🚨Looking at tides for the region, it appears Williams departed when the tide was rising, flowing into the estuary. There is about a 6-foot (2-meter) range tide which would produce a substantial current pushing Williams to the east and into the shoals.🚨

My dad said,… If you have not run aground, bumped another vessel and/ or touched the hard, you lack experience.

My Ship , USS LUCE DDG- 38 , Struck a submerged sand bar departing GUANTANAMO BAY the day after a round of thunderstorms. We were using a Leadline and tugs but hit a little patch of sand that had probably piled up overnight. We freed ourselves in about 5 minutes and to my knowledge no repremands were given .

This guy is the nuts, a list of qualifications as long as your arm, oh, and a fire fighter, and a lecturer, and probably a dozen other things he doesn't mention...I only tune in for the shirts ...Bab el-Mandeb, cheers!

If I may share with the community something I've started to do when watching Sal's videos: I look up the Soldiers for whom the various ships are named and read the accounts of their exploits. There is an impressive wealth of Heroism behind all those fine Soldiers. It's really super interesting to read about!

We once were picked up from the beach by an LST. After every thing was loaded the ship was stuck on the bottom. They connected several landing craft to pull it back without success. They called all marines up to the flight deck and had us run en masse side to side to rock the ship. 15-20 minutes later we were back in business.

I was on a 150’ Mini Supply boat working on an oil platform decommissioning project as a supervisor not associated with the vessel. That boat had all the sail area forward with an open flat back deck that only had about 5 feet of freeboard. Imagine a 150’ pickup truck. Even at that small size the bow thruster was absolutely vital when docking that boat. I can’t imagine a ship of this size and sail area not having them. Thanks Sal.

Nice summary of this unique vessel. I learn everyday more about our ocean vessels. Canoeing is my closest activity on water

The whole maneuver indicates to me that the tugs were unable to provide enough assistance to actually help the ship turn around. I have visited Gabon with a ship I was commanding, the tugs are really small and old, and to save the cost of having to change ropes, they ask the vesels to give their own ropes for the tow, which further complicates the maneuver. Also I am assuming that as a civilian tanker design, the hull of the vessel does not come equiped with a bow thruster. Given the missions of these vessel's, a provision to fit a bow thruster, for the sake of stabilizing the vessel better at sea when dropping/recovering tenders should be considered... (edit: I stopped the video at about the 10:00 to write this, looks like we were thinking the same thing!)

The ship was participating in the naval exercise "Obangame Express". Naval forces from the US, Nigeria, Ghana, and Spain participated. Exercises occurred in the Gulf of Guinea, Africa.

I spent nearly a month in Libreville, Gabon, back in 2017. Not the most capable or motivated populace I've encountered in my travels. The burnt out National Legislative building was an interesting sight. Apparently, unpaid teachers decide to send a message. French military still had a fairly significant presence with a base at the international airport.

I stopped watching the US news media twenty years ago. But we seldom were shown what extreme task our military are tasked with and how they overcome. And I remember hearing of a white house staff that was SHOCKED when they heard there were military officers with advanced degrees. What such a warm and fuzzy feeling that was.

As a San Diegan, I am acutely aware of the US Navy's "challenges" with faulty specifications, faulty decision making regarding repairs and refurbishing big ships. Perhaps it is time for a truly independent commission to look into why "the Navy doesn't like" bow thrusters, specifies fragile ships and skewers Captains for lobbyists' misbehaviors. (See the USS BOXER, USS BON HOMME RICHARD and Littoral Combat Ships.) Our Sailors & Marines deserve better!

I still want you to make shirts. Who wants to a Sal shirt. Much Respect all. ❤

Dr Sal, my wife & I love your show. Great job, blessings to you and our Merchant Mariners keeping our shelves stocked.

Your content is always solid, Sal. Thank you

I like the aerial view showing the difference in size by scale to the Maersk container ship ⚓

Tankers displace a large volume of water, as they come forward into a closed area the force water into that area (bow wake), particularly if they are reversing thrust, but when they stop that water is going to flow the other direction . Look where the tanker is in presentation to the Williams he’s slowing down as the Williams is deberthing and his reverse thrust is heading right into the side of the Williams. Look at 8:08. The water hitting the ship is going to deflect back towards the dock and the vector remnant on the ship is going to to be orthogonal to the channel in the direction of the shallows. This is the port managers fault here, if the Williams was departing the tanker should have held position, but once it entered its docking vectors the Williams should have held position at its berth. Someone wasn’t communicating.

