USS Hershel ‘Woody’ Williams suffers soft grounding in West Africa

Diana Correll
·1 min read
23

The expeditionary sea base Hershel “Woody” Williams sustained a soft grounding mishap last week, just after getting underway from a port visit in Libreville, Gabon, according to Navy officials.

The ship, currently on a scheduled deployment, ran aground at approximately 2 p.m. local time Thursday, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa Spokesperson Lt. Cmdr. Jason Tross said. The ship then freed itself at high tide roughly four hours later.

“No injuries or major damage were reported from the grounding,” Tross said in an email to Navy Times. “We cannot provide further details at this time as the incident is currently under investigation.”

USS Howard sustained ‘soft grounding’ near Bali ahead of port visit

The expeditionary sea base is based out of Souda Bay, Greece and is the first Navy ship assigned to U.S. Africa Command, according to the service.

Earlier this month, the ship participated in Obangame Express 2024, an exercise in West Africa focused on boosting maritime law enforcement and regional security in the area. The annual exercise, spearheaded by U.S. Africa Command, launched on May 6 with more than 30 partner nations.

The ship is not the only one to encounter such a mishap in the past year. The dry cargo ship Alan Shepard ran aground in Bahrain in July, while the guided-missile destroyer Howard also experienced a soft grounding in August as it pulled into Bali, Indonesia, for a scheduled port visit.