USS Port Royal | DMZ Hawai'i/Aloha 'Aina

USS Port Royal grounding details emerge

Post Date July 12, 2009

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Author Laurel Mei-Singh

Category Accidents, Environmental Impacts, Ke Awalau o Pu'uloa / Pearl Harbor

Posted on: Sunday, July 12, 2009

Navy ship grounding detailed

By William Cole
Advertiser Columnist

Here are a few more details of the Feb. 5 grounding of the guided missile cruiser Port Royal in 14 to 22 feet of water off Honolulu International Airport’s reef runway.

The Advertiser ran a story Tuesday about the grounding circumstances based on the Navy’s Safety Investigation Board findings on the accident.

The 567-foot ship was under way at 8:45 a.m. on its first day of sea trials after $18 million in repairs in the shipyard. The fathometer, for determining water depth, was broken, according to the safety board.

At 12:01 p.m., the Voyage Management System’s primary input at the chart table was shifted from a forward Global Positioning System to forward Ring Laser Gyro Navigation.

The Voyage Management System, a digital navigation system that does away with paper charts, dead-reckoned the ship three times and replotted the Port Royal 1.5 miles from its previous position. Ring Laser Gyro is an inertial navigator.

Ship logs indicate a position error between GPS and the Ring Laser Gyro for the duration of the ship’s time at sea. The Voyage Management System plotting was based on the inertial navigation and not the required GPS, and the error was not noted by any watchstanders, the report states.

“The quartermaster of the watch continued to plot fixes as satellite fixes when (Voyage Management System) was aligned to receive (Ring Laser Gyro) input,” the safety board said. “The bridge team did not recognize the input difference on the (Voyage Management System) display, and relied on VMS without question.”

The report said that when the input was switched, the Voyage Management System “indicated numerous positional difference alarms that were not addressed.”

Why or how the navigation system was changed is not addressed in the report, which notes a 3,600- to 3,700-yard ship position shift to the east.

That evening, small boats were operated to return aviation assessors to shore.

At about 8:03 p.m., the Port Royal was soft aground, with its bow’s underwater sonar dome on the reef, the report said.

The safety board report said there were several factors that led to a Ring Laser Gyro position error, including no evidence of a 72-hour calibration, and the fact that the last reset was four days earlier, meaning the system was not getting new GPS data. There was a “large position error” with the GPS interface not enabled, the report said.

The board, however, rejected navigation equipment error as the cause of the mishap.

“Other means were available to assess the ship’s position,” the report said. Those included “distinct visual aids” such as the airport control tower. Or, as one commentator on the earlier Advertiser story put it: “There is no substitute for the Mark One Eyeball.”

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.

Source: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090712/COLUMNISTS32/907120367/Navy+ship+grounding+detailed

Repairs to reef damaged by Navy ship proceed

Post Date April 28, 2009

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Author Laurel Mei-Singh

Category Environmental Impacts

Posted on: Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Repairs to Hawaii reef damaged by Navy ship enter new phase

Divers will collect coral displaced by grounded Navy ship
By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer

Divers today are expected to begin collecting coral colonies that survived the Feb. 5 grounding of the USS Port Royal and temporarily store them in a safe area until they can be returned to the damaged reef.

Up to 10 civilian divers have been contracted by the Navy to collect and relocate the coral displaced by the grounding off the Honolulu International Airport’s Reef Runway. The Port Royal ran aground Feb. 5 and was freed four days later, but not before the 9,600-ton guided missile cruiser caused “substantial” damage to the reef, according to the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

State officials told the Navy that they intend to file a full claim against the Navy to cover the cost of mitigating further damage to the reef, the value of the coral reef substrate damaged, attempts to free the Port Royal, and other damage to the reef ecosystem. The state and Navy have since developed a four-phase, multimillion-dollar plan to restore the coral reef.

The first two phases have been completed. The first phase involved Navy divers who did emergency work to reattach dozens of coral colonies and move large rocks to deeper water to prevent them from causing more harm.

Phase II began in early March and involved a contractor, hired by the Navy, to survey and assess conditions on the seabed where the 567-foot warship ran aground. The study found about 7,600 square yards of rubble that may have been created when the ship hit the reef.

The third phase is scheduled to begin today and involve the collection of the surviving coral. DLNR said the coral will be stored offshore and will be reattached in the damaged area at a later date.

In Phase IV, the rubble will be scooped off the ocean floor and transferred to a barge. The debris will be brought to shore and “put to further use,” the state said.

Rear Adm. Joseph Walsh, deputy commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, said the Navy is moving as quickly as possible to prevent further damage to the reef. He said seasonally high surf from the south is expected in mid-May and could pose a risk to divers and workers.

Laura H. Thielen, DLNR chairwoman, said she appreciated the Navy’s “timely” response to moving the living coral and removing the loose coral rubble.

“The actions we have agreed to are the next step in our continuing response to the impacts of the grounding,” Thielen said in a statement. “In particular, the action to remove rubble is critical to prevention of further damage to the reef. The state believes future steps will involve identifying projects that can restore the damaged reef and compensate for the loss of coral reef resources.”

The Port Royal’s grounding came on the first day of sea trials following $18 million in repairs and refurbishment.

The ship remains in dry dock and the Navy said it may revise its initial damage estimates of $25 million to $40 million.

Capt. John Carroll was temporarily relieved of his command of the Port Royal and reassigned to the Pacific Fleet staff.

Reach Curtis Lum at culum@honoluluadvertiser.com.

Source: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090428/NEWS08/904280351

State seeks damages from Navy for USS Port Royal reef damage

Post Date April 01, 2009

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Author Laurel Mei-Singh

Category Accidents, Environmental Impacts

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

State to seek claims against Navy for damage to reef off airport

Advertiser Staff

The state Department of Land and Natural Resources said today it has formally notified the U.S. Navy that it has identified substantial coral reef damage caused by the grounding of the USS Port Royal in February.

DLNR said immediate measures are needed to stabilize injured coral and to prevent further damage by widespread debris to other areas of the reef.

DLNR said a letter sent to the Navy yesterday also documents the state’s intent to make a claim for damages that include: the cost of emergency mitigation to prevent further damage; the value of the coral reef substrate damaged by the grounding of the Port Royal and associated attempts to free the 567-foot-long vessel; and other secondary and tertiary damage to the reef ecosystem.

The state will be seeking compensation from the Navy to fund and implement coral habitat restoration projects that will enhance Hawaii’s reef systems and mitigate for loss of ecological services caused by the grounding of the vessel.

“While the state also intends to seek compensation from the U.S. Navy for any damage caused by the grounding incident, the first priority remains protection of the remaining coral reef resources,” said Laura H. Thielen, DLNR chairperson.

“We are asking the U.S. Navy to work with us to achieve the mutual goal of protection of the natural resources and minimization of ongoing damage to the same public trust resources,” Thielen said.

Thielen warned that costs will increase substantially unless the Navy acts to immediately mitigate the primary damage impacts by: assisting in the recovery of injured coral; preventing further secondary damage by removing or stabilizing significant amounts of damaged coral rubble prior to the arrival of large south summer swells; and protecting loose live coral to prevent further damage to public trust resources, in coordination with the State and in compliance with emergency permitting requirements.

Officials from DLNR and the attorney general’s office will meet with Navy officials tomorrow.

On February 5, 2009, the Port Royal ran aground atop the coral reef fronting Honolulu International Airport’s Reef Runway in depths of approximately 14 to 22 feet. The vessel was lodged atop the reef for three full days during which several attempts were made to free it.

The area where the Port Royal ran aground was a complex “spur and groove” fringing reef (outcrops of coral interspersed with sandy areas) with a relatively high biodiversity of live coral and live rock, the state said. Numerous printed resources and the evaluation by various coral reef biologists concur that this area was one of the finest remaining reef habitats on the island of Oahu.

The main reef injury scar covers an estimated area of approximately 8,000 square meters. The documentation of the full area and extent of the damage associated with the grounding has not been completed, but it is estimated to cover an area of approximately 25,000 to 40,000 square meters

“The reef that was injured is an ancient one, full of coral colonies some of which took hundreds of years to reach their present size. A complex reef structure such as the one that was present prior to this injury forms numerous and intricate houses for the myriad of fish, invertebrates and sea turtles that use this reef for shelter and food resources,” Thielen said.

