200254 Continuous VHF Calls

Continuous VHF Calls
Report No. 200254

I was piloting a car carrier from the Bristol Channel to Antwerp. I first heard a US warship on VHF Channel 16 when she was carrying helicopter operations and required a clearance of at least 6,000 yards when a helpful (?) person on another vessel pointed out that we use metres and miles in Europe. This occurred to the West of The Casquets TSS. Unfortunately for me, the warship followed me up the channel and into the Dover Strait at a distance of 20 to 30 miles astern. Throughout the rest of the run, the watchkeepers on the warship felt the need to call up each ship they encountered and tell them how they were going to avoid them. This continued into the Dover Strait and, as the traffic increased, the warship could be heard more and more frequently advising ships ahead how he was going to overtake them.

It being a Bank Holiday, the usual clutch of yachts and motor boats were getting into difficulties and several PAN situations were underway. This did not deter our warship as he fitted in his calls amongst the PAN traffic. Oddly enough, I did not recall him making the mandatory reports for Casquets and Gris Nez. I was also surprised that the Coastguard did not ask him to cease his endless "Navigation by Radio". If we still had Coast Radio Stations, I am pretty sure that they would have stopped his performance. His greatest achievement had to when he called up what sounded like a bewildered Russian 10 miles away that he would pass astern of him.