Vertiy and Polesie Collision - MarineTraffic AIS 

I am an aircraft pilot and watch a lot of videos relating to accidents, especially the excellent blancolirio channel. You did nothing wrong and are providing an excellent service. Ignore the whiners.

I was on board Iona... Thanks for explaining this. It's been almost a week and I still can't understand why, how etc. Seeing the Iona ribs bouncing over the waves at 4:30am putting their lives at risk is an image I won't forget. Thoughts to the family and friends and rip.

Full respect Sal. This was a dreadful accident and I for one appreciate your efforts to disentangle what happened as we have to learn what we can from incidents like this.

Yours is a very important channel. Now more than for a long time. My Dad was a man of the sea, and a submariner too. Thank you for all you do and the care you take

Only a full investigation and testimony of those in charge of the vessels at the time, if still alive will tell the story. I had one situation like this in my 18+ years of operating my shrimp boats. I was in the wrong like the Verity. I thought I was a lot faster than the other vessel I was going to cross paths with. I was on auto pilot and working on the deck. I saw what was developing and went to the helm and increased my speed as much as possible. The other vessel had to slow down to avoid hitting me. I felt stupid and still to this day feel I should have slowed down instead of speeding up. We survived and went on to fish many more years, but I was definitely wrong!

Glad to see the follow up. I see your respect for humanity and the proper reporting on the accidents and the dangers in maritime life

To paraphrase Juan Browne; the NTSB will take a year or two to go through the data and draw conclusions. However there are teachable lessons to be discussed now, while it's still fresh.

As someone who does a lot of cruising and uses AIS I think your dissection of this tragic accident was excellent and a good refresher for those of us out there.

You sound like there have been critics and you take them seriously. My opinion: You do excellent work here providing analysis and known facts. You do not speculate or make judgements. As facts develop you update. Don't let the critics change the way you report.

Sal - sadly, as you know, some number of commenters are trolls, some are super cynical, some attribute their own motives to RU-vidrs’ motives, some are clueless. Your reasons were well informed, well stated and clearly made. Keep up the good work.

The microphone setup works well Fabulous overlays Nice job

Hermann Marwede is a large rescue cutter by the German sea rescue org DGzRS. I'm actually impressed how quickly they arrived from their position off Heligoland.

Thank you for the job/s you do. You are showing the world that is seldom seen by everyone.

Thanks Sal for another excellent report. As a sailor whose family has served the US at sea for 4 generations (Merchant Marine and Navy)I am very a appreciative for the videos that you have been producing and I have been learning a lot as you do a lot of education. This video concerning the collision at sea hits home to me as it was 49 years ago (Nov 22 1975)I was aboard the USS John F Kennedy when the USS Belknap collided. As the result I was trapped by fire, something that still haunts me

Please keep reporting, analyzing, interpreting, and giving us maritime perspectives.

I think your channel is just brilliant. Thank you for that. For someone who sees this area every day, you explained it perfectly. No mistakes. Couldn't have done it better.

Thanks Sal for a further update on this sad incident. With a partner working on vessels in the North Sea, I’m acutely aware of how congested the waters are. Yes, accidents and incidents will happen, but being open and clear about the causes - and rightly in your case, not jumping to conclusions, and stating your opinions based on the information you have in front of you - then there is a great chance for learning, and hopefully preventing this happening again. Keep on doin’ what you do. It’s much appreciated.

Never get hit in the Starboard side. If traffic is coming from your Starboard side, you are the burdened vessel. Get hit on the Starboard Side, it's on you. The Polesie was obligated to remain on course. She changed to Port, which closed the distance. This will be an interesting report regarding decision making on both bridges. Long before AIS, I operated a 46' sport fisher in the Straights of Juan De Fucia. I was usually faster, and would stay to the sides of the Straight and watch the big guys run in the middle. I knew it was a Vessel Traffic Assist area, but I was ok doing it on my own. An associate suggested I begin to check-in with VTS when I was in their area of service. I did. It was like flight following for General Aviation. VTS would advise me of ship movements that affected me. It was like having another set of eyes on the boat with me. I'm all for communication. Talk to the other guy. Come up with a plan. Of course both ships have to speak the same language, which in that part of the world, may not be possible. Great stuff, Sal.