Source: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090401/BREAKING/90401076

Video shows reef damaged by USS Port Royal

Post Date March 14, 2009

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Author Laurel Mei-Singh

Category Environmental Impacts

Check out this video of the damage to the reef caused by the grounded USS Port Royal. Pulverized.

http://kgmb9.com/main/content/view/15031/40/

New Video Shows Reef Damaged by Navy Cruiser

Written by Brooks Baehr – bbaehr@kgmb9.com

March 13, 2009 06:36 PM

Local divers have given KGMB9 viewers what the U.S. Navy and State Department of Land and Natural Resources have refused to supply. The divers took video of coral colonies pulverized by the missile cruiser U.S.S. Port Royal when in ran aground in February.

Kirby Fukunaga is an avid free diver. He frequently fishes off Honolulu International Airport’s reef runway. Fukunaga has documented the GPS coordinates of coral colonies just outside restricted military zones. Fish tend to congregate around the colonies making those spots fertile fishing grounds.

“There’s a lot a lot of flat grounds, but once and a while you come onto a really big reef structure where it holds all the fish,” Fukunaga said.

The Port Royal was stuck on the ocean floor there for more than three days. After it was pulled free Fukunaga and friends went fishing.

He told KGMB9 he was surprised to find the reef had suffered extensive damage.

“It didn’t look like coral, but I guess that was the coral. Just like rubble.” Fukunaga said.

Fukunaga said he is sure the bits and pieces of coral he was looking used to be a thriving coral cluster.

“Yea, I’m sure I got the right spot. I dive there all the time,” he said.

Coral is not rock or plant. Coral is an animal.

Kyle Nakamoto, who joined Fukunaga on a recent dive and video taped the damage, told KGMB9 coral has been killed and the ecosystem has been disrupted.

“In this situation wiping out the homes of a lot of fish. (They) have to relocate … find new homes. It definitely has an impact on the marine life,” Nakamoto said.

The Hawaii Chapter of the Sierra Club has made a formal request to the state for photographs, video, and reports documenting the damage, but Friday said it has yet to receive a reply.

“You have to remember that the state has an obligation to enforce the rules and restrictions about damaging coral reefs and we want to make sure they are doing their job,” said Robert Harris, Director of the Hawaii Chapter of the Sierra Club.

Harris said the state has fined private businesses for damaging coral reefs and he believes it should fine the Navy.

“I mean there has to be a deterrent. If someone damages our natural resources, we should go after them,” he added.

Shortly after the Port Royal was pulled off the reef the State Department of Land and Natural Resources announced plans to save as much coral as possible by re-attaching it to the ocean floor. A spokesperson told KGMB9 that work is far from finished.

The spokesperson said the state will seek compensation from the Navy.

Stranded Navy ship severely damaged coral reef

Post Date February 20, 2009

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Author Laurel Mei-Singh

Category Accidents, Environmental Impacts, Ke Awalau o Pu'uloa / Pearl Harbor

The two Navy photos below show the damage to the USS Port Royal. In the first photo, the sonar dome is ripped open and scrapes mar the new high tech anti-fouling blue paint. The bottom photo shows where propeller blades were sheared off.

In the following photograph by Floyd Morris for the Honolulu Star Bulletin, you can see how close the stranded ship was to recreational and subsistence fishing areas. The Navy now admits to having dumped 7000 gallons, not 5000 gallons as previously reported, of raw sewage without notifying public health officials.

www.starbulletin.com

Extensive coral reef damage revealed in ship’s grounding

The Navy had previously said that the site consisted only of sand and rocks

By Gregg K. Kakesako

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Feb 20, 2009

State and Navy divers have determined that the $1 billion warship USS Port Royal damaged a coral reef when it ran aground half a mile south of the Honolulu Airport’s reef runway earlier this month.

“Although initial reports indicated that the ship had grounded on a rock and sand bottom, our subsequent surveys have shown that there is in fact coral reef,” said Department of Land and Natural Resources Director Laura Thielen in a joint news release with the Navy. “Divers from our Division of Aquatic Resources are now working in cooperation with counterparts from the Navy to ensure that no further damage occurs, and to map the full extent of the grounding scar.”

The Navy also faces the possibility of hefty fines since coral is protected by state and federal laws. Deborah Ward, DLNR spokeswoman, said it is “premature” to talk about fines until the joint state-Navy investigation is completed and reviewed by state attorneys. Last year, DLNR fined a Maui tour boat company $550,000 for damaging coral in the waters of Molokini islet.

In addition, the Navy says now that 7,000 – not 5,000 – gallons of waste water were dumped while the ship was aground Feb. 5-9 to prevent it from backing up and endangering the crew.

