Air Force guy, so I’m in unfamiliar waters (to coin a phrase), so I’ll defer to my Navy brothers. Need to remember that the accident occurred at 2:30 am (Japan time). How much lunar illumination was available; was there moonlight, or was it pitch black? What about the weather? Even a brief rain squall (not uncommon in that part of the world) can reduce visibility to near zero in a matter of minutes. Ditto for sea state. Today’s DDGs are much larger than the “tin cans” of World War II, but they’re quite small compared to container ships. If the Fitz was in rolling seas, with limited visibility and poor weather, it would be much more difficult for the crew of the container ship to see the warship.
Having said all that, there are standard navigation lights that must be displayed and rules of the road. Ultimately, it comes down to the Officer of the Deck, who was (likely a Lt or LtJG. The careers of that officer, along with other sailors on the watch, are likely over.
I’ve heard it said that being commander of a warship is the closest you can get to being god (small g) on earth. Absolute authority is entrusted to the skipper of the ship, and with it comes absolute accountability. I remember being in a group of USAF officers, talking to one of our Navy counterparts. One of my group mentioned how quickly the USN will “fry” a ship’s commander, sometimes over matters that seem almost trivial.
“You don’t understand,” the Navy officer (a LCDR) replied. “It has to be that way. We can’t have even the slightest doubt about someone entrusted to take a US naval vessel into harm’s way.”
‘Seeing’ a vessel say by the bridge watch is only one facet...and certainly not the end all.
Even in the 80’s when I was the OOD of a Destroyer the radar scopes ruled the day, and I have no doubt the radar image of the container ship was known to the Destroyer’s bridge team probably 15-20 miles out. All contacts were monitored on the oscilloscope display with a grease pen back in the day...mark the contact when obtained, then mark it again 2 minutes later and draw a line..update the line a few minutes later etc. I’m sure CIC was monitoring the vessels path also. When the two vessels ‘paths’ were due to intersect or meet based on available data, the rules of the road should have been applied and appropriate maneuvers enacted to avoid a collision. Often times, vessels talk to verify intentions..though sometimes the containers ships are on auto-pilot and raising a person can be a problem...but a USN ship has MULTIPLE sources of data including the bridge watches and a bridge team (OOD, Conning officer, QM, CIC) to gather info and avoid this type of scenario. In open sea saling this should NEVER happen, but while things can get dicey in crowded waters, 55 miles out I don’t think this was the case.
I understand about the darkness and weather and pitching seas, I stood lookout watches in another life. What I was driving at was - have we come to rely so much on dependable technology that someone decided a man with his own eyes isn’t necessary anymore? Kinda like cabooses on trains.