That's a great point about Admiral Nimitz.

If you don't have bow thrusters, maybe you need to carry your own tugs. Gabon is as close as you can get to the mineral rich Congos without docking there. Nice, nice work, Sal.

He’s right about Nimitz. I also read that during WWII, Nimitz was lenient with one of his own subordinate Captains who also grounded a ship. I hope the Navy takes a similar attitude in this case.

Draft of 39 feet is a lot. Calling at a port in Gabon is very interesting. The ship is huge.

Lessons learned from actual events are far more valuable than "what if" discussions. Thanks Sal for all your descriptive visuals & knowledge!

I was on the precom for this exact ship. it was a good time. Retired before the first deployment, but it was fun playing with new toys.

Saw headlines that stated "Ship runs aground while captain at dinner" My first thought was...Captain ashore while ship underway?!?! Then I Immediately thought...Capt. not on bridge but at mess for a meal. 😅 Sal, something you said about the design of the ESB triggered a memory. You said the design was based on oil tanker built in San Diego. The absence of an elevator did the "click" moment. A major oil company had 2 or 3 tankers built to transport crude to US west coast refineries. To me, what was intriguing, as reported by the tanker crew, the tanker was twin screw, with separate engine rooms. Supposedly only one engineer was on late watch, sitting in front of a board. If they had to physically report to the other engine room they would have to climb multi decks by stair to pass around or over a bulkhead and descend by stairs.

Gator sailor here from the brown and blue water navy of the 1960s, 'grounded' our WW2 LST 18 times that year, kinda fun if the ship was designed for it. I recall one failed beaching attempt in the 'Delta' when we plowed sideways into the muddy river bank like a 2500 ton bulldozer...no problem.

Great video! Thank you for making and sharing with us!!

No excuses…NJP for all members of the Watch! No doubt this will improve US NAVY & MSC retention numbers across all Departments. Carry on Shipmates!

Thank you for this education and clear diagrams.

A Blooming "floating island". A Great Big floating island. Wow. As a guy who spent some time in the Army, let me say that somebody in Naval Planning was really, really smart. That thing is a really, really useful thing.

I spent 5 years sailing as a licensed deck officer for MSC. One thing I learned about the Navy during that period was that they prefer to assign airplane pilots to command their aircraft carriers. However, airplane pilots do not have any ship-handling experience. Consequently, the Navy assigns airplane pilots to command other large vessels to give them ship-handling experience, despite the fact that they have absolutely no previous experience involving ships apart from landing and taking off from them. A friend of mine, a fellow licensed deck officer who chose to activate his reserve commission and go into the regular Navy, was placed on a fleet oiler where he was assigned to the engine room. Even more surprising than that, he told me that the oilier's captain was not a deck officer either, but an airplane pilot. Given that experience, I cannot help wondering if the captain of the ship, the USS Williams, may also have been an airplane pilot.

Aloha Captain Saul, I’ve worked on the ESB ships the second one in the class USNS John Glenn when it was a new built (plank owner) I like to mention that there is a bow thruster on those ships. It is base off a 5th generation tanker for Alaska Tanker Company design. We’ll hope that clears up about these ships. Aloha Captain, Walter

New to your channel since the bridge collapse. Absolutely love it. super informative i like your lego globe 🌎 also thats really cool

Excellent video. Thank you.

I didn't know Woody Williams has a ship named after him. And a pretty damn cool one at that. (For those who aren't aware, Williams won the Medal of Honor on Iwo Jima in WWII.)

Sail area and wind - gets vessels of ANY size. I was on a 'sweeper that got caught by the wind, twice. One involved a collision that wrecked a liferaft mount, the second time was berthing. That one involved the wind, helm orders and ended up then vessel catching a sharp corner on a catamaran, punching a hole in the hull allowing a slow leak into the ship. Luckily it was taken care of and put down to experience. All corrective action at the time was correct and no loss of rate (way above my pay scale 😂) for any of those inncharge.

