They didn’t. If you look at the AIS track with the speeds, you’ll see that that, at the first turn, ACX Crystal ABRUPTLY changed course and lost 6.1 knots in less than three minutes and 4,000 feet. Loaded container ships simply can’t shed speed that fast unless they’ve hit something. THE collision occurred BEFORE the U-turns, not after.
The time the Navy is reporting is wrong, and the Japanese Coast Guard is right—the collision occurred at 16:30 UTC (1:30am local), not 17:30. Most likely, Fitz tried to “beat the train,” didn’t succeed, and ACX Crystal’s autopilot began to resume course and speed. There’s a very good possibility that ACX Crystal’s bridge watch was in bed (explaining the sluggish response), but I don’t buy a deliberate attack at all. If it had been a deliberate attack at ~17:30 UTC, that means that ACX Crystal decided to hang around for another thirty minutes afterwards. If it was an intentional collision at 16:30 UTC, ACX Crystal’s track indicates that they turned around to render assistance and remain in the area for three hours. THAT makes sense.
Radio just said 3 injured sailors, IIRC including the captain, were airlifted to hospital.