Our Newest Combat Ship Towed To Port

That's why you do shakedowns. Problem is sometimes the real shakedown is far away. Case in point is in the late '70s, the Polar Star was a new CG icebreaker. It came down to Antarctica only to get high and dry on 8 foot ice when the specs say 14 feet is doable. Problem was the main shaft journals weren't strong enough for the torque as strain gauges everywhere were reporting. They didn't want to damage the shafts so reduced Max available power. So I got to load up my tracked vehicle and demonstrate some neat explosive ice cutting techniques to cut them loose. Got free drinks that weekend. A structural fix at the yard and concurrent update to the Polar Sea which was coming on line, and all's well.

No Broom on the Mast (Sign of a successful shake down, a Clean Sweep) when she pull back into port. Like CAPT Kevin Ball, PE says that is why we do Shakedown Cruises and I would think with a whole new design that shouldn't be too surprising. What works on the Drawing Board doesn't always work so good in Practice. Sorry to hear of it's failure and hopefully there is a good resolution that doesn't involve scrapping such a large investment.

Even on good days, bad things happen, and vise versa... Hopefully they will figure out what's wrong, get it fixed and get it back out there...