Poisoned Water: How a Navy Ship Dumped Fuel and Sickened Its Own Crew

So which is it? The navy spills fuel in the water on regular occurrence and suffers no consequence? Or the navy operates under the same strict regulations as the rest of the civilized shipping world and does not send oil over the side lest we all end up in jail?

A lot of fuel, maybe not. Have things changed in the last ten years, maybe so. Usually you only saw compensated fuel tanks overflow fuel when someone screws up, more the exception than the rule. But Iā€™d say a lot of the unreps I saw at MSC the navy ships would catch the drain-off into a large catch pan under the probe when disconnecting, and then dump it over the side. I hope newer warships have waste oil drains at their unrep stationsā€¦and if so that of course begs the question of what warships do if their waste oil tanks fill up while at sea. Iā€™m going to guess the answer isnā€™t that they rush straight to shore to properly dispose of it. Does anyone know if your typical destroyers have an incinerator to burn slops?

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How about if you just back up your claim and stop the usual Bob & Weave.

I have yet to see you offer up any proof that that is true.

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I have no doubt what you saw was true. Quite often when I asked a one of the enlisted why they did certain evolutions in a particular way I usually got one of two answers. Either thatā€™s the way the CPO told me to do it, or thatā€™s the way weā€™ve always done it.

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Prove they donā€™t dump fuel over the side every time they do some fuel operation. Fuel/oil entering the water events are obviously not tracked by Navy or MSC, so there obviously would never be any documented evidence.

Back when the USN had some diesel subs, they refueled in Ft lauderdale and always spilt fuel, huge fines and all the authorities standing by to watch.
Trying to refuel a megayacht at same time but cant while they refuel as the uscg in attendance art the subā€¦

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Back in the olden days when submarine sailing was an adventure we used a ā€œdonutā€ that floated alongside and all compensating water flowed into it. Any fuel oil was captured in the donut hole and skimmed off after fueling was complete. We believed it was skimmed off, the yard birds towed it away and we never saw what they did with it. Since Lauderdale wasnā€™t a sub base I guess the Navy or port didnā€™t care enough to keep one at the port or at the CG base. Fines? Itā€™s only money, taxpayers have tons of it.

Just as an aside, a 50 footer was a megaycht in those days.

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lol, in my day 25 yrs ago a we thought a 55metre megayacht was big now its a tender.
Grew up fishing in a 16ā€™, 18 was big 25ā€™ was huge.
outboards, 200hp was big for years, then 300 for ten years, now 450 and even 600.

But you are the one who claimed some sort of all knowing seeing eyeā€¦

I think we can just move on, thereā€™s nothing else to see here folks.

The sub was taking up all the space at the fuel dock or was the marina reluctant to let anyone buy fuel in case they spilled it with the CG hanging around the area?

No they fuelled up at a gov dock and as usual every authority on the water was there to watch and fine them.
Always a clamity but it prevented anybody else being fuelled from a truck.
Cheaper to go nuclear I guessā€¦

I was on a Coast Guard cutter stationed in New Bedford in the '80s. One summer off of Cape Cod, our ship encountered a dead whale. It was just floating in the water, impeding traffic. Captain had the bright idea of continuously backing up, and then ramming it. He thought that he would get it to sink.

Well, he was cutting it up nicely, ramming huge chunks off of it. At the same time that our evaporators were making water! For weeks afterward, we were drinking water that had that ā€œrancid, decaying whale soupā€ taste.

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FWIW I was bosun mate/shipā€™s carpenter on a MSC supply ship and having been trained on the civilian side, I was concerned about the amount of fuel flowing out through the scuppers during unreps. It didnā€™t appear to bother anyone else but, in any case, I got permission to fashion blockers. I used the only material I had access to was plywood and hose canvas. No very efficient but they helped.
The effort didnā€™t earn me any points however as they were considered unnecessary and added extra work. Iā€™m guessing they were jettisoned after I left.