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A comment on Why Did a U.S. Destroyer Fail to Dodge a Cargo Ship?. Parent comment

Re:Why Did a U.S. Destroyer Fail to Dodge a Cargo Ship? by mjlee on Saturday June 24, 2017 @02:19PM (#14626743)
There are only one or two people awake on lookout in a civilian ship.

Air-conditioned bridge, slowly rolling waves, practically nothing to see or do... If they're on a typical watch pattern, 0230 means they got out of bed an hour ago and had just settled into the watch routine.

Pretty easy to drift off.

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Re:Why Did a U.S. Destroyer Fail to Dodge a Cargo Ship? by jessaustin on Saturday June 24, 2017 @06:23PM (#14627724)
...for 3-12 minutes. Then BNWAS flashes the light, then it sounds an alarm, then it sounds a different alarm both on the bridge and in the captain's cabin, then it sounds an alarm that the entire crew can hear...

However, yes, even if BNWAS were operational the watch could doze off for long enough to miss the fact that they were being passed, but not by enough, by a smaller faster vessel with no lights and AIS turned off.

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