State and Navy divers will spend another week moving debris from the grounding area to deeper water and reattaching large pieces of coral.

The Navy had originally failed to tell the state and public about the waste-water discharge, even though two Health Department officials attended a meeting with Navy officials at Pearl Harbor on Feb. 8.

The Navy said the waste water consisted mostly of sea water, used to flush waste.

“Keep in mind that while the ship was aground for those 78 hours, the Navy was concerned foremost about the safety of the crew, freeing the ship and minimizing damage to the environment,” said Rear Adm. Joseph Walsh, deputy commander of the Pacific Fleet. “We regret this unintentional grounding, and we are glad that we were able to refloat the ship without injury to the crew while minimizing environmental harm.”

The dumping took place on Feb. 6 after a Navy barge was unable to transfer the waste water and fuel from the 9,600-ton guided-missile cruiser because of rough seas. The Navy said the Port Royal’s crew made every effort to mitigate the effects, including shutting off water to showers and sinks to minimize the released amounts.

The Port Royal was taken to Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard’s dry dock on Wednesday for repairs. When the grounding occurred, the vessel had begun sea trials after spending six months in the shipyard undergoing $18 million of repairs, maintenance work and repainting.

Although there has been no official damage report or estimate on the cost to repair the cruiser, Walsh has said that water leaked into the sonar dome located below the bow. Also, several of the 10 propeller blades were sheared off.

Photos released by the Navy show scrapes along the hull and at least five blades missing.

Initially, the Navy insisted the area where the ship ran aground in 20 feet of water consisted mainly of rocks and sand.

State and Navy divers from Pearl Harbor’s Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit 1 have been in the water since Feb. 12, tagging and replacing broken coral blocks.

The divers concentrated this week on mapping and photographing the extent of the damage to identify coral colonies that might be reattached to the reef using quick-setting cement.

Thielen said the department developed undersea survey and mapping techniques from two groundings in 2005: the Cape Flattery at Barbers Point and the Casitas at Pearl and Hermes reef in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

Navy and state divers also are noting the locations of detached reef blocks or other debris that might roll in the surf and cause additional damage to the reef over time.

These are being removed by Navy divers and disposed of at a deep-water site approved by the state.

The removed rocks range from 2 to 5 feet in diameter.

The Navy has not decided the fate of Capt. John Carroll, Port Royal’s commander, or any of the sailors who were on watch on the ship’s bridge at the time of the grounding.

Grounded Navy ship damaged Hawaii coral reef

Post Date February 20, 2009

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Author Laurel Mei-Singh

Category Accidents, Environmental Impacts, Ke Awalau o Pu'uloa / Pearl Harbor

HonoluluAdvertiser.com

February 20, 2009

Grounded Navy ship damaged Hawaii coral reef

DLNR can seek fines for harm caused by warship’s grounding

By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer

The state for the first time yesterday confirmed there was significant damage to coral reef caused by the 3 1/2-day grounding of the guided missile cruiser USS Port Royal this month off Honolulu Airport’s reef runway.

The Navy, meanwhile, released photos of the 9,600-ton warship in drydock showing damage to its propellers, sonar dome and scrape marks on a hull that just months ago had been repainted a bright blue.

The ship ran aground Feb. 5 half a mile off the reef runway, and was freed Feb. 9.

Divers noted detached coral reef colonies, which are being tagged for possible reattachment using quick-setting cement, the state and Navy said in a joint release yesterday.

Some blocks of reef up to 5 feet in diameter that could roll in the surf and cause more damage are being removed by Navy divers and disposed of in deep water.

The largest blocks are being cemented in place to stabilize them and prevent further movement, according to the release.

“Although initial reports indicated that the ship had grounded on a rock and sand bottom, our subsequent surveys have shown that there is, in fact, coral reef,” said Laura H. Thielen, chairwoman of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

State divers “are now working in cooperation with counterparts from the Navy to ensure that no further damage occurs, and to map the full extent of the grounding scar,” Thielen said in the release.

The state divers have been in the water since Feb. 12, conducting an underwater survey of the grounding site. DLNR spokeswoman Deborah Ward yesterday said she couldn’t provide an estimate of the size of the coral reef area damaged.

Robert Harris, director of the Sierra Club Hawai’i Chapter, said the concern is that some coral species take decades, if not centuries, to grow back fully.

