On Wed, 28 Jun 2017 06:57:55 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 6/27/2017 11:39 PM, Wayne.B wrote:
On Tue, 27 Jun 2017 13:27:51 -0400, wrote:

I am hearing that the destroyer was passing in front of the freighter.
The Fitz was the give way vessel and the freighter was the stand on
vessel. The ACX was supposed to maintain course and speed. The story
is it turned right full rudder, and that is what put them on a
collision course. They hit 10 minutes later. If the ACX maintains
course and speed, it passes astern of the destroyer.
ACX was trying to help but following the rules of the road is what
they were supposed to be doing

===

For the "give way" vessel to attempt passing in front strikes me as
being very questionable. It fails to comprehend the various Murphy's
Law possibilities and of course that's exactly what happened. At the
very least the destroyer should have communicated and negotiated their
intentions well in advance of the actual crossing situation to prevent
any possible confusion. We hear commercial ships negotiate meeting
and crossing situations all the time on VHF radio. We've even
participated in a few ourselves where there was ambiguity. I'm always
impressed by the high degree of professionalism that we've encountered
even though much smaller than the big guys.


I don't follow Greg's assertion that the freighter, as the stand on
vessel, would pass astern of the destroyer. The destroyer in this
situation should have passed astern of the freighter. As the "give way"
vessel, it was up to the destroyer to either slow down, stop, turn to
starboard (to pass astern of the freighter) or take whatever evasive
action required to avoid a collision. IMO, the destroyer was at fault
here.

It appears that the ACX was pretty far away from the destroyer and
passing in front was not an unreasonable maneuver.
Are you saying that if you see a vessel approaching from your
starboard side you will stop and wait, no matter how far away it is?
I think that the OD made the determination that if the freighter
maintained course and speed, he had plenty of time to be gone when the
freighter got there. As it was the freighter turned 90 degrees and it
took 10 minutes to hit the destroyer on the starboard side. That makes
it sound like he would have been a couple miles behind the destroyer
if he stayed on course. The open question is why the destroyer did not
detect the course change and take evasive maneuvers. I still have not
seen the movements of the destroyer or what it's base course was when
this all started.
My only thought about "arrogance" is these destroyer guys think they
are race car drivers and think freighter captains are truck drivers.