Chinese Vessels "Harass" US Warship

[Captain Seafort]

Ok, thats just stupid. Did they know it wasn't going to blow them out of the water, or just guessing?

Knew. No one was going to start WW3 over some destroyer skipper playing silly-buggers.

They had to be either drunk, bored, or both.

They were doing what the Russians have a track record of doing - playing chicken. They did it during the Berlin Airlift, flying right at allied aircraft and then breaking off at the last moment, and they did it underwater, with their snap-turn Crazy Ivans. On this occassion the Russian commander either pushed his luck too close, or was simply a poor seaman and thought he had enough room to slip through under the Ark's bows. He was wrong, and was lucky that Captain Lygo was an excellent seaman - if the Ark hadn't gone full astern at exactly the right moment the Kotlin would have gone straight into the side of the Ark, into the Petty Officers' mess, which was full of people. It would have killed a lot of people, and caused far more serious (perhaps fatal) damage to both ships, which would have caused a serious stink to say the least.

[Mark]

Likely just too much booze and testosterone built up, and no women on board to relieve it.

[Schrodinger's Hat]

Okay, I did some checking and the thing with the fighter pilot who somehow got himself "rammed" by an EP-3 did happen in the area around Hainan Island. Apparently, the PRC has a bit of an interesting definition of what constitutes their territorial waters in that area. Apparently, they also have a "strategic naval harbour" on the island and want to build a new launch facility for their space program there. Let's hear it for Wikipedia, eh?

[Monroe]

...Was the US ship getting close to something the Chinese wanted to keep secret, perhaps?

That seems more probable than, "they were all drunk", which is the other explanation that makes sense.

Actually Russian ships fired on several British ones at the start of the Russo-Japanese war because they were all drunk

[Lazar]

Yeah, I remember when that plane collision happened. The EP-3 crew was held by the Chinese for 10 days, and we had to send the PRC a letter saying that we were doubly sorry.

[Captain Seafort]

Actually Russian ships fired on several British ones at the start of the Russo-Japanese war because they were all drunk

I wasn't a case of them being drunk, but it was dark, and they were panicky. The result: the opened fire on what they thought were Japanese torpedo boats, and which turned out to be the Dogger Bank fishing fleet. Fortunately for them the French managed to persuade the British government not to send the Home Fleet after the Russians, but they did get escorted as far as Gibraltar by a strong squadron.

[Monroe]

Actually Russian ships fired on several British ones at the start of the Russo-Japanese war because they were all drunk

I wasn't a case of them being drunk, but it was dark, and they were panicky. The result: the opened fire on what they thought were Japanese torpedo boats, and which turned out to be the Dogger Bank fishing fleet. Fortunately for them the French managed to persuade the British government not to send the Home Fleet after the Russians, but they did get escorted as far as Gibraltar by a strong squadron.

And why do you think Russians thought the Japanese were in the North Sea? That's right, alcohol.

[Teaos]

I doubt they were protectiing anything. Just screwing with the US.

[Reliant121]

I suppose it depends on whether the American Ship was way out in international waters or right on the skirt of the chinese territorial waters. I can imagine the chinese being somewhat aggressive with their border defense.

[Foxfyre]

The Impeccable was operating in International waters a good distance away from China's waters.

[Captain Seafort]

The Impeccable was operating in International waters a good distance away from China's waters.

"A good distance" by whose standards? Unless it was moored in Pearl Harbour I doubt the Chinese would agree with you.

[Tsukiyumi]

Well, what does "international law" say about it? Unless the Chinese are somehow exempted from international law...

[Captain Seafort]

International law says you can go to within an inch of territorial waters without a problem. My point (if the weren't enough already) was to take the piss out of the Chinese.

[Monroe]

International law says you can go to within an inch of territorial waters without a problem. My point (if the weren't enough already) was to take the piss out of the Chinese.

Well it'd be kind of hard to park a Carrier strike force an inch from Chinese territorial waters. But maybe a few hundred feet from it might do the trick.

[Captain Seafort]

Well it'd be kind of hard to park a Carrier strike force an inch from Chinese territorial waters.

It's probably achievable. You'd need to be damn sure the GPS was working and the driver knew what he was doing though.