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Thanks for clarifying the issue! There is still too much sensationalist speculation going on here on FR, IMO... :-(

FWIW, your dropbox link didn't work. I believe this was the image of mine you were trying to display:

IMO, there is no longer any credible reason to go on speculating and spreading FUD about a "deliberate attack". etc. I guess some knotheads here on FR just have to have their "cheap kicks"... :-(

It is now abundantly clear that the collision occurred BEFORE the ACX Crystal began her bizarre maneuvering. And, it is also obvious that she did u-turn, return to the scene of the incident and putter around there at dead slow speed, presumably offering what aid she could supply.

And, it was while the Crystal was at the incident scene that she (almost an hour late) reported the event -- in confusing "local time", rather in the "Zulu" or Universal Coordinated Time" (UTC) -- in which AIS data are recorded. (See table, above...)

Confusion about the time makes early reports of the collision position at point "A" excusable. "Garbage" media reports as in #39 on this thread are simply inexcusable reporting in any nation's media...

And, IMO, continuing to try to make an attack out of an accident here on FR (six days after the event) smears FReepers as imbeciles -- or worse, as wacko conspiracy theorists -- or liberal "Fake News Junkies"...

</RANTMODE>

I agree completely TXnMA.

Several things that (to me) buttress your analysis:

1.) The 90 degree turn at 1630 UTC (0130 local time) with the accompanying dramatic dropoff in speed. That alone appears to support a collision.

2.) The data indicates that with almost no delay, literally three minutes, the ship began picking up speed and resuming its course. To me, that is also evidence the ACX Crystal was on autopilot. If not, any normal mariner would have stopped the ship dead in the water and stayed that way.
Looking at the times, it took about eight minutes for the ACX Crystal to resume its course and pick up speed again, something I just don’t think any mariner would have done on a civilian ship in peacetime.

During that eight minute time frame, while the CRX Crystal was on autopilot, I don’t doubt that the 20 man crew was running around in total pandemonium and confusion (Including the Captain) while the lone guy on the bridge who was probably surfing the Internet or watching a DVD was standing in the middle of the bridge with alarms going off, the ship thudding and heeling as it began to pick up speed and steer back to the original course, phones going off, people arriving on the bridge, and him having no idea what happened.

We are sensitized to see nearly anything as terrorism, myself included. This just doesn’t fit that, to me.

FWIW, here is the angle I see the impact occurring at...don't know their relative speeds yet. I think if it happens like this, a lot of force of the collision is transferred in the motion of the ship forward. I think the Fitzgerald saw her at the last second and tried to turn to port to avoid the collision: