Seamanship: Don't Be Ramming The Big Boat

From Commander Salamander who appears to be a simple seafaring man.
This is his blog descriptor:

Proactively “From the Sea”; an agent of change leveraging the littoral best practices for a paradigm breaking six-sigma best business case to synergize a consistent design in the global commons, rightsizing the core values supporting our mission statement via the 5-vector model through cultural diversity.

And this is his link:
Thursday, April 02, 2020
The Law of Gross Tonnage Applies

Am I a bad navalist if I can't stop laughing at this ... and cannot wait for the video?

Via Joseph Trevithick at The Drive;

The incident occurred in the early hours of Mar. 30, 2020, but Columbia Cruise Services only released an official statement on Apr. 1. The company, which is headquartered in Germany, said the RCGS Resolute was drifting just over 13 miles off the coast of Isla La Tortuga, a Venezuelan island situated some 60 miles off the country's northern coast, when ANBV Naiguatá, also known by its hull number GC-23, approached it. The Venezuelan Navy ship ordered the cruise ship to follow it to Puerto Moreno on Isla De Margarita, located to the east, accusing it of violating the country's territorial waters.

Engineering matters, math is hard, and the law of gross tonnage always applies.

The 403-foot-long Resolute, which is flagged in Portugal, reportedly had a gross tonnage of around 8,445 tons at the time. The ship was laid down in September 1990 and completed in June 1991. Intended for Antarctic cruises, it has a reinforced ice-capable hull.
...
The Naiguatá, which is just over 262 feet long, is a Guaicamacuto class offshore patrol vessel and displaces around 1,720 tons with a full load.

Good seamanship can be harder.
"While the Master was in contact with the head office [in Germany], gun shots were fired and, shortly thereafter, the navy vessel approached the starboard side at speed with an angle of 135° and purposely collided with the RCGS Resolute," the statement continued. "The navy vessel continued to ram the starboard bow in an apparent attempt to turn the ship’s head towards Venezuelan territorial waters."

Columbia Cruise Services does not say what kind of gun was fired or if it did any damage to the Resolute. The Naiguatá has a 76mm main gun in a turret forward of the main superstructure, as well as a pair of 20mm cannons and two .50 caliber machine guns. The crew would also have access to various small arms.

Whatever the case, the steel-hulled patrol ship suffered severe damage from repeatedly ramming the cruise ship, began to take on water, and ultimately sank.....MORE

From everything2 an explanation of the law:

Law of Gross Tonnage

The Law of Gross Tonnage is an accepted nautical convention that when a sea-going vessel has the right-of-way as established by the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, 1972 (72 COLREGS), it should nonetheless give way when faced with a larger vessel. This law is regularly invoked in non-maritime situations, such as when a bicyclist with the right-of-way invokes the Law of Gross Tonnage to avoid the Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) that is about to cut them off.

The heavier vessel always has the right-of-way. There is no explicit directive in maritime regulations or law for the the Law of Gross Tonnage other than it is common sense that giving way and being alive is usually better than forcing one's right-of-way and being dead.

Example:

Two ships sailing in a battle group are operating off the coast of Southern California near San Clemente Island in the Southern California Operations Area. First, Oliver Hazard Perry class Guided Missile Frigate USS RENTZ (FFG-46) weighing a svelte 4,100 tons is going 20 knots at heading 090 (due east). Second, conventionally powered Forrestal class Aircraft Carrier USS RANGER (CV-61; aka "Danger Ranger") weighing in at a pudgy 81,000 tons is sailing at 22 knots, heading 180 (due south). The two vessels are approaching on collision headings.

                      -------
                     |       |   22 knots
                     |       |
                     | CV-61 |     |
                     |       |     |
                     | USS   |     \/
                     |RANGER |    180 (S)
                     |       |
                     |       |
                     |       |
                     |       |
                      -------


USS RENTZ    __
FFG-46      |__> 


  ---> 090 (E)
   20 knots 

COLREGS Rule 15 states that "When two power-driven vessels are crossing so as to involve risk of collision, the vessel which has the other on her own starboard side shall keep out of the way and shall, if the circumstances of the case admit, avoid crossing ahead of the other vessel."
This would indicate the RANGER should take action to avoid RENTZ. In fact, COLREGS Rule 17 requires that RENTZ maintain current course and speed so as to allow RANGER to maneuver appropriately out of danger of collision.

However, the Officer of the Deck (OOD - i.e., the guy in charge of directing the ship's maneuvers) on RENTZ has had many previous encounters with RANGER and invokes the Law of Gross Tonnage to immediately relinquish right-of-way and turns starboard to course 190. The COLREGS allow this when it is apparent that the "give-way" vessel is not maneuvering as required.....MORE

We had an example of what can happen in these situations last week:

Good Luck, Bad Luck: Meet Violet Jessop
Violet was onboard the Royal Mail Ship Olympic in 1911 when it turned in front of the British cruiser Hawke which was equipped with a ramming bow to sink ships by.....ramming, if all else failed:

pic via Wikipedia

The Olympic made it back to port at Southampton. The Hawke almost capsized but also survived....MORE (Violet's story just gets better and better)

Despite being designed and engineered to ram (and sink) naval warships the Hawke (fortunately) could not overcome simple physics.

At the time the Olympic was the largest ship in the world.