[USCG SimTech]

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.

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.

[P-Marlowe]

Shall...

Obviously neither ship obeyed that rule. The theory is that the skipper of the tanker was literally asleep at the wheel and the skipper of the destroyer was either asleep ( which is unlikely) or thought he could keep on course and still avoid a collision.

Somebody is going to jail.

[doorgunner69]

Yeah, that stand on and right of way gets pounded on heavy even in small boat handling. You go behind the crossing boat, unless you are on a jet-ski (snark)