There was a retired Navy guy on the radio yesterday who said that this accident was probably caused by a Junior Captain who was aware of the Tanker and that they were on a collision course and decided that rather than turn to avoid, he felt if he held course he could get past the tanker like a car thinking he could beat a train to the crossing.
Seeing as the CO was a Commander, I don’t think there was a “junior Captain” on board.
Violation of rule 15: "When two power driven vessels are crossing so as to involve risk of collision,the vessel which has the other one her starboard side SHALL keep out of the way and SHALL, if the circumstances of the case admit, AVOID CROSSING AHEAD OF THE OTHER VESSEL." "SHALL", not a "may" or "should" as these as distinct legal terms.
I read about some REAL seamanship years ago. During WWI a four-piper was escorting some troopships at when one of them, fully loaded, swerved into its path. The skipper realized that if he maintained speed, he would T-Bone the Trooper and probably sink her with a huge loss of life. He couldn't go Flank Speed as the Trooper would cut him in half with, again, huge casualties.
He sped up just enough to have the Trooper slice through forward of the No. 1 gun, killing about a half dozen sailors. The report said the Trooper saw what was going to happen and had the davits swung and and was lowring the rescue boats before she even lost way.