Was everyone on the Destroyer asleep too since they didn't see/detect the cargo ship?
The destroyer is not asleep, the circumstance is still under investigation, so as to why the ships crashes and why the US destroyer does not noticed, that is unanswerable question, but the OOD have to be on deck if the Captain was asleep, and there would be a skeleton crew on-board.
But it is a straight up violation if the Crystal crew is all asleep, that's a direct violation of rule 5 of IMO convention to prevent collision, so if this is the case, the whatever the US Ship does or does not do will not be a matter under navigation rules, the look out can be asleep or not watching the sea, but as long as they posted enough man to man the watch station, the destroyer can not be at fault. Because by law, Crystal have to have crew on Pilot House and Watch Station.
It was not a head-on but rather a side collision. at the point of the first divergence(seen on Crystal's GPS), the Destroyer is north and impacted with the cargo ship at south. From the damage photos it makes sense. Destroyer going SE, and cargo ship going E. Destroyer impact with cargo ship, autopilot on cargo ship make it go SE-ward.[assuming the collision happened when the cargo ship take the first SE turn on the GPS track from the pretty straight path heading east before.
Umm..no
At 1627 UTC, the first diversion, the Crystal is heading 070 (Heading NE) and change her heading to 088 at 1630 (Heading East), the only way it can hit the destroyer (if the collision time is 1630 as you and some one suggested) We do not know where the destroyer is heading, but After the crash, regardless of where the destroyer is heading the 30,000 - 70,000 tons cargo ship would have continue on course at 088 or slightly veer off course from the collision if the autopilot was not disengage, but not going all the way to 135 degree, a 8900 tons destroyer cannot push a cargo ship that far using her starboard.
If a crash like this happen, the cargoship would not have change course because of its inert mass, you are talking about a destroyer using her side to put to 30,000 to 70,000 tons ship (likely 70,000 tons because it was departing and should be fully loaded) for up to almost 50 degree in 3 minutes?? (from 088 to 135), I don't know about you but I don't think the engine on the destroyer are capable of that.....
Action taken by autopilot after impact.
Autopilot will not deviate from the course, if the autopilot was set to 070 or 088, they will make small adjustment (+/- 5 degree) but if you are talking about a 47 degree turn, unless it was input in before (a Way Point Turn) it is impossible for Iron Fist to correct itself that much, doing that much Iron Fist would have disengage.
According to my cousin, who had been at sea for 12 years with the USCG, modern Autopilot have both Gyro mode and Nav mode, Nav mode is a "Way-Point Navigation mode" using GPS assist to navigate a given course, gyro mode is like cruise control where t use the gyro function to keep the ship on course, unless it was prior input, a 47 degree turn would have the autopilot to leave the gyro mode and disengage the auto pilot, in short, autopilot would very highly likely to be disengaged after a crash, unless A.) A crash is not noticeable, B.) The autopilot malfunction
In fact, the action seems like someone at the pilot house and making manually.
Big cargo ship takes forever to stop. sailors on the Crystal are not high skilled professional, like the ones on the Destroyer. Ships impacted, sailors woke up no knowing what exactly happened, confused, toke a while to decide what to do, stop autopilot, loop back to accident point and check out what happened. all that took time.
I am not talking about to stop the ship in that paragraph, I am talking about preparing to stop. Meaning the ship started decelerating. It took the crew 16 minutes to start decelerate, meaning nothing was input at the pilot house in that 16 minutes, if they disengage the autopilot and helmsman would immediately put the ship on reverse, the speed will constantly decrease. This has not been done until 1652, according to AIS when the ships speed decrease from 14 to 12.9 then to 12.2 then to 12.3...and so on. BEfore 1452, ship is at almost constant speep, which include both acceleration and deceleration.
It took 22 minutes for the pilot of the ship to do something??
Again, was everyone also asleep on the destroyer? Ship(cargo ship) on starboard side have right of way, ship(destroyer) on port side should be the one first to take action to avoid collision. So, why was the Destroyer sailing so close to the cargo ship(reason, they didn't see/detected the mega size Cargo ship with professional sailors, AIS, world's most advance radar/detection/avoidance system)? If the people on the Destroyer saw/detected the autopilot cargo ship then why didn't they follow the navigational rules to take avoidance action?
Again, there are no "RIGHT OF WAY" in nautical term, everyone are supposed to watch where they are going (Read Rule 17 on IMO Convention to Prevent Collision). If the Destroyer does not stop or fail to stop, then the Cargo Ship, as a stand in, have the equal responsibility to stop.
Just because the Cargo Ship may be in a stand on position (from Starboard) and the destroyer is on a give way (port) position, that does not mean the Cargo Ship can just sit there and do nothing. There are rules that precede some rules, Rule 5 preceded Rule 15 which mean regardless on who's stand in and who's give way, if you do not post look out and everybody went to bed while the ship is in motion, then it will be your fault it crash on something.
I crashed and totalled a parked car 4 years ago because I was talking to my wife and got distracted and I did not look at the road for a few second, the car was parked illegally (on the side of a highway where you should not be park at that time) and the car I hit should not have been there, but in the end, who do you think have to paid for both car? I did, and I got a negligence driving charge, because I was supposed to look at the road, the car park illegally is not the problem in this case.
Beside, we don't even know if the destroyer had actually did try to avoid the cargoship by turning, if the destroyer turn, they may or may not be enough to dodge the cargoship, but they did yield.
Another point is we don't even if the US ship is actually at Give Way when both crashed.
How about the US Destroyer is to travel opposite to the cargo ship (so at heading 240 or 250)? With minimal distant which both ship would pass without incident? And then The cargo ship turn starboard at a sudden and hit the Destroyer at 1630? This can explain why the look out did not see it and why there are no collision alarm (collision alarm on the destroyer is automated) and why the Captain of the was still locked in his quarter?
Or how about the cargo ship is overtaken the Destroyer at their starboard and over compensate and hit the destroyer at their starboard? Again, it would have no notice this way.
US Ship MUST BE CREWED, I don't know what you know about the Navy and the Military, but regulation in the Military is a bit more discipline than in merchant navy, all NAVY Ship have to be manned at all time, it's funny to say the Navy ship crew is all asleep. They do have 4 watch crew rotation you know?
