Just read that the USNS Alan Shepard ran around over the weekend and thought I’d share the article.
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It could have been the pilot or their shitty tugs in Bahrain the ship plus could have been in ROS status. Any update or scuttlebutt?
I’ve never heard of a ship in ROS overseas? All the pre-positioned ships are fully manned (or at least supposed to be)
ROS durning shipyards periods and MSC reduced on all ships to 80% manning I believe.
MSC has been going down to skeleton crews on there ships during yard periods to help fill crewing shortfalls across the fleet. The pilot is only an advisor so any crazy action on their part should have been caught by the captain or navigator before the ship was in danger. The Master at the time of the grounding I’ve been told was Adel Desouki who is notorious in MSC.
Jeez, looks like people are taking extreme measures to get a relief with MSC these days!
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I almost spit out my coffee…
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Luckily the crew was well trained and ready for any problem:
PS> Unless they had all be releaved since then.
Knew a third mate a few years back that didn’t get along with desouki, told there was a wet bar in the officers mess. Not saying a heavy drinking captain was the reason they went aground, hints of valdez, but they recently had a fire, and now a grounding.
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Been with MSC quite a few years and although I know their is booze on the ships here and there, I can’t imagine a wet bar, (even in the Masters office) as being something that anyone would do.
The rumor mills continue to grind away and make things sound and look like what they Usually are not.
I’ve heard a ton of different rumors already from the inside, I’ll wait for the full official report which will also most likely be skewed to some degree.
I find that it is not so much the lack of manning but the lack of quality in the mariner. ASD had 80+ CivMars aboard. All it takes is one or two Mates without a clue to bring down the house.
There are some pathetic Mates that keep their jobs with MSC and it’s sometimes hard to get rid of them. The amount of administrative work required to keep up with all the disciplinary actions can be overwhelming at times and then many times these personnel issues are just dismissed by the office.
It’s a viscous cycle that has only gotten worse and more so in the last year. I’m old and tired now so perhaps it’s just me thinking back on how things used to be and how folks used to work and take pride in doing a good job. I don’t see that so much anymore. It’s a different mindset with many new mariners I see, a different generation.
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They were well past Sitrah sea bouy and I doubt a pilot was onboard. I think I would be looking more towards a loss of S/A which resulted from a lack of BRM. No excuse for not having a fully trained bridge team available in that area. Skipper is ultimately responsible for getting the vessel u/w safely or declaring that she can’t. A tough choice and some eyebrows would be raised if you declared your bridge team incompetent. It’s becoming more the norm though, a lack of basic common sense and a lack of going the extra mile to become that professional mariner we all should be.
I worked with Adel Desouki and can confirm the low key wet bar aboard his ships. You had to be in his “inner circle” but he is a heavy drinker underway. A few years I witnessed his Chief Mate having to take Desouki off the bridge during a Navigation Brief. Desouki was plastered and trying to pick fights/ argue with subordinate officers at the meeting.
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Notorious for what?
I worked with him as well on 2 occasions but never saw that. Only on liberty did he get hammered.
Master intoxicated and arguing with his bridge team during a navigation brief? WTF?? This may not end well.
Wonder if his wet bar select “inner circle” will come forward to defend him now.
Desouki is experienced with Bahrain. he probably cuts the pilot loose ASAP and walks off the bridge. This is pretty common at MSC. Most likely a really dumb Third and maybe 2nd that wasnt paying attention or had also walked off. Also common to mute all of the audio alarms on the ECDIS so they wouldve had the warning of crossing the contours twice but didnt hear it maybe
Worked with him for a brief period when he was ChMate on an AO. Kind of an odd duck but no issues working together.
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Complacency?