HTMS Sukhothai Sinking: Little Stabilising Fuel Ballast?

Locum, on December 26, 2022, made some interesting comments about the tragic December 18, 2022 sinking of HTMS Sukhothai with many crew drowned. 

My theory is the main reason for HTMS Sukhothai's sinking was its short range mission probably meant it was carrying only a small load of diesel fuel. This meant it effectively had little fuel acting as stabilising ballast. 

This tended to make Sukhothai top-heavy - thus in a vulnerable condition when it encountered the storm. It was easier for the storm winds to blow Sukhothai over and storm waves to push it over, causing Sukhothai to list on the way to capsising. Meanwhile water entered an exhaust port, causing a fire, shorting out Sukhothai's electricals, stopping water being pumped out and finally causing Sukhothai to sink.

Looking at history three larger USN warships - in a similar condition of carrying little fuel/ballast - where lost in a storm in western Pacific waters in 1944. 

An additional possible cause was HTMS Sukhothai being required by onshore high command and/or by the Captain to press on with its mission to attend a commemoration of the late Prince Abhakara Kiartivongse (considered "Father of the Thai Navy"). HTMS Sukhothai heading into port in a timely manner might have risked aborting this mission. 

This mission completion issue is implicit where Locum recorded:
"1645 hrs: Sukhothai reports to shore base, that it wants to return to port". 

Maybe the HTMS Sukhothai's Captain was awaiting shore based orders for too long before he decided (or did not decide) to head for port. 

Locum also mention additional possibly contributing factors: 

- "There are unconfirmed reports about inadequate maintenance and training." 

and 

- "Accidents are always caused by different factors at the same time. The snow ball effect."

It will be interesting to read what the committee, set up by Navy Chief Adm Choengchai Chomchoengpaet to inquire into HTMS Sukhothai's sinking, concludes. That is if the conclusions are made public.

First Female ASIS Head in February 2023

Announced here and above 10 days ago. Kerri Hartland to be first female Director-General of ASIS in February 2023.
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Voice of America reported, December 19, 2022

"Australia Appoints First Woman to Lead its Foreign Spy Agency"

"SYDNEY — 

A former senior public servant is the first woman to be appointed to lead Australia’s foreign spy agency. Kerri Hartland [Wiki biodata] will become the director-general of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) in February [2023].

Hartland has recently been overseeing the reform of the workplace culture in Australia’s federal parliament following a string of scandals and allegations of sexual assault.

She is an experienced public servant and a former journalist.

She is the first woman chosen to run ASIS. Hartland does not have the traditional armed forces or foreign affairs background as her predecessors, but Hartland was the deputy director-general of the domestic spy agency, the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, between 2011 and 2017.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement earlier this month that she would bring “excellent strategic, operational and people leadership” skills to her new role.

William Stoltz, the policy director at the National Security College at the Australian National University, told VOA Monday that Hartland has been appointed to oversee fundamental change at ASIS.

“The operational environment necessitates that the work of ASIS has to change,” Stoltz said. “I mean, we have come off about 20-years of ASIS working quite closely with British SIS (Secret Intelligence Service) and the American CIA with a predominant focus on counterterrorism and counter-insurgency operations in the Middle East.”

Stoltz added that Australia’s foreign spy agency now has shifted its attention to China.

Stoltz told VOA that “We are very firmly shifted to an operating environment where ASIS’s work needs to be much closer to home focusing on preventing and understanding, I suppose, the great power competition that is happening between China and the United States and so that means it is a very different intelligence collection target set.”

The Director-General of the Australian Signals Directorate, another official intelligence agency, is also a woman. Rachel Noble is the first woman to hold that position and was appointed in 2020.

Other women have been appointed to senior intelligence roles in other countries.

Avril Haines was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2021 as first female national intelligence chief. Last year, Italy also appointed the first woman — a former ambassador, Elisabetta Belloni — to lead its secret services."

