The heavily armed Indian navy frigate was equipped to do battle with enemy battleships and submarines, but it went up in flames as soon as it was hit … not by a torpedo or enemy vessel, mind you, but by a merchant ship.
The sinking of the INS Vindhyagiri, a 3,000-ton warship, marked the worst-ever peacetime loss for the Indian navy, Indian Express reported, adding that it’s also pretty embarrassing.
The warship was returning from a “day at sea” for families of sailors and officers and was entering the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust off the coast of Mumbai on Sunday afternoon, the website said.
Video taken by a passenger aboard the INS Vindhyagiri caught the collision as it unfolded. Those aboard the navy ship can be seen scurrying nervously as the merchant vessel approaches the frigate.
The Cyprus-flagged MV Nordlake, which was leaving the harbor, narrowly missed another container vessel, the MV Sea Eagle, and as it turned to avoid the Sea Eagle, it slammed into the frigate.
The collision cracked the warship's hull near the waterline. Water rushed in, and a fire broke out in the engine room, the Indian Express reported.
The Mumbai Mirror reported that the Navy attempted to put out the blaze, but the added water served only to sink the ship faster.
The ship was towed into the harbor, but it sank Monday afternoon. Police said they planned to arrest the Nordlake’s captain, according to the Indian Express.
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Had the Captain of the Nordlake been taken into custody immediately, alcohol,drugs,etc. couldv been easily detected.Test hair folicles anyway.His life story is in his hair.Sounds like inside job.This was no accident.
An inside job, sinking a warship with a foreign freighter?! Wear a tin foil hat much?
I remember back when they had harbor pilots, just to prevent collisions and running aground...
Captain of merchant ship to Navy Captain: "Thank you, come again".
Yes, I have collision, but...
Thats the way to get things done – Grab people, pull hair, check pee, take blood, INTEROGATE!!! We must BLAME someone.
Your a perfect idiot.
Based on the video I think we can all agree that the merchant ship is approching both of the other ships from the right side.
FACT – When two power-driven vessels are crossing, the vessel which has the other on the starboard (right) side must give way and avoid crossing ahead of her.
BOTH ships appear to have violated the merchant ships right-of-way.
Well, if you rule out mechanical malfunction, then yes someone is to blame. I have no idea who but the bottom line is this: The captain of any naval vessel is ultimately responsible for the actions or inactions of his/her crew. Warship or civilian vessel makes no difference. If a mechanical failure is not to blame then one or more people screwed something up.
Actually the skipper tried to call the Indian Coast Guard helpline for navigation information, but all the operators were busy scheduling pizza deliveries in Des Moines.
Kathryn!! Probably would find caffeine on hair only he was using caffeine hair shampoo for hair growth..
On the bright side, the passengers met their monthly bath quota
Salicylic acid and a few other chemicals can strip hair clean inside and out.
Kathryn what would that prove? Hair testing cannot prove he was incapcitated when he was at the helm. I see nothing from this article that says the captain was in the wrong; perhaps the navy vessel was in the wrong place.
Check out that Video (link in the 4th para).....you will see whats wrong there!!...The Merchant Ship just avoided colliding with another ship, but not so lucky with the Navy Vessel!!
turn left... no the other left!!!
Recalculating!
New Route............
@RUFFNUTT ok im on it!! Now is left port or starboard or is it aft and stern. you crack me up .
D'oh! I HATE when that happens!
Seriously, this stinks.... the agony and irony are killing me, oh!
*Giggle* Ruffie's on a roll!
Waa, i had a dog named ruffie but my x-wfe got rid of him. meany
Or at least start using metal insteada balsa wood to build thier ships .
This ( balsa wood ) ship was bought from Britain in 1984. You are right. We ought to have sourced our purchasing more carefully instead of being swindled by the West. Of course, you have , no doubt, forgotten the US Warship that had a huge hole blown in its side in Aden by a couple of Yemenis in loin cloths and a raft.
A navy ship gets hit by another vessal and sinks? How do you not see a ship that is 113 meters long and weighs close to 3000 tons? The Nordake is close to 180 meters long...we ain't talkin about canoes here.
The days of battleships with heavy armor belts are LONG gone. Now, they're fast, lightly armored and fire missiles instead of big guns.
