Fascinating story about the Missouri. Skipper with a serious case of recto-cranial inversion IMO....
There was a whole book written about it, and it went into gory detail...yes...recto-cranial inversion is right on. The helmsman, who was familiar with the area, knew they were going on the wrong side of the buoy, tried to warn him once, got icy silence in return, waited a little longer, tried again and got slapped down.
Dumb ass Captain got what he deserved.
The shoal they ran on was gooey, slick mud on a very, very gentle grade.
When they hit that at 15-20 knots, they had no idea they were going aground. There was no shudder, no grinding, no noise, they didn’t even decelerate where anyone could tell the ship was slowing down.
The first indication they had was the condenser intakes got blocked with mud, and the screws were throwing up mud.
Then they stopped, and were stuck fast.
Amazing.