[Norseman]

A couple of points:

The video of the tankers’ paths indicated they turned north to a path of 70 degrees, so they would have been heading 80 degrees prior to the turn, not 60 degrees. Thus the Fitzgerald would also have been heading 80 degrees if they were on the same initial heading.

If I’m correct and the ship the Fitzgerald was concerned about was the Wan Hai, then a call from the Crystal about conflicting routes might have been misinterpreted as coming from the Wan Hai, which the Fitzgerald had already taken action to avoid. If that was the case, it would have been of little concern. (Obviously this is pure speculation. There might have been no call at all, or someone with more knowledge of these matters might claim that no such misinterpretation is even possible.)

[PavewayIV]

All good points, Norseman. And yes, I had the headings screwed up again as you noted. Just to toss more junk into the mix, we also have no idea if there were other Navy ships in the area along with the Fitzgerald. I'm imagining a busy bridge tracking several ships and somehow getting fixated on one (Wan Hai) or confused, not an inattentive crew blissfully unaware of their surroundings.

I was just re-reading a Naval Institute article and great comments: Fitzgerald: When A Big Ocean Gets Small that gives a good idea (to someone like me) what goes into Navy crews keeping ships from plowing into each other all the time. For their part, merchant mariners insist a ship like the ACX Crystal does not traverse busy shipping lanes 'on autopilot' with an empty bridge. The ACX Crystal is described as a 'medium-sized' container ship. There are certainly much larger commercial vessels that it would have to be concerned about in those waters, so I kind of doubt the 'autopilot' theory unless the Crystal crew was suicidal.

I've been trying to follow the more recent FreeRepublic thread here: EXCLUSIVE-U.S. warship stayed on deadly collision course despite warning-container ship captain - many good comments by everyone. A nice education so far for me from some knowledgeable people on how these 'ship' things work.

I wish we knew more from either the US Navy or Asian Container Express, but I'm guessing neither one will want to say anything in public for a long, long time. I have very low expectations that either will be forthcoming with all the details unless they can't avoid doing so. More likely than not, we'll get the watered-down MSM 'public' version that will leave many questions unanswered. Frustrating, considering the lives lost.