In the summer of 1970, we were cruising slowly from north to south along the shoreline off the III Corps in a Gearing class tin can when we collided with a stationery wooden fishing boat, the “Sally B”. She was of Australian registry and full of Vietnamese fishermen sound asleep at 0200 +/-. The seas were flat. The sky was clear with no moon. We had the fishing boat on surface radar at least 15 miles before the collision and visual on its running light at 10 miles. The collision splintered a few boards on the transom and scared the feces out of the Vietnamese. It tore a large gash in our bow just above the waterline. We had to steam very slowly to Vung Tau for emergency tender repairs. Needless to say, there was a change of command ceremony in Subic two weeks later.
I remember seeing those destroyers tied up in Yokosuka. I was onboard an LST homeported there from May 1970 through December 1971. I qualified as OOD(F) and cannot imagine how any OOD would not miss that vessel. That sounds like T-boning another car in a parking lot with yours.