The\u00a0USS Fitzgerald, <\/em>built at Bath Iron Works<\/strong>, suffers a deadly collision in Japan that hits close to home.\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\nBy Blair Best<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n![\"JA17-Peril-on-the-Sea\"](\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/JA17-Peril-on-the-Sea.jpg\")
On a clear early morning just weeks ago, US Navy destroyer\u00a0USS Fitzgerald <\/em>(DDG-62),\u00a0was traveling from her home port in Yokosuka with her American crew when she\u00a0was blindsided by a collision with the\u00a0ACX Crystal<\/em>,\u00a0a Philippine merchant container ship. Almost three times the size of the destroyer\u2013weighing in at over 29,000 tons\u2013the\u00a0Crystal\u00a0<\/em>struck\u00a0Fitzgerald<\/em>\u00a0with her bow, penetrating the starboard side of the Navy ship below her waterline. The collision claimed the lives of seven Navy sailors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe news sent shock waves throughout America\u2013felt keenly in Bath, where the\u00a0USS Fitzgerald\u00a0<\/em>was built and launched by Bath Iron Works in 1994. The Daily Mail<\/em> places the ship\u2019s cost at $1.4 billion. At Byrnes\u2019 Irish Pub, located near to the shipyard, locals and boat builders have been discussing the event at length. \u201cEveryone is saying how sad it is,\u201d a bartender tells us. \u201cRegulars have asked active Navy sailors what they think happened. They just say they\u2019re not allowed to comment.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s a tragedy,\u201d says Nathan Gould, Harbormaster of Bath. \u201cThere hasn\u2019t yet been an official report about the incident. I know that the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. military, and the Japanese Coast Guard are all doing different investigations. At this point, it\u2019s hard to say anything conclusive.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nWhat about the fate of the ship? \u201cWe don\u2019t know if the Navy will decide to bring\u00a0Fitzgerald\u00a0<\/em>back to Bath for repairs,\u201d Gould says. \u201cIt\u2019s a possibility since this is where she was built. Or they may decide to just scrap the ship. But I can tell you the way the ship was designed, and the way in which the crew was trained, are what saved more loss of life.\u00a0Fitzgerald\u00a0<\/em>was designed well, with different compartments that the crew was able to close off in order to stop further flooding. What do I think happened? I\u2019ve read many online theories, but there\u2019s really no way of knowing unless you were there.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"July\/August 2017
\nThe USS Fitzgerald, built at Bath Iron Works, suffers a deadly collision in Japan that hits close to home. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[131],"class_list":["post-13524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-julyaugust-2017"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13524"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14378,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13524\/revisions\/14378"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The news sent shock waves throughout America\u2013felt keenly in Bath, where the\u00a0USS Fitzgerald\u00a0<\/em>was built and launched by Bath Iron Works in 1994. The Daily Mail<\/em> places the ship\u2019s cost at $1.4 billion. At Byrnes\u2019 Irish Pub, located near to the shipyard, locals and boat builders have been discussing the event at length. \u201cEveryone is saying how sad it is,\u201d a bartender tells us. \u201cRegulars have asked active Navy sailors what they think happened. They just say they\u2019re not allowed to comment.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a tragedy,\u201d says Nathan Gould, Harbormaster of Bath. \u201cThere hasn\u2019t yet been an official report about the incident. I know that the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. military, and the Japanese Coast Guard are all doing different investigations. At this point, it\u2019s hard to say anything conclusive.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n What about the fate of the ship? \u201cWe don\u2019t know if the Navy will decide to bring\u00a0Fitzgerald\u00a0<\/em>back to Bath for repairs,\u201d Gould says. \u201cIt\u2019s a possibility since this is where she was built. Or they may decide to just scrap the ship. But I can tell you the way the ship was designed, and the way in which the crew was trained, are what saved more loss of life.\u00a0Fitzgerald\u00a0<\/em>was designed well, with different compartments that the crew was able to close off in order to stop further flooding. What do I think happened? I\u2019ve read many online theories, but there\u2019s really no way of knowing unless you were there.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" July\/August 2017On a clear early morning just weeks ago, US Navy destroyer\u00a0USS Fitzgerald <\/em>(DDG-62),\u00a0was traveling from her home port in Yokosuka with her American crew when she\u00a0was blindsided by a collision with the\u00a0ACX Crystal<\/em>,\u00a0a Philippine merchant container ship. Almost three times the size of the destroyer\u2013weighing in at over 29,000 tons\u2013the\u00a0Crystal\u00a0<\/em>struck\u00a0Fitzgerald<\/em>\u00a0with her bow, penetrating the starboard side of the Navy ship below her waterline. The collision claimed the lives of seven Navy sailors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nThe USS Fitzgerald, built at Bath Iron Works, suffers a deadly collision in Japan that hits close to home. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[131],"class_list":["post-13524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-julyaugust-2017"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13524"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14378,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13524\/revisions\/14378"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}