[Bruce Campbells Chin]

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.

[Presbyterian Reporter]

“””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”””

---

I doubt the accuracy of this statement.

[TXnMA]

"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..."

TheMcCain's damage has a very clear "low velocity impact" signature:

It looks very much as if McCain was dead stopped, and the tanker had so little forward velocity (and inertia) that it barely creased the McCain's hull plating with its vertical stem.

Basically, it looks like the Alnic just shoved McCain sideways until energy dissipated and everything came to a dead stop...

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Hat tip to Presbyterian Reporter, who shared with me a link containing what could be an important datum:

http://maritimebulletin.net/2017/08/21/uss-john-s-mccain-vs-tanker-alnic-mc-same-scenario-as-with-uss-fitzgerald/

"Tanker Update: Tanker was carrying some 11,987 ton of fuel oil, hull not ruptured, no leak, propulsion said to be damaged."

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This is speculation, but could it be possible that the Alnic MC's "propulsion damage" is from when she went "ALL ASTERN FULL" in an attempt to stop before hitting the dead-in-the-water McCain -- (and almost succeeded in stopping...)?

That scenario fits the evidence from the McCain's damage better than any other that I have seen offered, so far...