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FINE CUT FILMS - NONSENSE |
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All at Sea A treatise on precise navigation
One of the first things any sailor learns is the complicated set of rules for avoiding collision at sea. In general, if you find that another ship remains at a constant angle with regard to your heading, there's possible danger, and the ship which has the other on its starboard bow should bear away to starboard. Unless
it's
a
US
aircraft
carrier,
that
is.
This
is
the
transcript
of
a
radio
conversation
on
board
a
US
naval
ship
off
the
coast
of
Newfoundland
in
Oct.
1995.
US ship: Please divert your course 15 degrees to the North to avoid a collision. Reply: Recommend you divert YOUR course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision. US ship: This is the captain of a US Navy ship, I say again, divert YOUR course. Reply: No. I say again, you divert YOUR course. US ship: THIS IS THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER US MISSOURI. WE ARE A WARSHIP OF THE US NAVY. DIVERT YOUR COURSE. NOW! Reply: This is a lighthouse. Your call.
N.B. I'm indebted to Gareth Winslade for pointing out what I would have realised had I bothered with the absolute minimum of research. The story is a complete load of codswallop. It's totally untrue, innacurate, misleading, scurrilous, and has appeared in all sorts of guises all over the shop. But it's a good laugh, so I'll leave it here for now.
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