If Chuck Norris was driving the boat there would have been explosions.

#(removed comment) Dude, that's a tanker ship and if it's loaded, it has some momentum. You can't just "hit the brakes" or "reverse engines".

I don't understand . You are in a huge golf and you crash with the other single boat there ? How ? Why ?

#(removed comment) It takes 30 minutes full reverse engines for a ship like that to stop.

#(removed comment) to much movies.... like #2 said, if it's full then it's not gonna stop easy.

Are they blind? All that space, huge freaking sea and they crash it..... this captains must be Idiots or seek people

Yep, big ships can't just stop. They take forever to reach their cruising speed, and take just as long to stop again. There's no emergency brake on a ship -- except having another ship perpendicular across the bow!

To make things worse, ships steer with the rudder and their stern. That means the leading ship can't steer away because it would push his stern into the other ship (and they're already touching!) and the larger ship can't steer his bow away because he has no rudder in the bow. He *might* be able to maneuver a little with the bow propeller, but that would be utterly futile at the present speed.

Really, the radar systems of both ships should have alerted the helmsmen of the collision course; it would have taken an insignificant course correction of the leading (smaller) ship to avoid the situation. We can't know why that didn't happen.

im glad they used a cirkle and a arrow to point out the collision or else i missed it :s

Just to stop such a massive cargo ship, assuming it has cargo, would take anywhere between a few hundred meters to up to almost five hundred. It's hard to say because we don't know what speed they're traveling at and how "heavy".

Judging by its speed and likely total weight, and my 30 years experience in the merchant navy, I estimate that it would take a ship that size almost three years to come to a complete standstill.

I've been behind the helm myself quite a few times, and i know how boats and ships handle in water. Judging from this video, i can only come to a couple conclusions.
Machine failure, or
Human miscommunication between the two ships, or
Other failures, like helm, rudder, propeller, etc.

There is no way in hell that both captains were 100% in this video, to much space around. Both ships could have opposite turns and avoided it, and that might be miscommunication again, maybe they mixed up who was gonna take which turn.

I'm betting engine failure tho, most common cause, cause you lose so much of the steering and makes it hard to maneuver.

Ship Happens

A case of sea rage - pure and simple.

#7 they forgot the arrow that pointed out the time when the captain in the first ship shat his pants

#2, neither ship is a tanker. I was at sea for 16 years, the last one as master. The ship astern of the other is to blame because he was overtaking and must therefore keep out of the way according to rules. However if it becomes so close that he alone cannot prevent a collision, then the other must do something too. In this case he went to port which made matters worse. Both ships then are to blame.

was that on slow-motion

Where is Singapore Detroit? Is it anywhere close to Hong Kong Ann Arbor?

Guys I explain: it's the fish-tale maneuver...

reminds me of the gary larson sketch of a penguin slipping on a banana skin in antarctica(which i've googled the shit out of and cant find)

It takes time to stop 400,000 tonnes of ship !

The larger ship did a PIT maneuver on the smaller ship.

What i can not take in is... why didn't the captain of the boat coming from behind slow down? Just makes no sense at all!

Mabye Russians on the helm?

The larger ship is 57,000 tonnes according to http://www.news.com.au/world-news/supertanker-runs-down-cargo-ship/story-fndir2ev-1226589650815
Assuming that nothing is actually malfunctioning it is probably the same old story. You wee it on the roads too. The smaller ship is cutting across and because it is front, has a right to expect the bigger one to slow down. The larger one feels it doesn't want to lose the time and fuel (lots) and expects the smaller ship to get out of the way on the grounds that being hit is too expensive. Neither backs down, so CLUNK.

Pity the video stopped there.
I'd liked to have seen the punch-up after between the two captains.

choo choo....

I just noticed that nobody suggested it was a woman driving, not that I'm suggesting it was a woman driving, or two women driving, I mean like, it could have been a woman driving, equal opportunities these days but perhaps no it probably wasn't a woman driving or steering or what ever women do, I don't know, but I'm just saying it isn't beyond the realms of possibility, that's all I'm saying. It could have been that's all, probably not, but possibly. You know the more I think about it the more...no it probably wasn't a woman driving, they get seasick anyway don't they?