Stow for Sea

By Bull Nav

And why it's so important:

Improperly stowed flammable materials may have worsened the May 22 fire aboard the carrier George Washington, according to a Navy fleet-wide message sent Friday reminding sailors to take care with hazardous materials.

Now to be fair, the message referenced in the Navy Times article does not specifically discuss the fire on the GW, but it is clear (to me anyway) that this was the fire they were talking about.

On submarines, we carry very little combustibles, but we had to deal with angles not unlike an aircraft when turning or changing depth. Stow for sea was important because you could seriously injure someone by falling objects. Worse, you could cause a sound transient which could give you away to someone you don't want to find you.

On surface ships and aircraft carriers, you have paint, fuel, and solvents, all of which must be properly stored. A fire is about the worst thing that can happen at sea and improper stowage won't make it better. Another lesson about how the details will kill you.

What was the upshot of the fire?

ABOARD THE CARRIER KITTY HAWK IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN — The carrier Kitty Hawk, which was on its way to Hawaii to turnover with the carrier George Washington, now plans on visiting Guam while officials on the GW assess the extent of a fire that broke out several days ago.
“There’s no change to our long-term schedule and much is still contingent on what the assessors find on the George Washington,” Capt. Todd Zecchin, Kitty Hawk’s commanding officer said. “But in the meantime we are going to pull into Guam and hopefully by then we will know the rest of the way ahead.”

So I'm guessing that the folks on the KITTY HAWK are pretty happy with the GW about now...

June 3, 2008 05:17 PM Navy