I still don't how the board let the Captain off so easy. Of course, I
wasn't there to hear all the evidence they heard.

Normally, the Senior Officer Present has a clear duty to take command in
times of peril if he thinks the situation is being handled improperly. I
was told that this particular Captain was a qualified submariner in that
type vessel (I think I even heard he was an ex-CO of one), so was fully
qualified in that regard.

The next question would be whether or not the Captain, given the surrouding
circumstances, should have known the situation was growing perilous. I
don't know the answer to this one. I would have had to hear all the
testimony and evidence before I could judge that part.

Was the Captain there onboard in uniform? If so, that is a sort of prima
facie evidence that he would have automatically been accorded honors and
deference by the Skipper. And, it adds weight to the idea that he should
have intervened, if he saw things getting out of hand.

It's a very interesting case and situation.

Took me a bit, but I finally was able to understand quite clearly that the
combination of large waves, distance from, and periscope limitations of the
sub, in heavy seas, all contributed to them not being able to detect the
Japanese vessle almost atop them. If the Japanese vessel was bow or stern
on, when scope sweeps were made, and either the sub. or the Japanese vessel,
or both, were down in a wave trough, it would have been easy to visually
miss them.

Lots of lines of coincidence converging in one place, at one time, to
produce a disaster.