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Chet Ruminski Wrote:The damage on both ships indicates the container ship was almost stopped and backing down and the destroyer was dead in the water. They just barely touched. That actually was very little damage for two huge masses coming together. The container ship was almost stopped and at the very instant of impact actually started going backwsrds. The damage didn't extend laterally to any extent do the destroyer was dead in the water or barely moving. For the container ship to be stopped they had known for sometime they were on a collision course. All lot of things were being over ridden by manual controls.
Why the Captain was injured is a real mystery. There are a myriad of electronics that private boats have that warn of ships in the area and that set off alarms when ships cross certain distances. That is just on private citizen boats. That ship would have alarms going off that have to be reacted to. Unless everything was turned off because of the heavy shipping traffic.
I'd hardly call 14.6 knots a stop, that's 16.8 mph, so you really can do a lot of damage to a smaller vessel. Picture a 100,000 pound 18 wheeler moving at 17 mph ramming a modern day sheet-box like a Toyota, you can do a lot of damage.
I also would think that a ship can fully stop the engines and reverse thrust to avoid a collision, but not being a sailor, I don't know if that's possible on a large ship.
The navy ship's captain might have been below deck either trying to warn the 7 sailors, or he could have been sleeping along with them. Chet, once general quarters is sounded, how much time do you have to put on your pants and shoes and have the sailors out of their sleeping berth?