Fires on a ship can spread scarily fast, which is one reason sailors devote so much time underway to cleaning--I've heard anecdotal stories of at least one lethal fire spreading through a ship's ventilation system due to the amount of combustible stuff it sucked up.<p>In port, a ship may be particularly vulnerable to this sort of thing, partially because fire boundaries that are normally closed while underway may be open to facilitate maintenance.<p>Here's a diagram showing a rough LHD cross-section near the bottom of the page: <a href="https://fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/lhd-1.htm" rel="nofollow">https://fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/lhd-1.htm</a><p>The fire here broke out in the lower V, close to one of the ship's magazines but pretty far from a lot of the bulk fuel (although there are a number of fuel pipes in and around the area in order to facilitate fueling assault craft and ground vehicles, which may be contributing to the fire with residual fuel).<p>Fortunately, even if there is a magazine in close proximity to the fire, it's likely well-protected, and unlikely to be full of ordnance. Furthermore, ordnance approved for shipboard operation has special thermal coating to reduce the likelihood of cook-off, which may be enough to protect it against the indirect heat of a fire on the other side of a bulkhead.
I think this would be the first U.S. capital ship lost since WWII.<p>It's also interesting that China, Russia, and now the U.S. have all lost carriers while undergoing construction / maintenaince in just the past few years:<p><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/12/europe/russian-carrier-fire-intl/index.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/12/europe/russian-carrier-fire-i...</a>
<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/hisutton/2020/04/11/brand-new-chinese-aircraft-carrier-catches-fire/#44ab06cf7f4d" rel="nofollow">https://www.forbes.com/sites/hisutton/2020/04/11/brand-new-c...</a><p>Something to bond over, I guess. Dangerous work, and I hope everybody stays safe, better a carrier burns in peacetime than a life lost.
> McGrath described military shipyards in general as places “where an almost insane devotion to safety, good housekeeping and procedural compliance is required. It’s hard to imagine one or more of those things not being involved in the cause or spread of the fire.”<p>It seems like the culture of safety and competence of the US Pacific Fleet is not what it was. Another example is the USS John McCain colliding with a freighter[0]. Then there was the whole Fat Leonard corruption scandal[1]. Maybe these are just anecdata and a side effect of greater attention.<p>0. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_John_S._McCain_and_Alnic_MC_collision" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_John_S._McCain_and_Alnic_M...</a>
1. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_Leonard_scandal" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_Leonard_scandal</a>
I'm surprised this article doesn't mention at all the Los Angeles class nuclear attack sub that was deliberately set on fire by a dockyard worker.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Miami_(SSN-755)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Miami_(SSN-755)</a>
One month ago, the French Navy lost the nuclear submarine "La Perle" meanwhile the ship was being maintained. The similarities with the "Bonhomme Richard" accident are striking.
It is a cruel irony of Earth that our atmosphere is made up of such an odd mixture. It’s odd to think that air itself is outright dangerous.<p>Four fifths of the fluid in which we live and breath ranges from inert to <i>noble</i>. The remaining fifth is one of the most dangerous, angry, reactive, poisonous gasses we know: <i>Oxygen</i>.<p>It is crucial to life and yet at the same time is quite capable of partially or completely destroying everything we hold dear. Our tools, belongings, us, our homes, warships, forests, crops and savannahs. It needn’t even burn with a flame: most things will decay in its presence with or without spectacle.<p>If one encountered a planet where almost everything was made of gelatinous gasoline, whose principle inhabitants were a form of highly evolved sentient matchstick that kept striking boards as pets, one might think them a little risk averse. Then of course you’d realize that life and society on this planet have evolved in such a way because they are neither unfortunate or insane enough to live on a world that’s blanketed in O₂.<p>On a visit to this planet you explain to their ambassador about the atmosphere on your home world. She doesn’t know whether to laugh hysterically or faint in horror. The knowledge terrifies her and she takes deep methane breaths while stroking her phosphorous hands on tibbles-the-striking-board, trying to calm down. You decide it’s best not to further disturb her with stories of plate tectonics and the major cities, nuclear reactors, etc your people have built on fault lines, at sea level.
According to Wikipedia, the Richard refers to"Poor Richard's almanac" a publication of Benjamin Franklin, who was US ambassador to France when John Paul Jones named the original Bonhomme Richard in his honour.
Do we know if this was possibly not an accident, but a hostile act by one of our adversaries? Taking one of the 8 USNavy’d mini-carriers without a fight is certainly something China dreams about...