Another excellent video and informative for the non seafaring community. I will add how life at sea changed when I started my career in the 70s now recently retired Ships Captain. We didn't have ECDIS/AIS/ARPA /SATNAV, we had no distractions our first duty was navigation then that all changed with in the last 20 years paper work became the primary occupation with watch taking a back seat .It all started with the Safe Management System then after 9/11 came the ISPS code and many other codes such as ballast water code etc instead of companies increasing the manning they done the opposite, modern day Seafarers are at the mercy of the 24/7 relentless demands from HR / agent/company totally swamped in a sea of paperwork/administration that Seafarers are suffering burnout its amazing that tragedies like this are not happening more often.

You have always been a voice of reason and that seems to drive crazy people nuts .. I hope my comments have always been interpreted as respectful and maybe funny when appropriate

I very much appreciate this updated video. On October 20, 1978 the USCGC Cuyahoga turned in front of the bulk carrier MV Santa Cruz II. The Cuyahoga was 125' long 320 DWT and Santa Cruz II was 512" 12,700 DWT. This was a night meeting situation in Chesapeake bay The cutter turned to port to enter the Potomac river one mile in front of of the MV. The cutter rolled up in the bulbous bow of MV and sank in two minutes with loss of 11 lives. My CO was on the Investigating Board. I had been on the Cuyahoga for my OC cruise in late February. I remember being on a four hour watch at night. We (officer candidates) rotated through various duty stations. I vividly remember seeing lights on two ships until I realized it was the bow and stern of a large MV passing close by on our port side. It is easy to mistake what is seen at night in a busy waterway. Five months after commissioning I was shocked and saddened by Cuyahoga sinking and loss of life. I am saddened by the loss of life aboard the Verity. Sal keep doing the reporting. It is needed. You are correct few pay attention to the Merchant Mariners. Thank you.

VHF is provisioned for communications with other vessels for coordination. Anyone that has ran the navigable rivers with barge traffic will constantly hear them announcing their presence as they come to a bend. They usually broadcast their direction, which bend, and how much they have in tow. Radars don't work around bends and some places are dead spots for their transponders so the VHF and spotlights are used extensively. Lack of communication is one of the main causes of accidents, collisions, and arguments in every aspect of life.

Your videos are great, you are a great teacher and present very well. The best you tubers are those that allow their personality to come across. You are perceived as sincere, very knowledgable on shipping and truly concerned about the topics you discuss. Keep it up! and Thank you!

Hang in there. I can hear the frustration and pressure in your voice. You provide light for the rest of us.

You did not mess up, far from it. Your channel is an eye opening marvelous channel highlighting all things affecting ocean shipping and all commercial shipping by river, canal or ocean going. Your experience both as a former mariner, former and current firefighter and current professor of Maritime History is a combination that keeps me and so many coming back to your channel for your best skinny on the latest affecting commercial shipping worldwide. 👍 Please keep your channel going, to me its like a modern day light house for all of us mariners or who those who have family that are mariners, your voice and experience on “What’s Going On With Shipping” is so very, very much valuable!

Great video. I agree with everything you said. If I was in charge on the verity I would have reduced speed and let both the polsie and fiona pass ahead of me. The delay is minimal in the big picture anyway. I always told my mates that they had full access to the ship engine and can call me at anytime for support. On the vhf question, it is not mentioned in COLREG, however, As I see it, there is no harm in asking for clarification. : Verity , Polsie, we have a very close CPA , please state your intention. It can wake up a distracted OOW. This is just my humble opinions , and as I know many great colleages will have their take on it. Cpt Froggy holds a unlimited master licens and work as a maritime pilot in Sweden. (It doesent make me always right ofcourse 😉) I wish you calm sea and following winds. Froggy.

Generally speaking: In industry and politics, the more people want something hushed up, the more it needs to be openly discussed.

Sal, don’t let the ignorance of people get you down. You are top quality! Most people have never had a job close to the complexity and danger of the maritime industry and don’t have a clue of what it takes to do the job. People are freaks. Either high, drunk, angry or narcissistic, there are only a small percentage who will leave a clear, well researched argument. Keep up the great work!

