In my 20's I was a helmsman on big commercial ships. The ships were up to 1000 feet long so among the bigger ones entering ports like SF Bay.

I used to hear near-miss stories told by mates and captains while I was on the bridge doing my job.

This latest Navy vessel collision in the news this week reminded me of one story told by a captain who had worked in the Navy after graduating from a merchant marine academy.

As I recall, the rules of the road say that the ship to the right in a meeting situation has the right of way. In this story, two Navy ships were converging towards eachother and starting to get pretty close. A young officer in charge of the ship to the left didn't know what to do about the situation, so he got on the phone and called his captain who was on another deck.

He asked, "what's that ship doing?"

The captain answered: "He's maintaining course and speed!!!"

The young officer had forgotten the most basic rule of navigation. The guy to the right maintains his course and speed, while the guy to the left has to turn, slow down, or do what needs to be done to pass safely.

I kind of wonder if these recent collisions are symptoms of some boneheaded lapses in navigation.

Additionally, maybe there were commmunication errors with foreign merchant captains and pilots?

Working on the Mediterranean Sea one time, a bunch of Navy ships were in the area. A US Navy officer got on the radio at one point to set up a passing arrangement with a foreign merchant ship. He said, "I'm going to take you down your Starboard side and shoot your stern." For one thing, I think his words were way too jargony to say to a foreign captain. He could have said, 'I'll pass astern of you.' Another thing is that it was poor choice of words for a Navy ship to tell a foreign ship, I'm going to "shoot you" or "take you down." I don't think the mate on the foreign ship ever answered that transmission. It makes me laugh a little remembering that.