Surely all ocean going steamers have radar in these days? The Ramore Head, upon which I sailed to Europe in 1956 had a very good radar on her bridge. Southwester, a 42 foot wooden sailing yacht, had a decent radar that could pick up ordinary buoys at a couple of miles when I sailed on her twenty years ago.
Now we have video of a supertanker, engulfed in flames, 2-3 hundred miles off of Shanghai China. The newsies say she collided with a freighter carrying grain. Were the bridge crews sound asleep? Surely the radar on both bridges showed the other vessel approaching? Chapman (Piloting Seamanship and Small Boat Handling) has an entire chapter on right of way and rules of the road. The Officer of the Deck is required to know all the rules by heart and follow them. Both ships were far out to sea, free to maneuver in any direction without fear of running aground.
So what really happened?
For that matter we have never heard what really happened aboard those two Navy destroyers that collided with merchies last year.
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