United States Navy almost blows Clyde Ferry out the water
 

Saw this being discussed over at the Royal Navy forums & couldn't resist as the idea of this little, dinky, boat facing a US Warship is quite funny biggrin: Apparently theres a 'right of way' rule for ships passing each other & the only reason the ferry got close to the warship is because it had the right of way to pass. Mark you, what with the inicident with USS Cole & the current crisis I can hardly blame the crew for being a bit trigger happy. But the Clyde isn't exactly the Red Sea... eek: Every vessel in the vicinity would have been tuned on to Channel 16 as it's the emergency radio freq, it must have been quite interesting to hear the radio broadcast.

[url=http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/tm_headline=us-navy-declare-war-on-clyde-ferry&method=full&objectid=17980625&siteid=66633-name_page.html:5bce6]link[/url:5bce6]

[quote:5bce6]US NAVY DECLARE WAR ON CLYDE FERRY
Exclusive By Cara Page
THE skipper of a tiny Clyde ferry feared his boat was going to be blown out of the water by a US warship yesterday.

The Kenilworth was sailing from Kilcreggan to Gourock when the American threatened to open fire.

The US ship had just set out from the nearby Faslane Navy base when it radioed the warning.

A source said: "The ferry skipper was just toddling across to Gourock when he got a call on the radio.

"A departing US naval ship warned, 'Unidentified vessel approaching on my starboard side, please identify yourself. If you fail to do so, we will open fire on you with live ammunition.'"

The source added: "The skipper got a real fright and radioed him back, saying he was just a wee ferry.


"If you've got a big battleship loaded with guns bearing down on you and threatening to shoot, it's quite scary."


The incident happened at 9.40am on the first day of a massive international training exercise - Operation Neptune Warrior - off the west coast of Scotland.


The first phase involved ships and submarines fighting off simulated terrorist attacks by small boats and jetskis manned by Royal Marines.


But unknown to the US crew, the Kenilworth, owned by Clyde Marine Services, was also in the vicinity.


In addition to threatening to blow it out of the water, the US ship also ordered the Kenilworth, built 70 years ago, to give it a wide berth of 1000 yards.


The shaken skipper put as much space between him and the warship as he could in a 10-minute crossing.


The messages were broadcast on VHF channel 16, which is the international calling and distress frequency.


Naval operations normally take place on secure channels which other maritime traffic cannot listen in to.


The source said: "A warning like that should not be broadcast on Channel 16 unless it is a real situation."


The ferry, carrying around a dozen passengers, arrived safely in Gourock before continuing its timetable.


A spokeswoman at Faslane confirmed the incident but said it was unclear who had been threatened.


She said six ships left the Clyde, including a US destroyer and frigate.


She said: "One of the US ships challenged a vessel to identify itself and its intentions and used channel 16 correctly for navigational safety reasons.


The ferry identified itself and was requested to keep a 1000-yard clearance which it complied with.


"The warship then issued a warning, threatening to take action. But it's unclear who they were trying to identify, as there were a number of ships nearby.


"The ferry heard this and identified itself. But channel 16 was wrongly used.


It should have been on an excercise frequency."


But she insisted: "There was absolutely no danger to the ferry or its passengers."


She said Commander Don Chalmers, the deputy director of the Joint Maritime Operational Training Staff, who organised the excercise, had apologised to the skipper.


She added: "All participants have been briefed on the correct procedures, to make sure it doesn't happen again."


A spokesman for the Clyde Coastguard said: "We are reviewing the incident and looking at radio logs."

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/roghead/2002_0724_104757AA.jpg[/img]

[/quote:5bce6]

Typical.

So was your response.


Anyway, getting back on topic.....Even though the smaller ferry may have had the "right of way", sometimes the size of the vessel matters most. I'm sure the ferry could out manuver the ship, thus making the ship having the "right of way". When i'm boating, sometimes i'll yield to a larger vessel because it would be harder for them to steer clear of me. And after the cole, who could blame the ships captain? At least he gave a radio warning.

....

Yeah, it's better not to worry about past incidents at all. It's not like they could ever happen again.

you're a fucking moron did you know this?

fucking knobs.

