Tim Colton’s Maritime Memos is reporting there was a significant problem in the dry docking of the Dallas.
December 2, 2010: “International Ship Repair and Marine Services, LLC, had an accident on Monday night, when it’s Dock#6 apparently broke its back while docking USCGC Dallas, (WHEC 716). No announcements of any kind from anybody. I guess nobody needs to know.”
December 10, 2010: “Reports from people who were there indicate that Dallas was positioned with its stern hanging over the end of the dock, but its forward end was not in contact with the first 14 keel blocks. There’s a lot more besides this but it’s not needed here. This appears to have been a major screw-up and they are lucky nobody was hurt and the cutter was not badly damaged.”
Anyone know first hand what condition the ship is in?
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 
It is not uncommon to hang the stern or bow of a ship off the dock end when there are clearance problems such as with a bow sonar dome or the sensitive CRP screws on that class. The real question is did she land on the designated knuckle block? The first block in the set to make contact takes a higher than normal load compared to the othere in the row. If it was not the proper block it may have crushed or distorted the hull in that area if not crushed. It is also not uncommon to leave extra, unused keel blocks in place on the dock floor, ready for the next job. What matters is did the dockmaster hit his target blocks? This is usually determined with a transit or with chains positioned to match targets on ship structure while positioning the ship. The chains will have plum bobs to match up with the targets chosen on board. As the dock is re-floated the bobs should remain in place above their targets. If the blocks mentioned are in fact under the keel, there is an issue of hull support and the entire structure is resting on too few blocks. Structural damage will occur. The problem is avoided by using a transit and targets to check the blocks and match the tops to the declevity of the dock. Most docks are designed with a declevity or trim of 1-4 feet and vessel trim must be adjusted to match so as not to stress that knuckle block.
Good luck to the good ship DALLAS.
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Tim Colton’s comment here is dead on correct.
“Reports from people who were there indicate that Dallas was positioned with its stern hanging over the end of the dock, but its forward end was not in contact with the first 14 keel blocks. There’s a lot more besides this but it’s not needed here. This appears to have been a major screw-up and they are lucky nobody was hurt and the cutter was not badly damaged. And still no report from CG Public Affairs, which is busy reporting on the Christmas decorations on the Mackinaw. ”
CG Public Affairs – and the twice daily e-mails they put out – are next to useless.
Christmas decorations? I doubt they’d risk publishing that…more likely holiday decoations…PC CG…stinks…
CG lowest bidder. You get what you pay for.
I don’t know if Bender’s Junk Yard is still in business in Mobile. I was in the floating dry dock they had twice on two different cutters. Both times the dock began to sink and they had to add pumps and keep them running to keep us up. It would have been real fun if it had sunk while the bildge plates had been cut out under the 180’s engine room.
Then there was the time when their electrical system offered only two phases. Yep, the main board on the 210 control room had to have some major rework.
LOL, I recall Bender’s Bicycle Shop with a great deal of fondness. I remember the first time we crossed the sill – we all shook our heads in amazement that the POS drydock might actually work.
Any updates on damage to the Dallas as a result of this incident? The Philippine Navy is looking to acquire her next year:
http://adroth.ph/afpmodern/?p=918
She went through an 18-month drydock cycle in 2009. Then she went back in Dec 2010 as reported above. Is it normal for a ship to go through this process so soon?