Running Aground At Key Bridge

All Aground

I was on a Naval Ship back in 1983 that ran aground in Helsinki Finland.  We had to weave in and around a few islands, but, first we picked up a pilot who was an “expert” for this port. My task was to record everything that happened on the bridge (not a road over the water, but, where the Captain, Navigator, helmsman, Pilot and others who participate in the guidance of the ship). Even with the pilot we elected to follow our “Flagship”. Our problem was that our GPS wasn’t working so, we elected to follow. How hard can it be? Well, we went around an island and guess what? There was a heavy fog bank out of nowhere! Captain said all engines stop! But, it was too late our ship ran aground. Not really causing a lot of damage to anything. It was more like a canoe in the mud. Except we had a sonar dome under water on the foc’s’le (about 8’x8’x6′). That was really stuck in the mud/rocks. We tried to go into reverse and come out but it wouldn’t work without hurting the sonardome. We also tried pulling it out with a couple tugboats and that didn’t work either. So, we waited for the highest tide. And we pumped the water out of the sonardome and filled it with the same pressure of air which lifted the bow a couple extra feet. That allowed us to go into reverse and finally found our dock/pier.
If the Captain had ordered all astern then maybe we could have avoided the incident. He ended up retiring after this cruise. Perhaps if our lookouts had spotted the fog earlier? The pilot should have known where the channel was and should have guided us through the fog, but, no.
Anyways we arrived at our pier a few hours later and the sonardome survived some scratches.
Actually a sister ship of the same model severely damaged their sonardome due to very large waves and going directly into the large waves bouncing up and down. C’est la golf.
After tieing up to the pier we had a very large crowd of people celebrating our “landing”? The crowd motioned our crew to throw their  Dixie cups. I have never seen this before. I had to finish my log finalizing our running aground. After the crowd dissipated I saw a little old man (maybe a drunk) waving at me to give him my Dixie cup.  Me being the cheapest sailor ever and not understanding the Finnish language; utilizing sign language, I asked him for his Irish flat cap. We traded and I still have that hat today!
It’s a wonder that a massive ship carrying way too much stuff can hit a bridge in the middle of the night with a pilot. The purpose of the pilot is to prevent such an “accident”. You are going too fast and aiming directly at a tower holding up the bridge in the middle of the night means you did it on purpose or you are out of your mind?

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Published by Daniel Shea

I am a happily married knucklehead. Born in Chicago and raised in Memphis and Prairie du Chien Wis. I wish someone would benefit from my ideas. And I wish I didn't get so many spams. #niceday