Image: Wikipedia
There’s nothing like spending $362 million on a brand new ship just to have it break down on the way home.
No, this isn’t the story of some rich trust fund kid who buys a brand new yacht and wrecks it, this is the story of the Navy’s newest commissioned ship, the USS Milwaukee.
Commissioned on November 21 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, this beast of a ship joined the Navy’s fleet and is capable of navigating through shallow water and can quickly switch combat modes to effectively take on changing threats.
The unfortunate incident occurred as the ship was traveling down the East Coast to its home port in San Diego. During the voyage, the Milwaukee’s propulsion systems ceased to run properly due to metal debris that collected in the lube oil filter and caused the system to shut down.
The origin of these metal debris is unknown. Even so, with the redundant systems built into Navy ships to prevent issues like this from occurring, this is a concerning incident that shouldn’t have happened, especially when the ship was just commissioned 20 days ago.
I’m just glad that when my boat messes up, it doesn’t require the world’s largest naval fleet to question what it is I did wrong.