“We have a fair amount of reef around the island, but the corals have been under increasing stress due to increasing temperature of the water and other manmade effects,” Harris said. “So there’s been increasing concern about what’s going to happen to reefs.”

The DLNR can seek fines for coral damage; in January 2008 the department fined a Maui tour boat company $550,000 for damaging coral in the waters of Molokini Islet. It was unclear yesterday whether fines would be pursued against the Navy.

Crew kept safe

Rear Adm. Joseph A. Walsh, deputy commander of U.S. Pacific Fleet, said in the release that the Navy regrets the grounding, but is glad the ship was able to be refloated without injury to the crew.

“Keep in mind that while the ship was aground for those 78 hours, the Navy was concerned foremost about the safety of the crew, freeing the ship and minimizing damage to the environment,” Walsh said.

There was no oil leakage. Walsh said at a press conference following the grounding that the marine environment “has been described to me as a sand rock bottom … but it has the potential to sustain life is how it was described to me.”

The 567-foot Port Royal ran aground about 8:30 p.m. on Feb. 5 on its first day of sea trials after being in a Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard drydock for about three months for $18 million in maintenance.

The Navy was unsuccessful in three attempts to pull the $1 billion warship off the reef in 17 to 22 feet of water, and its very public predicament just half a mile off the reef runway garnered the Navy a lot of unwanted public attention.

After removing 600 tons of weight – including 500 tons of seawater ballast and 40 tons’ worth of anchors and anchor chains – the Navy lightened the ship enough to pull it backward from its perch around 2:40 a.m. on Feb. 9.

The incident heavily damaged the bow-mounted sonar housing and struts, shafts and propellers. Propeller blades were sheared off. The salvage ship Salvor, the Motor Vessel Dove and seven Navy and commercial tugboats were used to pull the Port Royal free.

The ship’s commander, Capt. John Carroll, was temporarily relieved of his duties, pending the investigation outcome. The extent of repairs that are needed and bill for the work are still being determined, the Navy said.

As many as 42 sailors a day from the Navy’s Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit One have been assisting the state effort, moving and reattaching large pieces of coral.

The Navy yesterday said 7,000 gallons of wastewater were released by Port Royal while it was aground to prevent the sewage from backing up into the ship. The state Health Department previously complained the Navy did not officially notify it of the release, which the state agency initially believed was 5,000 gallons.

Capt. W. Scott Gureck, a spokesman for U.S. Pacific Fleet, said there was a miscommunication during a time of hectic activity.

“This (the grounding) was an emergency situation where people could have died,” he said. “The focus was on keeping people alive and keeping a ship from breaking up and causing incredible environmental harm.”

Stuck Navy ship dumped 5000 gallons of raw sewage, but didn't report it

Post Date February 11, 2009

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Author Laurel Mei-Singh

Category Accidents, Environmental Impacts, Ke Awalau o Pu'uloa / Pearl Harbor

The USS Port Royal failed to disclose to State regulators that it dumped 5000 gallons of untreated sewage into the waters off the Honolulu Airport. Many people fish, swim and paddle canoes in those very waters. Yummmm… The Honolulu Advertiser article captured the absurdity of the incident:

The omission was one more bit of embarrassment heaped onto the 3 1/2-day spectacle of a 9,600-ton warship capable of shooting down ballistic missiles in space sitting helplessly aground in 17 to 22 feet of water just off Honolulu International Airport’s reef runway.

Here’s the full article:

Stuck Navy ship failed to report sewage release near Hawaii shore

5,000 gallons of raw wastewater went into sea during Port Royal grounding

By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer

The Navy is pointing to a breakdown in communication in failing to report to state officials a 5,000-gallon release of raw sewage Saturday night by the grounded cruiser Port Royal, which was refloated early Monday.

The state Department of Health revealed the information yesterday. The Navy had not mentioned the sewage release at news conferences discussing the incident.

“The Navy did its best to keep all the responding organizations informed amid rapidly changing circumstances,” said Capt. W. Scott Gureck, a spokesman for U.S. Pacific Fleet. “Any breakdown in communication under these circumstances was unintentional.”

The omission was one more bit of embarrassment heaped onto the 3 1/2-day spectacle of a 9,600-ton warship capable of shooting down ballistic missiles in space sitting helplessly aground in 17 to 22 feet of water just off Honolulu International Airport’s reef runway.

