It means someone hit a rock and their
boat sank and they think the rock was near there...
And when you manage to hit it after reading the chart, you can help narrow down the exact location of the rock(s). Read that
GPS quickly before abandoning.
Or you can go around and not risk the belly of your
boat.
Maybe some of them are visible at low tide... maybe not.
******************
USS Enterprise conducting flight ops.
Senior Petty Officer in Combat Information center looks at chart and calls the bridge:
"Bishops rock ahead appx 50 miles." (I forgot the exact times and distances... so don't try to figure the speed from this)
Bridge acknowledges.
60 min later:
"Bishop's Rock appx 20 miles"
Bridge acknowledges
Appx 20 min later:
"recommend turn to avoid Bishop's Rock"
Appx 10 min more:
"Turn the ship to avoid undersea mountain"
Helmsman sees rock poking up and spins the
wheel AWAY from the rock
They hit the other (hidden) peak...
I knew the guy that was calling the bridge telling them not to hit the rock...
They first tried to blame him, then the poor guy on the
helm who tried to save the ship.
***************
BTW... they did NOT continue ops... they managed to stabilize the ship and ran the USS Carl Vinson at "EXCEED
PROPULSION PLANT LIMITS" to prepare to
rescue survivors. They thought the Big E was going down.
I was on the Carl Vinson.
USS Enterprise (CVN 65)