Remember how much damage was done to the USS Cole by a dingy loaded with explosives?
They did see it coming, the problem is you try putting the breaks on ships of that size and see how long it takes you to stop.
Hi, tomcat! How are you?
I agree totally! I can't understand how something like this could happen...which is why I'm somewhat making fun of it. I'm just glad there were no loss of lives!
hey banasy....cold here....you know how folks are here....next they will blame Bush, Obama and Palin. Then they will start on religion....yada, yada, yada.......same song different verse.......
Hey tomcat, this is not the US political parties that are sustaining damages, IMHO they have bigger concerns than petty US politics. Just as the US military does not complain about afghan setbacks or decisions of the war, I am sure that the Indian Navy will keep out of unnecessary chatter... We are there to provide that, aren't we?
snowmeggedon is here.. im stuck and they arent even going to plow the steeets till tomarrow afternoon when the snow stops.. i70 is closed in both directions..
LUV yr word snomaggedon!! lookin' @ sat maps, it's exactly the right word. We R feelin' it in soTX too
i heard the number on the side of the ship was 7-11
I guess in that case your your forehead says..dmb fat redneck....
This is the nation that U.S. hopes will help us against China... terrible. They were also horrible at stopping 13 active terrorists in a gunfight in Moombai. Their military is the worst.
accidents happen.. sure there have been enough here in the US as well....took how many months to control the oil spill?? Also, learn how to spell first. It's Mumbai.
How good is the American military we saw in Vietnam, Iraq and in Afghanistan. You guys can only talk and can not fight -losers. Why couldn't your mighty american military stop 911? We at least caught one of the attackers in Mumbai and killed the rest, you could neither catch anyone and after a decade still unable to catch or kill Osama. Shame on you.
US Navy could not stop a small boat from ramming in to USS Cole. You guys were lucky that the hole blwon in to the ship was baove the waterline otherwise it would have sunk 100%. So much for the supposedly most advanced navy on earth.
SAX, has India forgotten to hire harbor pilots? You remember them, the ones that prevent merchantmen from ramming into anything, including the docks? Or did the merchantman neglect to collect the pilot?
Geeze, they must hire bridge crews from the home for the blind on Cyprus flagged ships! Nearly colliding with one ship, only to ram a military vessel!
Oh, if you know any Indian Navy types, tell them good job on that Somali pirate from a while back.
The Cole was sitting in port. Blasting small boats out of the water was not the norm at that time. Now we know. Won't happen again. Don't cruise by a naval vessal in your ski boat.
Then perhaps we should try an alternative to shooting off the heads of all people we dont like......like perhaps peace?
where from do you get your info?? Indian army is actively fighting proxy war with jihadi elements blended in the civilian population all over the Indian subcontinent. where were you smarty pants when the Indian intelligence warned of ensuing attack from BIn laden?!! Oh Yes CIA spent quality times training him in Afghanistan years before. You don't any tactical experience dealing with innocent civilians are at risk because of terrorists walking among them and Army has to track 'em down. Indian Army is one of the best battle tested armies in the world. China is created by your Walmart and the money US borrowed from gave Chinese something to laugh about your treasury Secretary!! So next open you brain case try to find something meaningful out of it!!!
I love the "man" talk about military strength and prowess. Seriously boys, give it a rest and quit the narrow-minded comments directed towards each others countries.
Buddy, unless you had sent 3 more, there were 10 terrorists in the Mumbai attack. If you do want to get into comparisons, fighting and eliminating those attackers is better than issuing visas to terrorists who the whole world knew were long dead (along with having killed many thousand innocent people).... AFTER they were dead! For all that, this collision at the dockyard was between a big ship with a smaller ship. Only investigation can show who was at fault.
this is also the country to whom corporate America has entrusted their technological future!
As far as the Cole goes, the small boats were SUPPOSED to be there. That is how ships sitting out in the harbor were resupplied by the Yemeni harbor masters. One small group managed to sneak explosives on board one of them. Procedures have changed and that no longer happens. SO it's not a question of us not seeing them or them sneaking up on a US warship.
Are you talkin bout when they took over the hotel in mumbai ?
Not to worry, it will likely come back up in an hour or so....