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Ehime Maru’s
stern was lifted
out of water
The ship's captain describes
the collision that sank the
Japanese fishing trawlerBy Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-BulletinThe captain of the Japanese fishing trawler Ehime Maru, who survived the sinking of his ship after it collided with the nuclear attack submarine USS Greeneville more than a month ago, said the collision seemed to lift the stern of his ship out of the water.
Ehime Maru stern lifted out of water
After the impact, "a terrible sound of bang, bang occurred twice, and the ship came to a halt," Capt. Hisao Onishi, 58, testified today.
As he watched from one of Ehime Maru's life rafts, Onishi said he saw two people on the bridge of the Greeneville. "We were hoping they would lower inflatable rubber boats, but all they did was lower their Jacob's ladder. They were watching us."
As he was floating in the ocean, he saw fish floats and life preservers but no survivors. When he took a head count, he said he realized that nine people were missing.
Before this morning's court of inquiry began at Pearl Harbor, Greeneville skipper Cmdr. Scott Waddle approached news media camped in front of the courthouse, telling them he was proud of how his crew has performed during the inquiry.
It was Waddle's first public statement since the inquiry began March 5.
Before the session began today, family members of the missing Ehime Maru crew and students seemed more relaxed than they had been, talking and smiling among themselves. However, once the proceedings started and as Onishi began to grimly describe what happened during the collision, the mood grew somber.
Three senior admirals are investigating the accident and the actions of three of the Greeneville's leaders: Waddle; Lt. Cmdr. Gerald Pfeifer, the vessel's executive officer; and Lt. j.g. Michael Coen, the officer of the deck who had the control of the sub at the time of the collision.
Yesterday, a key Pearl Harbor submarine leader said he was surprised that Waddle, who commands one of the six ships in his squadron, demonstrated the emergency surfacing maneuver with civilians on board that resulted in the collision.
Asked by Vice Adm. John Nathman, head of the court of inquiry, his opinion of the Greeneville performing the surfacing drill, Capt. Robert Snead said, "I was surprised by it." The maneuver entails 4,400 pounds of air being forced into the sub's two ballast tanks, forcing water out and propelling the 6,000-ton vessel to the surface like a rocket.
Lt. Keith Sloan, Greeneville's navigation officer, yesterday testified that at one point Waddle canceled the demonstration, but later changed his mind.
Although standard operating procedure calls for a briefing before a submarine goes to periscope depth, Sloan said one was never held after Waddle gave the order to ascend at 1:31 p.m.
Today, sitting in the second row of red chairs in the courtroom, the Japanese families listened intently to Onishi's testimony. It was the first time they heard testimony without it being filtered through a Japanese translator. This time, there was an English translator present.
Most family members simply took notes, but Mikia Nakata, the mother of missing instructor Jun Nakata, folded and unfolded a blue scarf, frequently lifting a white handkerchief to wipe away tears. Her husband, Kazuo, took notes throughout Onishi's testimony, but at the end he lifted a brown handkerchief from his pocket and also wiped away his tears.
Inside the tiny courtroom, Onishi recalled the events of Feb. 9 that took the lives of three of his crewmen, four 17-year-old high school students and two teachers from Uwajima Fisheries School. Dressed in a dark business suit, Onishi looked down during most of his testimony, reading from notes. He had to be asked to slow down as he described the collision.
Onishi's 190-foot vessel was traveling at 11 knots heading south after leaving Honolulu Harbor at noon for a fishing ground. He said his navigational radar was operating. A Greeneville radar operator yesterday said he did not have enough time at periscope depth to adequately analyze the radar contacts he picked up minutes before the collision.
Onishi was at the bridge of the vessel with two other crewmen. The rest of the crew of 17, 13 students and two of their teachers, were below deck in the mess hall. Onishi said the Greeneville struck his ship first on the stern. He was not sure if it was on the left or right side. He then saw the sub rise on the left side of ship. He said he tried to radio for help, but there was no power. Within 10 minutes of the 1:43 p.m. mishap, the Ehime Maru slipped below 4- to 6-foot waves. It now sits upright, 2,003 feet down on the ocean bottom.
It was Onishi, a day after the collision, who criticized the Greeneville's crew for failing to aid survivors. However, during testimony over the past two weeks, Navy investigators and admirals have testified that nuclear submarines are poor search and rescue vessels and that sea conditions prevented the Greeneville from opening its hatches on the main deck. That meant any Ehime Maru survivor would have to climb 25 feet from the main deck to get into the sub.
