Hhmmmm. Sounds like steel hulls could be a factor to me.
I’m sure that someone has mentioned it, but could watch the water mean it’s going to happen very soon? They say a watched pot doesn’t boil, but that is not true and especially so if you start watching after it has been on the burner for a few minutes.
Going back to the start of this line of discussion, the collisions caused the hull damage, not the other way around. I haven't heard any claim that the damage was more than expected given the nature of the collisions.