Thanks! Good video as always, Sal!

I hope you’re right, happy Mothers Day Mrs. Sal

The John Canley I believe it’s named is nearly ready for commissioning.

Thanks for the great facts and analysis.

Thank you Sal. Embarrassing for the Navy and many lessons will be learned. ❤

As a Submariner-what a juicy target. These big guys are vulnerable and high value.

Interesting. Thank you!

Thanks for the info Sal,,Keep up the good work!

Love all this knowledgeable detail. And great maps. It's bringing back the excitement of sailing and docking even on small vessels!

Oopsy! 😬 Glad it had a good resolution. Thanks Sal!

I had zero interest in shipping till I found Sam's channel. He makes it interesting, Now I know how important shipping really is.

In retrospect, the falken islands war had two merchant marine roro ships modified with added flight decks for helos that helped England in the assault. Good to see this concept expanded.

Thanks for another clear video 👍 👍👍

I've only been on one work ship out of my 26 years at sea that had a elevator. That was the pipelay ship Global 1200. It was nice whenever it was working.

Tysm Sal. You remain on my notifications for all your episodes. I appreciate your rational, educated ⚓🚢 shipping updates. All supply ⛓️ chains employees/🎖️ military remain at the 🔝🎩 top of my daily prayer 🤲🙏 list.

What a great summary. Thank you. I also appreciate the 10,000ft view that assuming negligence wasn’t a factor the navy made decisions that made this a possibility. No bow thrusters, minimum tug support and just the order to send this ship into that port with very tight tolerances. It’s my view that if management doesn’t provide all the tools necessary to ensure success every time it’s their failure when the inevitable happens, not the failure of the operator provided they were acting reasonably. I hope the navy can be man enough themselves if that’s the case.

At first I thought this might be a deep-water command tour for an aviator in the carrier command pipeline. Turned out to be an O-6 SWO...wonder if she'll get a "pass".....

I've been on one of those ships when the platform was being tested. Didn't realize how cool that was at the time

Excellent, informative as always! Cheers, Sir!

There is something missing from the Williams story. Maybe it was grounded deliberately. If the bottom was sand or mud, the boat may have been set on a shoal to steady it for one tide to let it do a duty. Submarines often sit on their bellies on the bottom, especially if they are not rubber coated. Maybe grounding is much adieu about nothing, especially if there was no chance of an enemy boat attacking the Williams.

Thanks for the explanation, Sal

Excellent and informative video. Thanks.

Thanks! ANY TIME you can reference Adm Nimitz, in whatever context, we are honored and humbled.🇺🇸

Thanks Sal.

Love change of reporting subject!

I lived in Libreville overlooking the estuary, and crossing it in the weekends. What I would like to know is what that ship was doing there. Perhaps an obscure country, but during my time there all the superpowers were present (and not just for the parties I would guess).

Hi Sal, send in the Merchant Marines.

When you adapt a design, you should make changes as needed. Being on the Great Lakes, I've seen an awful lot of very old "boats" (ships) extensively upgraded with bow and sometimes stern thrusters and self unloading booms. Most Great Lakes ports can be described as "austere", but tug use is uncommon.

Brilliant channel Sal. Love it. 😊

Thanks!

Great breakdown on a very interesting ship.👍👍

Great stuff on Nimitz, as an example of grace rewarding the accuser in the future. We should practice grace with individuals we find knock against us internally.

Thanks Sal

Sal, The Alaska Class Tankers used a twin-screw diesel-electric drive. They also have twin rudders. The question of bow thrusters is an accountant vs operator decision. With tugs and a ship with two propellers and two rudders they should be able to "crab" the ship into the channel. Whoever made the decision to not install an elevator should accompany each crewmember for 24 hours. If they spend a voyage onboard, when they leave they'll know why elevators are necessary. Bob

Always interesting & informative content!

This is atleast the third video I've seen on the Williams, named for the last WW2 MOH survivor.