Today, Onishi said he realizes that if the Greeneville had tried to recover his life rafts, there might have been other problems. At the conclusion of his one-hour testimony, Onishi told the court he hopes it will thoroughly investigate the cause of "this terrible accident" to prevent future occurrences.
Waddle nodded in agreement.
Vice Adm. John Nathman, heading the inquiry, assured Onishi this was the court's charge. Before he began questioning Onishi, Charles Gittins, Waddle's attorney, said Waddle "accepts responsibility for the accident."
In testimony yesterday, Capt. Robert Brandhuber, chief of staff for the U.S. Pacific Fleet's submarine force, had to pause before he told the panel of admirals what he saw from the Greeneville's periscope minutes after the collision occurred. He was the senior officer aboard the Greeneville that day. He recalled two young boys on the aft end of the ship. When he saw them he initially feared the Greeneville had struck a whale-watching boat.
"I didn't understand how it happened," he said. "It just wasn't something that I ever wanted to see -- and ever want to see again." Asked whether the emergency main ballast tank blow was necessary on a cruise that was just for civilians, Brandhuber paused, then sighed after Nathman asked him, "Does that make any sense?"
"In the cold light of day, no."
Star-Bulletin reporter Treena Shapiro contributed to this report.
Greeneville was
considered ‘class act’ at
Pearl HarborBy Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-BulletinOn the Pearl Harbor "waterfront," the USS Greeneville was considered a "showboat."
Crew morale was high.
Its skipper, Cmdr. Scott Waddle, was considered a gregarious and competent boat driver -- a person his mentor, the admiral of the submarine fleet, believed could some day replace him.
The sub was "clean" and "meticulously" well maintained.
That Capt. Robert Snead, Waddle's boss, attributed to Lt. Gerald Pfeifer, Greeneville's second in command, since it is the executive officer who manages the day-to-day operations of the boat.
Waddle; his executive officer, Pfeifer; and Lt. j.g. Michael Coen have been named as parties in the rare Navy court of inquiry investigating the collision between the Greeneville and the Ehime Maru. Nine people, including four teen-agers on trip to learn commercial fishing, were killed nine miles south of Diamond Head on Feb. 9.
The court of inquiry could recommend courts-martial and could name additional parties.
Snead, testifying yesterday at the court of inquiry, said when he assumed command of Submarine Squadron One in August, his predecessor ranked Waddle "near the top" of the list of six sub commanders in his unit.
"It was a sharply run and a professional ship," Snead said.
"Greeneville ranks at the top of the squadron," said Snead in the areas of operation, tactics, maintenance, training and morale.
Pfeifer also was ranked the best executive officer in Squadron One.
Under cross-examination by Pfeifer's attorney Lt. Daniel Shanahan, Lt. Keith Sloan, Greeneville's navigation officer, said Pfeifer had no problem in backing up his boss Waddle.
"They communicated very well together," Sloan said. "I saw them as different personality. The captain was outgoing, and the XO (executive officer Pfeifer) was down to earth, more businesslike. The combination was very beneficial to the ship."
Sloan, who was only the second person called to the stand who was on the Greeneville when the collision occurred, added, "The captain had all the energy, and the XO would insert the reality."
Under Waddle the only minor incident occurred during a January deployment at the "Potato Patch" near the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Snead said. The Greeneville "took several gallons of water down a hatch" on its bridge, located 25 feet above the main deck.
Snead said the area is known for its confusing sea conditions, and the Greeneville's crew followed established procedure for sailing in these waters, but maybe not quickly enough.
Greeneville was scheduled to go on its first major six-month Western Pacific deployment in June after being in the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard for three months last September.
However, since it is back again in the shipyard undergoing a $2 million repair job because of the collision, it will not be back in service until April.
The sub had returned to Pearl Harbor seven days before the Feb. 9 accident after spending a month near Alaska and the West Coast preparing for the June trip.
Sloan, who has been on the Greeneville for two years, said Waddle closely followed the philosophy of Rear Adm. Albert Konetzni, commander of the Pacific Fleet's Submarine Force, and ran a "people-oriented submarine."
"He made life better for submariners so more will stay in the Navy."
The only bad thing he could say of Waddle's command was, the skipper should have given his junior officers more leeway "to drive the boat as long as it did not endanger it."
But under questioning by Rear Adm. David Stone, one of the panel's three members, Sloan said he "would not feel uncomfortable" speaking out if he saw something unsafe occurring on the Greeneville.
