True, but not many people his age can say, “Hey, I just drove a giant-ass 8300-ton destroyer into an oil tanker.”
Well, there was this one where they drove in to a cargo carrier.
And in his defense I believe it was the Boatswain that steered the ship in to the oil tanker by not completing the shift of the throttle controls from one console to the other thus decoupling the screw speed controls.
The rudder remained at 0 degrees throughout the accident. It was the difference in screw speed that drove the ship to the left.
Just my reading of this account but I think the kid was a scapegoat.