Posted:
June 15, 2016
The following article by Sarah Burford, Military Sealift Command Pacific Public Affairs, was published in the June edition of Sealift. It is republished here with permission. American Maritime Officers represents all licensed officers aboard the Empire State.
Off the coast of San Diego, Military Sealift Command's fleet replenishment oiler USNS Yukon (T-AO 202) made history with Motor Tanker Empire State as they conducted the first underway replenishment between a State Class tanker and an MSC oiler.
In the 1980s and 1990s, MSC chartered Champion Class tankers (T-5 tankers) and UNREPing Navy oilers was common place, especially in the Navy's 5th Fleet area of operations. With the switch to privately-owned/Navy-chartered tankers, Navy oilers refueling at Navy-owned fuel piers became the favored process. Although civilian tanker ships, such as Empire State, still maintained the ability to fuel at sea, the demand for fuel consolidation (CONSOL) at sea declined ... until now.
While commercial tankers have maintained the ability to conduct UNREPs, not performing them for many years meant unseasoned crews. Unlike MSC ships, whose crews conduct refueling at sea operations several times a week, even several times a day in some areas of operations, for the crew of Empire State, an UNREP was more something they'd done in theory than in reality. For this, the crew went back to basics with a series of training courses at the Underway Replenishment Test Site in Port Hueneme, California.
"Only a handful of crew-members had conducted actual UNREP before and never from a commercial tanker," explained Capt. Andrew Miller, Empire State's civilian master. "Some parts of the mission differed from training, such as maneuvering between vessels and the transfer of cargo ship-to-ship, which could not be practiced during static exercises and could not be simulated, but all other aspects (connecting phone and distance line, span wire, and cargo hose, and signaling) were just like we conducted in training."
Before conducting the UNREP with fuel, four training runs were conducted, where cargo hoses were sent across, but no fuel was transferred. This gave both crews the ability to work together, and for the Empire State crew to get a feel for the real-world environment. When both masters were confident with the ability to successfully conduct the UNREP, Yukon made its approach alongside Empire State and the rig teams sent the shot lines across the 180-foot span between the two ships and the fuel transfer began.
"Maneuvering alongside another ship is a unique circumstance," said Capt. Guy Ziccardi, Yukon's Civil Service Master. "The main challenge with the Empire State was they had no corporate knowledge of how to conduct an UNREP prior to the events last week."
As both masters acknowledged, communication with each other was key to a successful mission.
"Captain Miller and I had extensive pre-event communication and coordination to reduce risk and to provide sufficient information on what to expect," said Ziccardi. "We also discussed steps that should be taken prior to the event such as briefing his crew on emergency breakaway and conducting loss of steering training. Empire State performed very well during all events including a five-degree course correction, while the two ships were still connected, in order to avoid the USNS Guadalupe and a Navy cruiser, which were also engaged in UNREP."
At the end of the day, Empire State successfully transferred 10,000 barrels of diesel fuel to Yukon, without incident, setting the stage for future events.
M/T Empire State, USNS Yukon make history
The following article by Sarah Burford, Military Sealift Command Pacific Public Affairs, was published in the June edition of Sealift. It is republished here with permission. American Maritime Officers represents all licensed officers aboard the Empire State.
Off the coast of San Diego, Military Sealift Command's fleet replenishment oiler USNS Yukon (T-AO 202) made history with Motor Tanker Empire State as they conducted the first underway replenishment between a State Class tanker and an MSC oiler.
In the 1980s and 1990s, MSC chartered Champion Class tankers (T-5 tankers) and UNREPing Navy oilers was common place, especially in the Navy's 5th Fleet area of operations. With the switch to privately-owned/Navy-chartered tankers, Navy oilers refueling at Navy-owned fuel piers became the favored process. Although civilian tanker ships, such as Empire State, still maintained the ability to fuel at sea, the demand for fuel consolidation (CONSOL) at sea declined ... until now.
While commercial tankers have maintained the ability to conduct UNREPs, not performing them for many years meant unseasoned crews. Unlike MSC ships, whose crews conduct refueling at sea operations several times a week, even several times a day in some areas of operations, for the crew of Empire State, an UNREP was more something they'd done in theory than in reality. For this, the crew went back to basics with a series of training courses at the Underway Replenishment Test Site in Port Hueneme, California.
"Only a handful of crew-members had conducted actual UNREP before and never from a commercial tanker," explained Capt. Andrew Miller, Empire State's civilian master. "Some parts of the mission differed from training, such as maneuvering between vessels and the transfer of cargo ship-to-ship, which could not be practiced during static exercises and could not be simulated, but all other aspects (connecting phone and distance line, span wire, and cargo hose, and signaling) were just like we conducted in training."
Before conducting the UNREP with fuel, four training runs were conducted, where cargo hoses were sent across, but no fuel was transferred. This gave both crews the ability to work together, and for the Empire State crew to get a feel for the real-world environment. When both masters were confident with the ability to successfully conduct the UNREP, Yukon made its approach alongside Empire State and the rig teams sent the shot lines across the 180-foot span between the two ships and the fuel transfer began.
"Maneuvering alongside another ship is a unique circumstance," said Capt. Guy Ziccardi, Yukon's Civil Service Master. "The main challenge with the Empire State was they had no corporate knowledge of how to conduct an UNREP prior to the events last week."
As both masters acknowledged, communication with each other was key to a successful mission.
"Captain Miller and I had extensive pre-event communication and coordination to reduce risk and to provide sufficient information on what to expect," said Ziccardi. "We also discussed steps that should be taken prior to the event such as briefing his crew on emergency breakaway and conducting loss of steering training. Empire State performed very well during all events including a five-degree course correction, while the two ships were still connected, in order to avoid the USNS Guadalupe and a Navy cruiser, which were also engaged in UNREP."
At the end of the day, Empire State successfully transferred 10,000 barrels of diesel fuel to Yukon, without incident, setting the stage for future events.