I say we go to war with england over this.

That means u gotta kill the bitch in yer sig, now thats psychological warfare. ed:

What the US Warships captain apparently saw;


[img]http://jesusburger.net/upload/clyde.jpg[/img]

[quote="Fluffy_Bunny":e45df]That means u gotta kill the bitch in yer sig, now thats psychological warfare. ed:[/quote:e45df]

I lol'd.

The assheads in the warship should count themselves lucky that the captain didn't pull alongside and chew through their hull.

try this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uss_cole

get your facts straight you limey cunt
[quote:e0c7b]On 12 October 2000, under Commander Kirk Lippold, the Cole was attacked from a small boat by suicide bombers, while it was harbored in the Yemeni port of Aden. Seventeen sailors were killed and 39 were injured.[/quote:e0c7b]

and

[quote:e0c7b]The USS The Sullivans attack plot

In Yemen, members of the group planned to bomb USS The Sullivans with a boat laden with explosives. Militants deployed a bomb-laden boat on January 3, 2000, but the over-loaded bomb boat sank before detonating[/quote:e0c7b]

Nyck, you obviously didn't get the memo about the US being wrong about everything....

lol

think that you can compare Yemen to a fucking small port in Scotland you stupid redneck cunt???

The world is a dynamic place dude, terrorist operate anywhere. You think people expected planes to crash into downtown New York City? Or bombs to explode on a bus and 3 subways in London?

exactly...

thats like comparing john holmes penis to an 1 hour old asian babys winkle.

lol wtf

Im just saying dude, you can expect something to happen anywhere in the world. You cant just be blind, even if your in a friendly port, or on friendly soil, you have to ALWAYS be on the look out, because terrorists are everywhere.

no its not I can't believe you cant look beyond your fuckin blinders of GEORGE DUBYA and not see that shit like that has happened and could happen ANYWHERE in the world. Not just fucking al queda.

Im sure no one in oklahoma city thought a guy could just drive into a federal building and blow it the fuck up. Hell it could be some fucking GWB hating limey fuckwad who goes to the extreme. I can tell you that the USS Cole was the last time that any ship fucked around with another ship getting close to it.

If that's the kind of thinking that all of the UK shares then I would operate exclusively out of that area if I were a terrorist. Hell, I'd probably never get caught.

It may be really fucking unlikely that a small ferry boat is going to pull up alongside a USN Destroyer and detonate itself, but that's why the people in the warship gave a warning.

And what the fuck is up with all the hostility towards the US over this? It's not like they fucking opened fire on the ferry. They sent it a radio message saying "Identify yourself, and do so quickly, because if you keep getting closer we might have to open fire".

yea because a small local ferry that had the right to pass then warship in a port in Scotland, that carried the Red British Merchant Navy flag is sooooo so dangerous.


I guess the journalists killed in Iraq by American Troops were too close as well eh, gg rednecks.

Are you dumb enough to expect anyone going to blow up a ship to fly the Afghanistan flag?

And like I said earlier, all they did was tell it to keep it's distance. Where the fuck are you going getting all these ideas that the warship went on full red alert with all hands at battle stations? If anything, all that happened was the comm operator gave a warning to a passing ferry, the ferry got all frightened and went on back to port, then made a big story out of it.

They were, journalists should not be on front lines.



And who gives a fuck if its flying a flag, how about this, ill goto England, ill drive a mini cooper with a huge british flag on the roof, pull up to big ben, and blow the top off that fucking thing.

we have nothing to fear, but fear itself

so a small local fishing boat bearing the british merchant flag, that is not directly heading for the warship, and has the right of way too pass it, and is not exactly touching toes with it, and is doing what it has always done for many years before this looks like a fucking viable option for threatening to open fire on. I guess everyone has to be a suspected terrorist until proven innocent sleeping: totally OTT

oh and its kind of relevant.

