I will agree with the high strangeness of this incident... Would have been very convenient for this tanker to blow up, eh?

But....Iranian fast boats?

Japans, Its on RT news right now.

On the behalf of the americans, those ships take miles to stop, they also have many blind spots. Its possible they did not see the ship or the other ship was not supposed to be there.

An oil tanker wouldn´t explode if shot when full, the oil would burn separate from the ship in the water, it would only explode once the oil had been burned off and the vapours got hot enough, or if the ship was running empty with the vapours in the hold. Similar to how you can´t set a bucket of petrol on fire, but you can if it is spilled on the floor.

As someone else said, it is most probably a case of the ship being unable to stop in time, or the US Navy ship being somewhere it was not expected to be.

It wouldn't surprise me if the US demanded the tanker to deviate its course out of the US ship's course, but the tanker, having a hella hard time doing such a thing what with its massive size, couldn't, and the arrogance of the US decided to continue on.

Just one scenario.

And/or it thought it could clear in tight quarters...

Probably the latter. Difficult to maneuver such large vessels in small spaces.

US ships have Radar and Sonar and can detect even one man swimming underwater up to the boat...

How do they hit an Oil Tanker?

oblisly the destroyer was wrong..... to get in the way of an tanker route.... ore the tanker had to steer away first couse it was an american warship laying in his path??????

Never mind. I see others have already addressed this....

Being a navigation officer in the merchant Navy, I will be interested to see the specific situation as it transpired.

There are "International regulations for the prevention of collusions at sea" (Colregs) which must be adhered to. If the naval vessel was not travelling in convoy, then she is to adhere to collusion regulations.

For Example, if risk of collusion is deemed to exist then "The vessel which has the other on her own starboard side shall give way".

The US Navy vessel had damage to her starboard side suggesting she MAY have been the give-way vessel?


The tanker may have been deep draft which would have made her "restricted in her ability to manoeuvre" or "RAM" so other power driven vessels must give way to her.

High traffic area - all radars and AIS would have been functioning - they would definitely have seen each other.

Originally posted by Sublimecraft

The tanker may have been deep draft which would have made her "restricted in her ability to manoeuvre" or "RAM" so other power driven vessels must give way to her.

Yes, I would assume a fully laden supertanker would be less easy to manoever than a modern US warship and it would be expected that the later would give way?

Sounds to me like an "oops" situation the USN would prefer us to forget

Ultimately it wouldn´t surprise me if it was just an arrogant captain who realised that he was completely untouchable because of the flag he is sailing under so he can throw international shipping and maritime laws to hell and do whatever he wants, including demanding other vessels to make maneuvers they are not obliged to do under normal circumstances.

Reminds me of the apocryphal story of the captain of a US Navy ship who demanded a contact move x degrees off course, using his position and nationality as a weapon, until captain realised he was tangling with a lighthouse.