My theory, as a licensed captain for the past 40 years, is that their are too many people on the bridge and in the operations command chain and they become a distraction. On commercial vessels the captain is the steersman, throttle man, navigator and radar observer. He also is the sole lookout, operates the radio and has responsibility for all actions of his crew.
On a typical navel vessel their are 6 to 10 people performing the same task and reporting up the chain to a commander who makes decisions down through the chain. What could possibly go wrong?
I operated many types of oilfield support vessels in all weather and high traffic areas. You must have a comprehensive situational awareness and be able to react to unusual situations in seconds. My opinion is that reaction time and judgement is compromised through the military mind set.
You have some valid points. Ship handling is learned from experience and learning to deal with a dynamic situation of relative motion. Keeping situational awareness often requires that you ignore electronic devices and spurious inputs and rely on your own eye balls.
Right you are. I always worked the bridge alone, many times towing a 4000 metre long seismic streamer.
I have yet to see any charts or diagrams showing how this collision happened. I have sailed into and out of Singapore literally hundreds of times in the past 35 years, and the Traffic Separation Scheme is well established and usually adhered to by all parties. If you do happen to wander out of the lanes near Tanjong Remunia, the observers at Horsburgh let you know sharpish. It could be that they had not yet entered the TSS.
As the destroyer was inbound, it is difficult to imagine a tanker of that size crossing the westbound lane, as there is nowhere to go in that direction other than the beach.