[quote="Someone@RoyalNavyForum":41904]Just to add, when I was based in Faslane, we had a number of USN Warships moored up at the Garelochead fuel depot on occasion. On a number of occasions they apprehended and threatened to open Fire on the MDP for being unidentified intruders. Makes you wonder - if you see a guy in one of the most secure Military bases in the UK, In a car marked "police", wearing uniform that say "police" on it, who is patrolling the jetty alongside your ship in the 3 hour stint and you still mistake him for a terrorist - how fucking stupid are these people![/quote:41904]

Im not trying to start an argument here, but im sick of hearing about the US military being wrong in everything they do. People need to just get the fuck over it.


You cant judge what they did. I guarantee if you were on the warship, and a vessel is close to your ship you would of done the same shit, regardless of country, because the though of the Yemen bombing is always in the back of your mind. This shit probably happens all over the world all the time, im sure it happens in US harbors too, when the warships are coming back to dock in, but you don't hear about it because its not that big of a fucking deal, the warship asked for identification, then the small boat moved out of the way, end of story.

unfortunately not.

The way you word it makes it sound so much worse than the way it most likely happened.

The warship didn't figuratively hold a gun to the ferry's head and scream at it to fucking move it ass before it sprayed it's brains all over the wall.

What happened is the warship said, "Ferry, identify yourself and keep a distance of 1000 feet OR you will be fired upon".

Was there any real chance of the ferry getting blown up? No, probably not. That's what the newspapers will say though.

The reason they say that is so the people who are navigating that ferry don't dick around and take a shit load of time to respond so everyone can get on with what they're doing in an orderly manner.

And if you take the time to finish the article the ferry got to where it was going perfectly intact. No shit went down, just a radio message.

First of all you nitwits need to understand the rules of engagement, they would of fired a warning shot over the bow of the ship first. And thats a fucking last ditch effort if they cant communicate over radio, morse code, or other means.

i'm going to have to disagree with elstatec

calmdown:

Woa hoping we weren't going to get into a tiff about this lil incident. We're all allies here the_finger:

I mentioned in the first few sentences you can hardly blame the Cap'n after the incident with USS Cole &tc, I just imagined it would have been a funny sight to see that little boat haul ass away from the warship.

I suggest we all have a tot o rum & sing some shanties about how we both beat the German Navy & the Japs!

Save the agro for Allah!

[quote="Fluffy_Bunny":38939]calmdown:

Woa hoping we weren't going to get into a tiff about this lil incident. We're all allies here the_finger:

I mentioned in the first few sentences you can hardly blame the Cap'n after the incident with USS Cole &tc, I just imagined it would have been a funny sight to see that little boat haul ass away from the warship.

I suggest we all have a tot o rum & sing some shanties about how we both beat the German Navy & the Japs![/quote:38939]

Agreed

Seems like everyone likes taking shots at British boats
heres en excerpt from my a book i was reading

[quote:29da6]Early in 1904, the Japanese chose major war over minor skirmishes. Without warning and without declaration of war, they attacked the Russian fleet at Port Arthur. The Russians, outfought and out thought, decided to bring up their reserves: they would send their Baltic fleet half way around the world to defeat the Japanese. On the lengthy journey to the Far East, that fleet won one victory. Shortly after starting out from port in October 1904, it encountered what looked to its officers like a group of Japanese torpedo boats near the Dogger Bank in the North Sea. The Russians opened fire, missing many, but managing to sink one. The pity of it was that Russian marksmanship was even this good, for the Japanese men-of-war in truth were British fishing boats.[/quote:29da6]

happy: happy: happy: happy:

Stat, how hard is it to obtain a merchants flag in teh UK? At worst, you could steal one. Im sure that if the 9/11 hijackers had US passports, a terrorist cell operating in the UK could obtain a fucking flag oOo: .

Also, you seem to forget things like Madrid and your own fucking transit system getting hit, so its not like the UK is guaranteed terrorist free. As for why would they be in that port? BECAUSE THERE'S FUCKING MILITARY VESSELS (US no less) OPERATING THERE.

But noooo, you want to see the world from the view that anything the US military does must be reactionary and ill-advised, and, if you can spin it that way, micromanaged by the Bush administration.

calmdown:

For once i'm gonna agree with Coma. Stat, you need to make yourself a nutella sandwich and calm the fuck down.

Well the funny thing is is that I secretley pm'd Coma all that information and told him to post it, so please redirect your credit

rofl and yes on both