SAN DIEGO, Calif. — The Navy announced it had relieved the captain of the USS Mustin (DDG-89) following an unauthorized whaling expedition during a training exercise off the coast of Antarctica, sources confirmed Tuesday.
Capt. Hikaru Yamamoto led his crew on a modified version of a traditional Japanese whaling expedition in celebration of Asian-American heritage month, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said.
Yamamoto, who is Japanese-American, allegedly taught his sailors to sing ancient coastal fishing songs "while directing his Fire Control Center to unleash a pair of RUM-139 VL-ASROC anti-submarine missiles into a pod of sperm whales," a Navy investigator told Duffel Blog, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The skipper's relief is just the latest in a string of high-profile firings of Navy officers, to include a captain and master chief being relieved after raising money from strip clubs, and a master chief and executive officer being fired after making their sailors carry around their own feces along the pier.