The Navy said it recovered one of two bow anchors and chains yesterday, dropped by the Port Royal to help free its bow from the rocky and sandy bottom.

Officials said the centerline and starboard anchors and their chains weigh 40 tons. Subject to weather conditions, the Navy said it plans to retrieve the remaining anchor and chain today using the salvage vessel Salvor.

The Clean Water Branch of the state Department of Health said it was notified on Monday by the state Office of Hazard Evaluation and Emergency Response of the raw sewage discharge between late evening Saturday and 10 a.m. Sunday.

The 567-foot Pearl Harbor cruiser ran aground about 8:30 p.m. Thursday a half-mile from shore.

“No official notification (of the sewage discharge) was given to the Department of Health, even though two DOH staff persons attended a meeting at 2 p.m. Feb. 8, 2009 in Building 150 (at the) Pearl Harbor Naval Base,” the Health Department said in a release.

The Health Department said it confirmed the sewage release yesterday morning.

Gureck said had the Navy not discharged the wastewater, it would have backed up onto the ship. About 130 of the 324 sailors had been off-loaded by the time the ship was refloated, officials said.

“The reason (the sewage) was released was to protect the health and welfare of the crew,” Gureck said, adding the release was done at ebb tide to carry it away from recreational waters.

Officials said Navy ships can store about a day’s wastewater, which is released when a ship is at sea.

There remained questions about the Health Department’s jurisdiction regarding a Navy vessel, but Health Department spokeswoman Janice Okubo said the Navy should have notified the state.

The release of 1,000 gallons or more sewage by a permit holder is considered a significant amount, and the public is required to be notified, Okubo said.

The Health Department also said it was notified Monday of the bypass of 12,700 gallons of treated but not ultravioletly disinfected effluent from the Navy’s Fort Kamehameha wastewater treatment plant. The release occurred near the Pearl Harbor channel.

In response, the Health Department is advising the public to stay out of waters fronting the reef runway from Ke’ehi Channel to the Pearl Harbor channel.

A meeting of state and federal agencies, including the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, the Navy, Fish and Wildlife Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, was held yesterday to plan for an investigation of the impact of the grounding on the marine environment.

The Port Royal is expected to head to drydock by the end of the week for repairs.

Grounded ship refloated on 8th anniversary of Ehime Maru collision

Post Date February 10, 2009

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Author Laurel Mei-Singh

Category Accidents

www.starbulletin.com

Captain of grounded warship relieved of duty

The USS Port Royal ran aground last week but has been refloated and is back at Pearl

By Gregg K. Kakesako

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Feb 10, 2009

The key to freeing the 9,600-ton guided-missile cruiser USS Port Royal from a rocky and sandy shoal near the Honolulu Airport reef runway was removing more than 600 tons of sea water, anchors, anchor chains, sailors and equipment.

USS PORT ROYAL
Builder: Ingalls Shipbuilding

Cost: $1 billion

Propulsion: 4 gas turbine engines

Length: 567 feet

Beam: 55 feet

Displacement: 9,600 tons

Speed: 30-plus knots

Crew: 24 officers, 340 enlisted

Armament: Standard missile, vertical launch missile, Tomahawk cruise missile, six MK-46 torpedoes, two MK 45 5-inch/.54-caliber guns, two Phalanx close-in-weapons systems

Aircraft: Two SH-60 Seahawk helicopters

Source: U.S. Navy

Rear Adm. Joe Walsh, deputy commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, told reporters yesterday that after lightening the load, the salvage ship USNS Salvor and the Motor Vessel Dove were able at 2:40 a.m. yesterday to pull the $1 billion warship off the shoal where it had been lodged since Thursday night.

Walsh said lines from the Salvor and the Dove were attached to the Port Royal’s stern.

Four Navy and three civilian tugboats were aligned on either side of the 567-foot cruiser to assist in the tow, which was timed to take advantage of yesterday morning’s high tide.

Walsh said it took about 40 minutes to free the 15-year-old cruiser, which was stuck in about 22 feet of water.

Initial assessment disclosed that a rubber dome that houses the sonar under the bow of the Port Royal may have been cracked.

Sensors indicate that water entered the dome, Walsh said. The tips of the Port Royal’s two propellers also were sheared off.

Walsh said the cruiser was “structurally sound” and that damage was limited to the hull. None of the sophisticated Aegis combat radar and missile systems were affected, he said.

