Looks more like another ship hit them. I expected damage on the bow from the news descriptions.
The damage is on the port quarter, which means that unlike the Fitz, the McCain very likely had the right of way, and it was up to the other ship to avoid the McCain.
A lot of those merchant ships don't even man their pilothouse -- there is literally nobody at the wheel or even looking for other ships. They often ignore the rules of the road, and simply expect other ships to get out of their way.
If the McCain was working on its steering -- may have even been dead in the water or moving at greatly reduced speed (and hence had limited maneuverability), and that other ship simply wasn't paying attention and rammed it...
Well, the CO will still get blamed, but that's a much, much different incident from the Fitz, which was clearly in the wrong.