“CPA?” And the length of “a cable?”
CPA == Closest Point of Approach
Cable: 100 fathoms, or 600 feet, or approximately 1/10 of a Nautical Mile.
IOW, we came less than 600 feet (about 450, in my estimation) of slamming a 22 thousand-ton displacment vessel into the stern of the USS Tarawa. And, by the Rules of the Road and Seniority, it would’ve been our fault, though they were the ones to jump the queue.
Skipper was still white-faced and pinch-lipped when I saw him, about an hour later. Nice guy, very controlled, even tempered, never seen him that pissed off, not even at Mast.
Edit:
Be glad I wsan’t talking in “shots” or “Chains.” 
(90 feet, fifteen Fathoms) - i.e. The Tarawa was five shots off our bow. 
Missed the window: A “Chain” would be 22 yards. 
Yes, I know it is a long box but the cruise ship I was on had a lot more people in bridge controlling it. However, they had a few more things to do.
It still amazed me how just 2 people can be all that controls a ship.
That being said, my impression was probably formed by the large crew on the Titanic and the large crew (430) on the old Star Trek enterprise as well as the several thousand crew members on a large aircraft carrier
Thanks
As discussed upthread already. If this is correct information then I would still tend towards thinking there was substantial fault on the part of the Fitzgerald.
If the Crystal was overtaking then the two vessels were heading in the same direction converging at an angle of 22.5° or less. That’s the definition of overtaking as opposed to crossing.
That would mean that the Fitz’ obligation was to stand on ie maintain course and speed, and the Crystal’s obligation was to keep clear. Given that the AIS shows no turn to port shortly before the collision, there are two possibilities.
The first is that the vessels were on a converging collision course and neither vessel turned away effectively, and the collision occurred, without more. I’m quite doubtful about this because
[ul][li]the photos of the damage to the Crystal show very heavy damage to the very point of the bow;[/li][li]your linked report says there is a substantial underwater crack to the Fitz (probably caused by the bulbous bow of the Crystal);[/li][li]the damage to the Fitz looks to my untrained eye to be too heavy to be caused by a less-than-22.5° glancing blow; and[/li][li]the AIS track of the Crystal seems to show it being shoved heavily off course to starboard, rather than merely glancing off at less than 22.5°[/ul][/li]To me all this looks like a near T-bone, not a glancing blow.
The second is that the vessels were on a converging (but not necessarily collision) course and one or other vessel turned inward, leading to a near t-bone. There is no such turn on the AIS track of the Crystal as I’m reading it, and reasonably large container vessels don’t turn on a dime. That suggests to me that the Fitzgerald failed to stand on, and instead turned hard to starboard.
Upthread I said “Surprisingly enough a common wry observation in the industry is that most collisions wouldn’t have happened if one or both of the vessels refrained from taking the evasive action they took.”
I’ve been involved in two previous cases involving collisions caused by vessels taking panicky last second action. One involved a naval vessel doing something unbelievably stupid and panicky. Perhaps that biases my guesses here 
IANA expert on the crossing rules, but it seems at very first glance that it’d be easy for a crew to misunderstand whether they were in a crossing or an overtaking situation.
Given the different duties in those two situations, it’d be a disaster in the making. e.g. one ship thinks he’s overtaken and therefore stand-on. Other vessel thinks he’s starboard in a crossing situation and therefore is stand-on. Both stand pat until the situation is unrecoverable.
Or, as you say, perhaps worse is when both think they’re the give-way vessel and maneuver to “avoid” the collision they’re now actively contributing to.
I’m wondering if there’s any validity to my thoughts here?
Cargo officer = Mates
The only controls are the throttle, and a helm. That is all the bridge watch controls.
I was on the Bridge of the Grand Princess under way coming back from Hawaii. Bridge watch was a mate the senior watch officer, 2 lookouts, 1 helmsman, and I think a messenger. I believe the ship was 100,000 ton range. Normally under way in the open seas the only thing the bridge watch does is watch.
