Court-Martial for Kinkaid’s Skipper Begins

The commanding officer of a Navy destroyer involved in a collision at the Strait of Malacca did not know the true location of his vessel and had inadequately trained his watch crew, a Navy prosecutor charged Sunday during the opening day of the first such court-martial in more than a decade.

Cmdr. John M. Cochrane, the 44-year-old captain of the Kinkaid, which collided with a merchant ship in November--killing the Kinkaid’s navigator and injuring five sailors--stands accused of endangering the ship and its crew by failing to carry out a safe plan for crossing one of the world’s most heavily traveled channels.

If convicted, Cochrane--who enlisted almost 21 years ago--faces a maximum penalty of two years in the brig, forfeiture of all future pay including his pension, and dismissal from the Navy. The case will explore the extent of a captain’s responsibilities for his crew and ship. The captain has traditionally been viewed as accountable for his vessel--a longtime cornerstone of Navy philosophy.

Navy prosecutor Lt. Cmdr. Leroy Dickens charged that Cochrane not only failed to pick up a navigational error and was misinformed about the ship’s location, but that he also understaffed the ship’s bridge and watches. Some crew members performing watch duties during the night of the collision were doing those tasks either for the first or second time--and a total of eight sailors had not qualified by Navy regulations for the tasks to which they were assigned, Dickens said.

“This collision should never have happened. . . . The commanding officer set the stage for a disaster,” Dickens said during proceedings at the 32nd Street Naval Station. “The commanding officer of a ship should always know where his ship is. When he goes to bed, he should know where his ship is. He must always know.”

On the eve of the collision, Cochrane requested a wake-up call of 6 a.m., and the ship arrived at the strait, between the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra, almost an hour earlier. When the collision occurred about 5 a.m., the captain, navigator and assistant navigator were not on the bridge, witnesses testified.

Lt. Sean McPhee, the 24-year-old navigator who had held his position for about four months, was killed as he slept in his bunk. McPhee, of Santa Rosa, Calif., had told the captain and the executive officer that the Kinkaid would not reach the strait until later in the morning. McPhee had asked to hold a navigational briefing the following morning, said Lt. Cmdr. David T. Cunningham, the ship’s executive officer, who has been in the Navy 15 years.

But the Kinkaid was apparently ahead of its schedule and arrived at the busy crossing with a smaller number of men in the Combat Information Center than was required by Navy regulations, testified Lt. (j.g.) Douglas Walter McCurdy, the CIC watch officer. McCurdy assumed the CIC watch at 4:25 a.m.--a duty he had performed for the first time the day before. Realizing the Kinkaid’s location and believing the ship was undermanned, he twice requested that the vessel’s contingency plan be started and more men summoned.

“I was told people were standing by if I ordered it. I was told there was a plan,” McCurdy testified, looking at Cochrane several times. “I discovered that, whatever plan there was, it was not effective, because no one came.”

The 563-foot Kinkaid, en route to Hong Kong on Nov. 11 for a routine port call, collided with the Kota Petanie, a 493-foot Panamanian freighter. Fires broke out aboard the Kinkaid and the collision ripped a 15-by-56-foot hole in its starboard side. Injuries aboard the Kota Petanie were minor.

Two sailors and two officers--including McCurdy--received letters of reprimand in connection with the collision. The duty officer, Lt. (j.g.) Steven M. Williams, 25, was dismissed from the Navy in a court-martial after receiving a letter of reprimand in February. Williams, the officer of the deck, was found guilty of dereliction of duty and negligently hazarding a vessel.

Cochrane, who declined to discuss his case during Sunday’s proceedings, was relieved of duty in November.

“It’s a terrible thing to happen after such a wonderful career,” said his wife, Suzanne, of San Diego. The accident “was just a moment in time where everything went wrong. My husband isn’t bitter, but I stand nothing to lose by saying that I am extremely bitter and I don’t love the Navy.”

Cochrane’s case will explore the extent to which a captain is responsible for his ship. The last time a similar case occurred was in 1975, when the guided missile cruiser Belknap collided with the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy during operations in the Mediterranean. Eight sailors were killed and 48 were injured.

In a controversial decision, the Belknap’s captain, Walter R. Shafer, was acquitted of negligence charges by a military judge in 1976.

The decision was so controversial that Adm. James Holloway, then chief of naval operations, released a statement saying it did not undercut the long-held Navy policy that has always declared a commanding officer responsible for his vessel and crew.

“There are obviously deviations, and the Belknap was one. A number of us weren’t too damn pleased about it,” retired Vice Adm. Joseph Metcalf III, a former deputy chief of naval operations, said in an interview.

“Basically, a captain is in charge and he is held responsible for what happens. Ships can’t be run by committee,” Metcalf said.

Prosecutor Dickens painted a picture of a crew strained by its own inexperience and further hampered by understaffing at a critical moment. Dickens alleges that Cochrane did not:

* Supply functioning binoculars or a stopwatch, used as a measurement tool.

* Review directions or brief the crew about sailing the Strait of Malacca.

* Ensure that qualified personnel were assigned to stand watch.