Is it true that we turned down an offer of a deep water naval port/base in São Tomé and Principe? My faulty memory is that São Tomé was seeking an imprimatur of protection against Nigeria stealing their undersea oil via horizontal drilling into their territorial waters, and that we turned it down to not get involved. Big mistake.

Im glad you stuck up for the Captian there! I was going to ask "Isnt the navy brutal on captians whos ship run aground?" Having learned a lot from Dracinefels channel. I butchered that spelling but if you know, you know.

Another great video!

Very practical and clever design vessel. Pity about the bow thrusters. Also it could do with stern thrusters.

Wind and steam.... good stuff.. thanks

Thank you, I was trying to remember if that was nimitz that got away with that grounding. ( In 1908, Ensign Nimitz commanded the USS Decatur, an old destroyer which he ran aground. Although found guilty at a court-martial for “hazarding” a Navy ship, the admiral who signed his first report stated, “This is a good officer and will take more care in the future.”)

All things considered… the port, the size of the ship, and limited tug services. I’m not surprised this can happen.

I have a suggestion / request for a video from you: Discuss the large (1000 ft +/-) ships designed for the Great Lakes contrasting with ocean-going cargo vessels. Structure, stability issues, handling, etc.

The ESBs do have a very large, rotating/retractable bow thruster, but it is a legacy from the first two ships (ESD) that require dynamic positioning in open water. Lowering the thruster in shallow waters is probably not advisable.

The best!

39' draft is a beast. Probably have to wait for tide getting in/out of some ports

I believe Drachinifel said on his channel that wartime officers do not make good peacetime officers, and vice versa. You don't want officers taking risks with expensive ships during peace, but you need officers to show some aggression during war.

Amazing Navy.

Woody's soft grounding. I'm sure that was an all hands evolution!

I walked beside one of those Navy hospital ships back in the 80s, when it was and the Baltimore Shipyard. It was so huge and long Karma the whole time I was hoping that sucker would not fall over on me. Play yard was dead quiet and it was so eerie.

Like a cross between a tanker and an aircraft carrier! Gone to visit the Bwiti in Gabon I guess...cheers!

Reminds me of the support ships used in Vietnam for the River Boat Fleets and they had a small flight deck for 1-2 Huey's to land or 1-Chinook. I think they called it the brown water Navy? I believe they operated in IV Corp.

So much for that command...

We only learn through failure. If the captain is relieved his/her replacement will have to restart the learning curve at the beginning. Don't cashier experience.

So interesting.

It's also rather unique among ships as it has the Medal of Honor of it's namesake stored on the ship if memory serves.

Lots of different little things that after adding up, don't math correctly. Very interesting video!

Wow, what a cool ship!

Great job Sal. I hope they don't hammer the ships masters too hard. We need all of the good help and experience we can get.

I just saw today that they did do a controlled demolition on part of the Baltimore bridge which was atop the Dali. I had speculated that might be necessary.

Interesting brief!

I got a chance to see the ESB-6 just after it was commissioned at NAS North Island a few months ago. We were driving around seeing what had changed and showing my wife a few points of interest in my earlier incarnation. WTF is that?? So we drove over and parked and I wandered over and asked the pier sentry, "What the heck in an ESB?" He looked back and said, "Hell if I know." They are big and freaking ugly. Looking at the chart I'd be a little concerned about those "obstructions" in the turning circle on the chart. was CDO at/Command Center Watch Officer at MSC Far East during the first Gulf War when one of the newest and biggest UNREP ships hit an uncharted pinnacle. It was third in a column of ships with one of the Amphibious Ready Groups making a port call at one of the ports in the Emirates. Ripped a hole in the hull and dumped one of the Navy's largest oil spills in several decades. General Schwartzkopf mentioned it in his press briefing. As in, "Oh by the way a tanker with the Amphibious Group ran aground and spilled some oil down in the Emirates." Nobody asked any follow-up questions. Turns out the LPH ahead of her might actually have nicked the pinnacle with one of her screws. Further surveys found several very shallow pinnacles in what was otherwise a relatively deep harbor. Lots of consternation over sailing directions and updated charts until it was determined the ship had everything updated.

no elevators is good for crew fitness, love your reports.. very good, thank you