Nothing wrong with your videos Sal. People need to talk openly about accidents and mess ups - as you say coverups and not talking about it leads to the same things happening over and over ago. I would agree with what you say about shipping not being talked about enough. Nothing is ever goign to be perfect and there will be mistakes if you're brave enough to put yourself out there, similarly new information comes along and more becomes known about what happens. Nice to see the follow up. It's always sad when anyone looses their life but it's part of these accidents and lessons should be learnt to avoid it happening again. Looking at the reconstruction I think Verity was trying to cut the CPA as close to the stern of Poliese as possiblestaying as far infront of Iona as possible and got closer than it meant to which freaked out the crew on Poliese adn they turned towards her giving a person stuck in the door problem. It looks to me that it could have relatively easily been avoided by verity making an *early* reduction in speed and turn to pass astern of Iona. It does look like the initial turn by Poliese may have been part of its track into the TSS.... verity then turning to avoid it, into a collision situation. I know it was unsuccessful but seeing all the vessels come straight to the position of the collision to provide assistance is pretty heart warming. Please keep doing what you're doing.

It's not only that they don't like manouvering it's also that Colreg states that you should avoid those pink areas as much as possible. I actully did a scenario in a simulator recently that looked quite similar where we missed to account for a ship when crossing a shipping lane and almost ended upp in the exact same situation as verity

I was on iona at the time,they did well in helping out,we were there for 10 hours assisting,very sad day.😢

The North Sea is scary, lots of traffic heading in all directions often with tired crews working 6-on-6-off for days, not fun. I sailed with a young navigating officer (2/0 at the time) in the very early 1980s who had recently been on a course where they used a 'simulator' to practice this kind of thing. Having completed his assigned task and feeling bored he decided to try and ram another ship to see how the 'simulator' would cope. All the ships followed the rules and he found it impossible to hit one. It was only afterwards that he found out that the other ships were controlled by other people on the course but the staff let it play out as an object lesson in quick thinking in an unexpected situation. He was very impressed by the way the simple rules, followed correctly, prevented a collision. On the other hand we were once entering a port, executing a sharp turn into an offshoot berth, when something fell off on the main engine resulting in an inability to go astern, we could only go ahead. The end result was a grazing collision with a berthed ship, no serious damage and no casualties. The cause was the failure of a bolt on a comparatively small (by marine engine standards) component. As they say S*%t happens and in confined waters it often hits something.

Sal, remember that a lot of people commenting have vast experience watching things like this on TV so they are in a position to use all of that knowledge to regulate everything that you say. Thank you for explaining these events to give us a better understanding of these events when they happen.

Thanks for this clarification. I really appreciate your videos and the information you relay. I was an aircraft pilot for years, and none of this stuff is simple nor are the decisions you make simple or black and white. I appreciate the fact that you present the facts to the best of your ability, and you share your educated opinion with us. That's all anyone should expect. If they have a different opinion, ...well that's life. I've never been on a large ship, or even anything larger than a large sailboat. Even still, I think this is one of the best channels on RU-vid. Keep up the good work.

As a person not involved in shipping, I really appreciate your videos as I learn so much. Thanks to your videos, I now realize what a monstrous impact shipping has on our lives!

I used to hate leaving Bremerhaven to proceed west and getting tangled up with the traffic leaving the Elbe River and I was sailing in containerships anything between 190m and 390m long. After being left on the bridge as a junior officer to sort out these situations when I became Master I would not go down below or allow the engineer on duty to go UMS until we had completed the manoeuvring through the traffic and were steady on course well into the traffic lane. Numerous times I had to slow down then speed back up before making that turn to port to head west rather than make a huge turn to starboard ( often a complete round turn). German Bight Traffic would often intervene in my manoeuvres and not in a helpful way. Slowing down was often the best way out of the situation of giving way and yes I was on a fixed time arrival for Maas Pilots at Rotterdam or Felixstowe pilots so had to then answer to bean counters and superintendents who wanted to know why I had had to speed up - simple reply, do you want to have a collision or let me be the man on the spot………… usually the reply from them was silence or “thank you Captain”

An historical note: Earlier this year (June 2) was the 50th anniversary of the Esso Brussels/Sea Witch collision under the Verrazano Bridge in New York. If I'm not mistaken (you're the historian, feel free to correct me) that was the accident that kind of kick-started the whole idea of traffic separation schemes.

