The US Navy’s newest littoral combat ship USS Montgomery has not had the most promising start to her naval career.
Soon after the official naming on September 10, the ship suffered two unrelated engine casualties within a 24-hour period while transiting the Gulf of Mexico towards her homeport of San Diego. One was a seawater leak in the hydraulic cooling system, and the second a casualty to one of its gas turbine engines.
And, on October 4, as she left the Port of Mayport where she had called for repairs to this damage, one of the tugs pushing her free of the quay impacted rather too firmly with her aluminium hull and cracked it. According to the Navy Times, this opened up a foot-long crack amidships along a weld seam about three feet above the waterline. The water ingress was reported to be about a gallon of water every three minutes, and was contained by the crew. Five of the ship’s horizontal beams (stringers) in the hull were also bent.
The ship did not need to remain at the port, and repairs will be carried out on her return from this present sortie.
