace time warship moving closed to mainland will turnoff sonar, radar and other electronic warfare systems.

 

[harpoon]

Do these trawlers carry radio sets and are the fishermen trained in emergency maritime procedures?

 

[BDforever]

this is really confusing because that collision should not be taken place.
1. There should be collision alert system in INS frigate.
2. That trawler should be popped up in that frigate's radar.

 

[acetophenol]

Do these trawlers carry radio sets and are the fishermen trained in emergency maritime procedures?

Don't know about this case,but fishing trawlers in kerala do carry radio sets with'em.
The lesser experienced and new generation fisher men carry GPS and sonograms with in their trawlers,while the experienced one's use their skills.The experienced guys often overwhelm the sonograms by merely keeping their ears to their wooden rows dipped in the sea!

this is really confusing because that collision should not be taken place.
1. There should be collision alert system in INS frigate.
2. That trawler should be popped up in that frigate's radar.

They usually turn of these systems when close to mainland,and most probably the ship must have came in to refill the supplies,with most of its crew on shore leaves.

 

[BDforever]

They usually turn of these systems when close to mainland,and most probably the ship must have came in to refill the supplies,with most of its crew on shore leaves.

but this is bad excuse because it clearly said that they could not see anything in the dark so there is no point of turning off radar.

 

[acetophenol]

but this is bad excuse because it clearly said that they could not see anything in the dark so there is no point of turning off radar.

You are supposed to move with the help of navigation lights and colour codes during the dark,and thats what is followed all over the world.Same from Fishing trawlers to big ships.But here,the fishing trawler was running dark and hence caused the mishap.

 

[Nan Yang]

But Mumbai can't be as bad as Shanghai or Hong Kong ?

Time Lapse showing the Shanghai HuangPu river traffic.
At 0.50 a boat actually cross from left to right !

Hong Kong Harbor. Its insane !

 

[Abingdonboy]

A few points. Yes some might say this isn't a "big deal" because the INS came off without a scratch but the incident raises some issues and points to some problems

Firstly, post USS Cole, no navy- especially not the IN, can avoid the threat small trawlers/boats pose to mighty naval assets. YES, this ship was in Indian waters and close to shore and thus the threat level would be lowered but even still, the IN simply shouldn't let its guard down at any point when a ship is at sea. It's a sad state of affairs but that's the reality and the world we live in where the next attack could be anywhere and anytime. 26/11 should've proven this.


Secondly, one could argue that collision prevention and radar systems would be pretty useless in the waters of Mumbai that truly are amongst the most saturated and congested in the world, and especially against targets as small as fishing trawlers. And in fact this isn't a worrying vis a vis how the IN would perform in wartime as then the level of preparedness would be sky high and the targets would be 100s if not 1000s of tonnes in displacement and scores of meters long. You can't use this isolated incident with a FISHING TRAWLER to predict how the IN would perform in war- that's retarded. HOWEVER, it does raise questions about the sailors and systems on watch that night more specifically the force protection unit (whose job it is to protect the vessel from all threats and thus conceivably small targets like this)- did they have NVDs? Were they alert enough? Same questions for the officers and sailors on watch. And lastly about the EO/IR sensors on board- were they being used to scan for such threats to the ship?

Lastly I would say to all those apparently in hysterics about how these sort of things are on the rise with the IN. I would say, yes, this may be true but that doesn't mean much. It doesn't mean the IN is failing or in decline, by all accounts they are amongst the finest and most professional navies on the planet. Rather a combination of factors- the expansion of the IN's fleet and the increased number of vessels and thus congestion in Indian waters in Indian waters- of all sizes.

Yet another incident that makes the need for INS Karwar ever more apparent and one hopes all deadlines are met for this mega-project and it is finished soon.

Nonetheless a board of inquiry has been initiated so we should all hold off until them to make judgments. If there were failings they will be be identified and addressed for sure. And maybe the IN would do well in looking at its SOPs for ships in such situations.

 

[Capt.Popeye]

And thus cementing that INS Karwar is a more important requirement for the navy.

This collision took place off Ratnagiri, it has nothing to do with Karwar or even Mumbai for that matter. There are hordes of country-craft that operate on the coast. They are poor radar targets and some are very small with a negligible freeboard above the water. Worst of all they are unlit. In the old days they had just a small oil lamp that was occasionally lit, now a battery operated torch that the occupants light and wave frantically if they notice a ship approaching them!

The worst such miscreants are off the Kerala Coast in the vicinity of Alleppey and Neendakara, where the boat may have only 1 or 2 occupants in it; who are usually so busy employed in fishing activities like setting or hauling in nets to even have any time to notice anything around them. If there is even a bit of swell running then the boats get hidden between the crests of the waves, so they cannot be seen or even see for themselves. Not at all a good situation for Maritime Safety.

Problem with military navy ships is they stay in harbour for much of the year.Very little sailing time and freedom from IMO regulations and arbitration results in poor seamanship being practised by the sailing crew.Mind you its only the sailing staff incharge of running the vsl rather than Troops which i am pointing out.Having sailed with ex Indian Navy engineers and mates i can say that they are mostly having 'chalta hai' attitude and competence is not at par with foreign going indian seamen who are most highly paid and valued in Shipping industry.The ukranians,russians ,filipino ,chinese are much less paid than indians and srilankans.

HeHeHeh; now you're saying something. But not all of it is valid, they are not immune from the COLREGS or ROR that govern all navigation. Though they spend very little time sailing compared to Navigators in the Merchant Marine; they still cannot escape the requirements of prudent navigation or of what is considered to be "good seamanship". That said, the coastal craft in parts of the Indian Coast are so unruly and unregulated that they are a menace to shipping traffic and themselves.