Speaking in front of the Port Royal at Pearl Harbor, Walsh said the cruiser will be moved to the shipyard by the end of week and placed in dry dock. It had left dry dock on Jan. 6 and spent another month in the shipyard to complete an $18 million renovation and repainting job. There was no evidence of any major damage to the port side of the ship above the waterline.

Walsh was not able to estimate the cost to repair the Port Royal or how long an investigation into the grounding would take. The ship had just finished its first day of sea trials and was offloading sailors, contractors and civilian shipyard personnel to a small boat when it ran aground.

Yesterday, Rear Adm. Dixon R. Smith, commander of Naval Surface Group Middle Pacific, temporarily relieved Capt. John Carroll as the Port Royal’s commanding officer pending the results of the investigation to determine the cause of the ship’s grounding.

Smith made a special trip to the cruiser Friday and spent the weekend on the Port Royal directing the operations.

Carroll assumed command of the Port Royal in October.

Capt. John T. Lauer III, who is assigned to the staff of Naval Surface Group Middle Pacific, has been temporarily assigned as the ship’s commanding officer.

Walsh said he was “very, very satisfied” with how the operation had been conducted and that the Navy started with attempts Friday to pull the Port Royal using just two harbor tugs. Two larger ships with greater towing capacity were later brought in.

Eventually, success was achieved after half of the 320 crew members and more than 500 tons of sea water used as ballast and another 40 tons comprising two anchors, anchor chains and other equipment were taken off the cruiser.

Walsh said the Navy was to return to the site, about a half-mile south of Honolulu Airport, to retrieve the anchors and anchor chains and then determine whether damage was caused to the ocean bottom.

Joining in the site assessment will be representatives from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and state Health and Land departments.

Yesterday an aerial survey of the grounding site showed a sheen of marine diesel fuel about 1.5 miles long and 100 yards wide. However, “it is not clear if the fuel is from the Port Royal or one of the nine other vessels used in the response,” Walsh said.

“There is no threat to the coastline or marine life from the sheen.”

He said the oil spill recovery vessel Clean Islands will remain next to the sheen until it burns away.

The refloating of the Port Royal occurred on the eighth anniversary of the collision of the Ehime Maru with the nuclear submarine USS Greeneville. On Feb. 9, 2001, the Greeneville performed an emergency surfacing movement 10 miles south of Diamond Head and collided with the Japanese training vessel. The Ehime Maru sank within minutes. Nine of its crew members, including four high school students, were killed.

The key to freeing the 9,600-ton guided-missile cruiser USS Port Royal from a rocky and sandy shoal near the Honolulu Airport reef runway was removing more than 600 tons of sea water, anchors, anchor chains, sailors and equipment.

USS PORT ROYAL
Builder: Ingalls Shipbuilding

Cost: $1 billion

Propulsion: 4 gas turbine engines

Length: 567 feet

Beam: 55 feet

Displacement: 9,600 tons

Speed: 30-plus knots

Crew: 24 officers, 340 enlisted

Armament: Standard missile, vertical launch missile, Tomahawk cruise missile, six MK-46 torpedoes, two MK 45 5-inch/.54-caliber guns, two Phalanx close-in-weapons systems

Aircraft: Two SH-60 Seahawk helicopters

Source: U.S. Navy

Rear Adm. Joe Walsh, deputy commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, told reporters yesterday that after lightening the load, the salvage ship USNS Salvor and the Motor Vessel Dove were able at 2:40 a.m. yesterday to pull the $1 billion warship off the shoal where it had been lodged since Thursday night.

Walsh said lines from the Salvor and the Dove were attached to the Port Royal’s stern.

Four Navy and three civilian tugboats were aligned on either side of the 567-foot cruiser to assist in the tow, which was timed to take advantage of yesterday morning’s high tide.

Walsh said it took about 40 minutes to free the 15-year-old cruiser, which was stuck in about 22 feet of water.

Initial assessment disclosed that a rubber dome that houses the sonar under the bow of the Port Royal may have been cracked.

Sensors indicate that water entered the dome, Walsh said. The tips of the Port Royal’s two propellers also were sheared off.

Walsh said the cruiser was “structurally sound” and that damage was limited to the hull. None of the sophisticated Aegis combat radar and missile systems were affected, he said.

[Preview] Navy Warship Finally Freed
[Preview]

An investigation is underway into what caused a billion dollar ship to run aground in Hawaiian waters.

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