Everyone must have been asleep! How do you explain NOT seeing a tanker ship the size of a warehouse bearing down on you?
Excellent point.
Though I never served in Navy (and I don’t wanna second-guess what happens on the bridge of a ship), it stands to reason that someone should have been aware of the closeness of the merchant ship.
And while not deflecting blame, did anyone on the merchant ship contact the Navy ship via radio and say (albeit in laymens terms “Whoa...WTF? You getting a little close to us!”
Excellent point.