[John Rogers]

All the ships I was on never hit another ship although the Big E did bottom out once entering the channel in Hawaii!!! Seems we moved over as a commercial ship was drifting to port somewhat when it should have been going straight. I was the 1JV phone talker on the bridge and the capt. (Peterson) really got made and called the CO of the Coast Guard in Hawaii ship to shore to have the commercial ship stopped and fined for not proceeding in the way it should have been. We learned later that the master of that ship was passed out in his cabin and the 3rd mate was "driving"! They got a big fine.

I have had several of my students tell me that the bridge has 50% of the manning as it they used to have due to automation! I imagine that will finally change now! Another thing that could be a factor is the suction created when two ships on a parallel path go past each other. If the navy ship was going faster and passing, the suction created by the water passing between them can easily suck them right together! As an example when two ships such as an oiler and cruiser are running together for a refueling operation there is about 100 foot separation and the course has to be perfect otherwise they can close at over 20 feet a minute! I was in after steering on the CGN 25 during a couple refueling ops and the rudder had about 2 degrees angle to keep the ship away from the larger oiler.