Even if the container ship was bought and paid for to run around like an idiot in the shipping lane, maybe even “have an accident” with an American military vessel, how did the Destroyer let herself get ran into?
The same way that Sunday morning Dec 7, 1941 happened.
Container ships probably aren’t regarded as hostiles - until now. Same way we were all standing around our tv sets the morning of Sept 11, 2001 - wondering how a commercial jet pilot could be so inept as to fly into the WTC - and then the 2nd jet hit the south tower on live tv and instantly we realized this wasn’t an accident.