Outstanding video. There will be a lot of "'Monday morning quarterbacking" with this incident, as usual (including from me...), but the accident investigation report should tell the whole story. Seems like both ships were partially at fault (e.g. the Polesie coming left even though she was the stand-on vessel). A sad incident, and all we can do is learn from it.

I agree that a short VHF call could have definitely helped, especially now with AIS the ships' names are known. I think Verity is getting close to her bare steerage which would only get worse if she slowed. I think it's a good estimation that the initial turn to port by Polesie was an "automatic" turn and completely threw off the surface picture for awhile (visual relative bearings change for Polesie and visual target angle change on Vertiy). Sad that four lost their lives. Once again proves that some times driving ships gets very challenging 😞

Thank you for your timely reports with wonderful insights about what is going on in shipping.

Thank you for your detailed and timely reports. They are invaluable.

Thanks Sal for a pretty clear report on a tragic situation. You present an unbiased viewpoint of a very complex situation. Keep up the excellent work on your channel.🐻

As a sailor (on a boat with sails!!) who is in and around a lot of commercial traffic in the Irish Sea area, we continuously broadcast our AIS position, we have radar reflectors, nav lights, 7x50s in the cockpit and we both know our colregs and stand a continuous watch. Even with all that, if a larger vessel starts manoeuvring on approach we never assume anything - we call on VHF16 and inform them of our presence and ask their intentions. It takes 30 seconds. Why would you not do it? Most of the time - say 99.9% - we never need to, but Rule 7 says "Use every means to avoid a collision" and radio is a valid means. People who gave you flak for mentioning the radio should maybe go and read the COLREGs again. Great video. I really enjoyed it.

Every time one goes to sea there is great danger. You are standing up for seamen and a voice well done.

Nobody more qualified to discuss this topic Sal! Thank you. 😃

I think you bring outstanding content on the topic and maybe people think you're wrong - fine, they can keep it respectful. I enjoy very few channels more than your own and I'm grateful for you taking the time to make them. Best always.

I'm new to your channel but I've seen about 10 videos I think your are well spoken very informative I enjoy learning about shipping and water laws. Thank you for your service and your sincerity im praying for you and your family I look forward to your next videos

You are doing a good job sir, keep it up! 🤠👍

This accident may have occurred on the sea, but there are lessons to be learned regarding automobiles on land, too. Yielding and giving right-of-way is crucial to regulating road traffic, too.

Sal, I'm just a geek from Maine but I love your channel. I check daily for new videos. Please keep doing the videos, especially ones that will help save lives. As a side note, I think the navy should get it's own house in order criticizing you. Have you seen the number of relieved captains? Thank you for your hard work!

Very interesting analysis of what went on , it seems the change of course by Polesie caught Verity off guard as if Polesie held its course things would have been ok , you can soon see how they " woke up " as it were and the confusion commenced , I wonder if the course change by Polesie was done by automatic helm than by human input , as an officer on the bridge would be seeing what we seen on his radar and be obvious to him what the course change would incur , I still wonder about VHF communication from both ships as surely Verity would have anticipated Polesie's course and would have stated intentions.

Navigation is a whole different story at night. Probably both on auto pilots. Very sad for the sailors that did not make it and for their families.

I appreciate what you do, Sal.keep it coming! ⚓️

Sal, Your reports are on point! They are information packed. Your ability to convey and break down the story into content that the average earthling can understand, is on par with Lester Holt and NBC evening news report. Even tho I have decades of sailing the upper Niagara and lake Erie, you provide the information in such a way that even if you have no maritime expirence or knowlage, you can still understand how these storys impact us no matter what counrty we live in. You really show us how we are living in a global community. How our economies are connected, how one small disaster can almost take out the house of cards. Or how conflicts abroad efect us, regardless of our political position or stature. Keep up the good work Sal. Your a professor on 2 fronts. P.S. Maybe you can put in a bid for that 7-7:30pm slot on NBC est. Pretty sure your content is more valueable then what they currently have on air 🤣

Herrman Marwede is the biggest rescue cruiser of the DGzRS. Nordic is a rescue tug. Bernhard Gruben is a 23m rescue cruiser of the DGzRS. Anneliese Kramer is 28m rescue cruiser of the DGzRS. Mellum is a 80m police ship. They basically sent a ship for every missing person...

