11 Killed When U.S. Destroyers Collide

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29262, 21 July 1960, Page 13

11 Killed When U.S. Destroyers Collide

LONG BEACH (California), July 20. A destroyer sliced out of a fogbank yesterday into the side of a second destroyer, killing 11 mqn.

The U.S.S. Collett made port at Long Beach last night under her own power. The vessel she hit, the U.S.S. Ammen, had been towed into the naval shipyard earlier listing from a blow fiercer than she took 16 years ago from a Japanese kamikaze plane off Okinawa. More than a score of sailors were injured in the collision, which occurred while one of the destroyers, the Collett was on manoeuvres and the other was headed to join the United States , “mothball’* fleet.. Commander A. T, Ford, the ; captain of the Collett, told journalists his radar was operating at the time of the accident but he declined to disclose his vessel’s speed, pending a naval inquiry. He said the Collett broke out of the fog right on top of’ the < Ammen. i "It was too late to do any- . thing** Commander Ford said. i A Navy statement earlier had said that 12 men died, but the Navy later corrected the total to ‘ 11, all aboard the Ammen. ’ “It could have been worse, if

we hadn’t unloaded the ammunition yesterday,” said Commander Zaven Mukhalian. captain of the Ammen.

“If those depth charge igniters had been aboard, both ships would have been blown to kingdom come.’* Commander Mukhalian said the Ammen tracked the Collett on its radar scope for 20 minutes before the collision.

The visibility was about 800 to 1500 yards in the fog, be said. “The Collet broke but of a fog patch heading straight for us. The officer of the deck didn’t even have time to order a rudder change,” Commander Mukhalian said.

Commander Ford told reporters: “I wish the Aimmen could have been as lucky as we were. It happened pretty fast. AH of a sudden this ship appeared out of the fog. We backed our engines but it was too late to miss it,” Commander Ford said. “We should have picked up the Ammen on radar, but I don’t know . . . When she appeared before us, that was the first we saw of her.’”