Of the large crew of the Titanic or any passenger ship The Deck and Engineering departments are not the largest departments. There are cooks, servers, porters, stewards, laundry workers, kitchen workers, photographers, printers, radio department, the large entertainment department, pursers and more. There are just a small number of people that are responsible to maneuver the ship.
Yes, I am well aware that the support staff makes up the majority of the ship crew. Can I still be amazed at how few people are running such a large ship:D
By chance were you in the Navy?
When I was doing reserve duty on a Destroyer the officers of the DD could not believe that there were on 3 of us on watch of a merchant marine engine and boiler room watch. Engineer, oiler, and fireman.
2 points on this
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During the Titanic iceberg collision which occurred just after midnight, 2 of the night watch crew on the nearby steamer California (which stopped for the night due to ice ) observed something unusual (rockets firing) and went down to wake the Captain, Mr. Lord. Mr. Lord dismissed the rockets because they were the wrong color and went back to sleep and they only found out about the sinking in the morning. (Whether they could do something is another issue)
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When I was on a cruise, I woke up at 1:00 am (on a Monday morning ) and I commented to my parents that this was roughly the time the Titanic hit an iceberg and the thought of getting up and trying to evacuate at the time of the night was quite difficult. We certainly would take longer than 4 minutes to get to the lifeboat station from our cabin and I was 47 at the time (My parents were 72 and 77)
People who can be instantly awake and ready to go amaze me
No, I am a engineer/teacher but I have Navy friends (mostly retired)
LSLGuy I think your points do identify a weakness in the rules but in practice it’s not a weakness that arises much. At night, the angles of visibility of the various navigation lights make the angles of the vessels clear. And radar and GPS the same.
And even when a close situation does develop, usually the stand on vessel will turn away not towards the give way vessel.
Scientific.
Naval discipline is rather different from Civilians on a cruise liner. Yes, we get up on an instant. It’s something you can be trained to do, and the Nav is very good at that kind of training. To this day, I parse sounds in my sleep. Want to see me snap awake in an instant? Pop the main breaker in the house, and I’ll be on my feet before I’m actually thinking. Why? Because ‘suddenly silent.’ On a naval vessel, that’s a Very Bad Thing. My mind still reacts that way.
“Rockets in the distance” is ,uch less worrisome than “Large vessel on a converging course.” That second item WILL get your attention.
Looking at the fence damage to the Crystal, it is abundantly clear that it was NOT a near-perpendicualr strike. I’ve seen the damage of a perpendicular strike, and that’s not it. That’s a classic angled strike. It is probably much less acute than 22.5°, I agree. Maybe as high as 45°. The Fitz’s weather deck edge is most likely what caused the bow cut.
I’ve seen high angle shots of the Crystal’s bow, and their bow bulge doesn’t seem notably large. I suspect the hull crack is more likely due to the Fitz’s hull flexing at the point of collision (500+ foot hull has a HUGE moment of leverage, when suddenly shoved violently sideways at a single point).
Possible - A turn to avoid the Crystal by passing astern would’ve done that. Of course, at close range, you’re in the in extremis situation, where manuevering to avoid IS allowed by the stand-on vessel.
Oh, certainly. I’ve commented on one such instance, myself, above. OTOH, I’ve seen some seriously stupid shit done by civilian vessels, as well.
Fact is, wherever you have an industrial environment (and the sea is certainly such!), you WILL see Stupid Human Tricks.
Perhaps both of them were “on autopilot with an inattentive or asleep crew”
I was on a tanker that clipped another tanker. The other tanker was docked and we were coming in to dock. Tore 3 inches of the deck and handrail right the upper deck just outside of my quarters.
From what the rumor mill had going the tanker we hit was loading high octane gas, and some people on the tanker we hid were jumping off the fantail.
I agree. I think more than 22.5 but certainly not perpendicular.
Unless things have really changed since my Navy days (1980-90s), Navy ships don’t have “autopilot.”
Here’s a CNN article which has general info on Navy watchstanders: How do Navy ships operate?