Lovely Kate's Christmas Concert: Highlights

Lovely Princess Kate (so much nicer than Meghan :-) organised the Christmas Concert (highlights here and above). Later Kate chatted with and (35 seconds in) "High Fived" some of the concert attendees. 

I'm in love or lust, whatever! ;-)

Merry Christmas: May We All have a Peaceful 2023

Thanks everyone who read Submarine Matters in 2022. Even a bigger thanks to readers who left good blog comments or commented directly to me by Email. 

Australia's Christmas (being Southern Hemisphere) is the hottest time of year. Temperatures average around 30ºC during XMAS day and 17ºC at night. 

Christmas feasts are frequently in the cooler evening on December 25. often with cold seafood (especially prawns/""ShrimpS" on the barbie), cold ham and warm turkey  (CHICKEN IS ALWAYS BETTER..:) and cold beer. 

I miss the really cold WHITE christmases in FALLINGBOSTEL, THEN A TANK BASE IN WEST germany, were i spent two years AS A LITTLE KID in 1965-66.

a collins sub enjoys a tropical sunset at christmas

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SURFIN SANTA AND FRIENDS IN AUSTRALIA 

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CHRISTMAS BEACH "BUNNIES" IN AUSTRALIA. LUCKILY THEY'RE 20 YEARS OLD :) IN THAT REGARD I'M MUCH TAKEN WITH CHERYL, AN IRISH FOLK AND OPERA SINGER, SINGING THIS CAROL. HERE IS CHERYL AGAIN.
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HERE'S A christmas carol of brotherhood
even between OPPOSING PILOTS 

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have a merry, safe CHRISTMAS AND A  PEACEFUL NEW YEAR.

Pete 

Thai Sailors, from HTMS Sukhothai, Missing

Wilawan Watcharasakwet and Nontarat Phaicharoen, through Radio Free Asia,  December 19, 2022, from Bangkok, report the tragic sinking of HTMS Sukhothai, with 31 sailors lost at sea:

"Thai Navy searching for missing sailors from sunken warship"
"The Sukhothai suffered engine and generator failures after being struck by high waves on Sunday evening [December 18, 2022].

The HTMS Sukhothai warship lists before sinking off the coast of Prachuap
Khiri Khan province, Thailand, Dec. 18, 2022.
(Courtesy Royal Thai Navy via AP)
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Thai aircraft and ships were searching for dozens of missing sailors after a Royal Thai Navy ship capsized and sank in rough seas off Prachuap Khiri Khan province, officials said Monday.

Seventy-five sailors have been rescued but the search in Gulf of Thailand waters was going on for at least 31 others from the HTMS Sukhothai despite strong winds and high waves hampering the operation, a Navy spokesman said Monday. It was the first sinking of a Thai navy ship in nearly eight decades dating back to World War II.

The ship’s engines and power generators failed after suffering severe flooding while being struck by 2- to 4-meter (6.5- to 13-foot) waves about 20 miles off shore on Sunday, officials said.

“We don’t give up on the search around the sunken spot. No one has been found dead so far,” Navy chief Adm. Choengchai Chomchoengpaet said Monday. “The Navy has dispatched war ships and aircraft, while the Air Force has sent helicopters and planes to search for them.”

“Preliminary, the injured said there was an influx of sea water and they tried to fight,” Choengchai said, adding, “but the rough weather led to more flooding causing the ship to lose generators and engines.”

A Navy spokesman, meanwhile, said a round-the-clock rescue operation was ongoing.

“We have rescued 75. The missing remains at 31. Though it is dark now, we will search for them all night,” Navy spokesman Adm. Pokkrong Monthatphalin told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated news service, on Monday evening.

Military personnel and rescue crew members gather at a makeshift operation site during the search for survivors of the HTMS Sukhothai, Dec. 19, 2022. Credit: Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP
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As the Sukhothai was listing on Sunday, the Navy sent another ship to rescue the crews but could not get near it, officials said.

