Oh, so a huge, lumbering freighter set out to purposely ram a smaller, nimble US warship laden with radars......and succeeded!! This theory is ridiculous on about 5 different levels.
A freighter in the open ocean could fake a medical distress and lure a DDG in close. They could communicate on VHF channel 13 and signal a may day. Once the DDG got to within 500 yards then the freighter could “punch it”. Especially if the DDG was launching small craft. Possible.
So a small zodiac style boat came along side a U.S. warship that no one suspected could cause mass destruction, sailors on board were waving. The next thing you know, boom. That scenario seemed ridiculous too, until it happened.