The US Navy and Coast Guard are, I believe, the only armed forces in the world who entrust navigation to the ratings (enlisted men). For every other Navy in the world, officers do the navigating. On my ship’s Navigation Department we had an officer who was officially “The Navigator”, but he was primarily an administrative and command person, with little of no knowledge of the art. The senior navigation rating was a First Class Petty Officer (E-6), who was actually responsible for navigation and supervising the junior Quartermasters. On my ship that consisted of 3 Third Class Petty Officers like myself (E-4) who actually stood bridge watches and did routine navigational work, like data updates and maintenance on our charts and publications.

When I, a lowly E-4, was on the bridge, the Captain himself might come up to me and ask me for advice on a technical issue, vital to the ship’s safety and when I answered, he accepted it as truth, and respecteed my opinion. And if I (respectfully) questioned the wisdom of one of his orders, like reminding him the course he just ordered was a potentially dangerous one, and why, he was obligated to listen to my advice, although he was under no obligation to follow it. In fact, he was required by regulations to do so. I was the expert in that rate.

That’s a pretty heavy responsibility for a 20 year old. And it made you feel like you were doing a real job. As much as I hated the Navy, I loved my job.

QM3 “crow”, worn on left shoulder

Army Quartermasters hand out laundry and give haircuts.

Not to bash on journalists, but I’m frustrated by what seems (to me) to be an increasing tendency to omit the sort of detail I’d like to see.

I enjoyed your post very much. It was a pleasure to benefit from the insight of someone who’s been there.

Then there’s the General Prudential Rule: regardless of who has the right of way, the easier to maneuver ship has the obligation to stay out of the way of the clumsy and awkward vessel.

If you make a left turn in front of oncoming traffic, you will be hit on the starboard (right) side. In nautical rules of the road terms, the tanker was the “privileged” ship, it had the right of way. The destroyer was the “burdened” ship. It is up to the burdened ship to stay out of the privileged ship’s way, the privileged ship is obligated to do nothing.

Needless to say, there are all kinds of regulations and rules that determine, in any meeting situation, who is burdened and who is privileged. And at night, ships are required to display colored lights that will give other ships information as to their orientation and direction. All ships carry navigation lights (red to port, green to starboard) and white lights (midships high, on the stern low), which will allow other ships to determine which direction they are moving at a glance, even in the dark.

Helm orders are given left and right, (“left full rudder”) to avoid confusing the helmsman. The directions on the ship are given in terms of port(left) and starboard(right) from the bow. So if you are facing forward, the starboard side will be to your right. If you are facing aft, the starboard side will be to your left.

Of course, in the dark, when you’re nervous or fatigued, people can get disoriented or be misunderstood and accidents happen.

“Apparently, Porter made a hard left turn across the bows of the other ship, a hard-to-maneuver tanker in restricted waters with a clear right of way. Porter was struck amidships on the starboard side.”

Left turn across the bow of the tanker? Then hit on the starboard side? Maybe it was a hard right turn.