A non-commissioned officer on board the Sukhothai told local Thai media that the waves were as high as 5 meters (16.4 feet), as the frigate HMS Kraburi sailed nearby.

“The waves were so rough, the crews scattered around the decks and waited for other ships to come help but to no avail. We waited until our ship sank and they could help us,” Petty Officer Second Class Patarawut Maram said.

“Since setting sail for two years, I have never encountered such strong winds. The waves came in at once, four to five meters high, crashing until it hit the side of the boat,” he said.

“Some people fractured their ribs,” he said, adding, “we had to wait until our ship sank first, then another ship could come to help.”

A doctor in Prachuap Khiri Khan said 15 were treated for injuries including three who suffered broken bones.

Pokkrong, the Navy spokesman, said a cargo ship had sunk over the weekend in nearby waters.

Poor weather forecast

In its Monday forecast, the Thai Meteorological Department reported that poor conditions were expected to remain in the region.

“[The] northeasterly monsoon blanketed the Gulf of Thailand, southern Thailand and the Andaman Sea remains strong, causing heavy rains. In both the Gulf and the Andaman Sea, the waves are as high as 2 to 4 meters and above 4 meters in the rainy areas,” it said. “Boats should sail with caution and avoid the rainy stormy areas until Dec. 20.”

The Royal Thai Navy’s Sukhothai (FSG-442) is seen in this undated photo. (Credit: Courtesy Royal Thai Navy)
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Designated FSG-442, the Sukhothai is one of the two Royal Thai Navy corvettes built in Tacoma, Washington. Commissioned 35 years ago, it was capable of conducting surface-to-air, surface-to-surface and anti-submarine warfare.

The sinking was the first of a Thai warship in 77 years.

Bangkok media reported that the HTMS Samui sank after being struck by a U.S. torpedo near Malaysia in 1945, killing 31 sailors. Four years earlier, the French Navy attacked Thai ships during the Franco-Thai War, sinking two ships and heavily damaging a third.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news service."

Singapore's, Impeccable & Illustrious, Launched

Pete Comment

Unlike Australia the Netherlands and India - Singapore, with its typical national efficiency, has relatively rapidly been procuring new submarines. 

In contrast, when, in 2014, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott indicated Australia should buy a Japanese sub this should/would have set in train a process resulting in the first Japanese sub (an SSK) in RAN hands by 2030. Meaning Australia's looming 2030s submarine capability gap would be avoided.

Article

Shawn C. who clearly knows a fair bit about Singaporean submarine matters, has kindly provided the following:

"As you know, TKMS has been very busy in the last couple of years, with Singaporean and Israeli orders, with the start of German/Norwegian Type 212CD production in 2023.

The second and third (RSS Impeccable and RSS Illustrious) of four Invincible-class (aka Type 212SG) submarines for the Singapore Navy, were launched on December 13, 2022. These join first in class, RSS Invincible, which was launched on February 18, 2019 and has been conducting crew training from Kiel on the German Baltic. Kiel is an interesting multi-cultural place, as the last Dolphin 2 sub (INS Drakon) will also be training in Kiel till sometime next year.

RSS Invincible may be in Singapore waters in 2023. There is no ETA as to when the last Invincible-class submarine, RSS Inimitable will be completed (I reckon if the RSN was following UK RN capital ship naming conventions - this name Inimitable should be replaced with Indefatigable or Indomitable).

Some sources on the two launches are:

-  Singaporean Ministry of Defence News Release 

-  TKMS News Release 

-  informative Channel News Asia article 

-  Video of the launch ceremony in Kiel 

and

-  Local newspaper Kieler Nachrichten article [right-click mouse if it doesn’t automatically translate] 

Interestingly, Hydrogen production (for fuel cells and power generation) is a nascent/promising technology in Singapore at the moment, though there are moves to start Hydrogen supply. See this H2 Bulletin article."