It will be interesting to see the work hours of Verity and Polesie crews. Those small ships with limited crews (Verity) are prone to sleep deprivation. It is also a long transit on the Elbe. (How was the weather / visibilty?- fog is frequent there) I agree with you that this is a crossing situation. Been there many, many times and you need to be very aware of the traffic coming from the Elbe when leaving from the Weser. Prayers for the sailors lost and their families. Good work Sal.

Dr.Sal. Excellent material .THX

I am fascinated by marine traffic maps. Thank you Sal for letting me discover this amazing resource.

Thanks for you reporting and explanation of what happened. The charts were helpful. I find your channel interesting and informative. Global shipping helps keep all of us alive and well thanks to all of the products that are shipped around the world. I think that is one reason I find your channel so interesting. I appreciate all the effort you put into these reports.

Thank You for a second important video on the subject. I was very critical on Verity actions in a commentary for the previous video but I have to admit Polesie should kept her port alterations to avoid this collision. However that would possibly lead to a risk of collision with Iona but this could be avoided later. Those tragic radar assisted collisions start with Andrea Doria and Stockholm (apparently the vessel still exists under name of Astoria) collision in 1956 and as result it brought important changes into colreg for anti-collision usage of the radar and OoW related duties.

The whole situation sucks. It's an incredibly dense traffic area and it's amazing that there are not more collisions between ships & boats in the area.

I wish the Families and Friends of the decesed Peace and Comfort. Once Verite turns to starboard to follow the channel, the situation is a crossing situation, not overtaking at all. Constant range and bearing coastal CPAs can best be managed by first changing speed. If safe, a course change is a second best choice if the vessel turning can stay in safe water and ascertain a safe course by some quick ded-reckoning - which is why, in coastal waters, changing speed is a good first option in terms of manuevering the ship. The very first thing is communication, of course. imo: I think Polesie, to extract herself/avoid/mitigate extremis, should have initially altered course to starboard and circled back to intended course. If I am in control, I would always turn away from the danger if at all possible, not towards the problem causing danger of collision. Thank you for your videos. This one was educational in terms of conducting coastal navigation and what one does to look ahead of where vessels will be in relation to own ship. I still believe in the manual plot and manuevering board as they train your mind to be able to navigate safely and predict how to navigate safely and require a focus on what is going on with shipping ... no pun intended.

I agree with you about the use of VHF. With a DSC call you can setup VHF communication between 2 ships without causing any general confusion.

preliminary information taken under advisement. great video. thanks for referring Joe Franta great channel.

Sal, your imperfections are refreshing. Stay the course.

A brilliant analysis Dr. Sal!! Thank you for all the hard work you do to prepare these lectures for us!

Your videos are very important, thank you for doing them, your awesome.

Thank you, Professor, Doctor, Unlimited Mate, Fire Captain Sal. IF I were 50 years younger and had different inner ears, I would register at Campbell University right now! Airlines have TCAS (collision avoidance system). Seems within reach to have a maritime equivalent. Keep up the excellent work. 😊

I, for one, have experienced a crossing near miss, but not in a congested waterway. I was driving a 155 ft launch at night. I noticed some disturbed water on my starboard side. The other boat, similar sized, was advancing towards me. At the last moment, I saw her red, port, bow light that had been obscured by its bow wake/spray. I was the give way vessel. It was the stand on. I had to make a hard starboard turn to pass it astern. No bumper cars that night. 😮

A general rule I was taught while qualifying as Officer of the Deck Underway in the US Navy was that you NEVER turn TOWARD approaching traffic unless you have been in contact with the approaching vessel and have full understanding of how both vessels will handle deconfliction. Both vessels turned in to the other--a recipe for disaster. It is obvious to me that Verity should have slowed to steerage speed and let all traffic clear before proceeding.

Videos like these are very important appreciated, especially if you're not in the industry. Negative opinions about it can take a hike and pound sand. It's about understanding what happened

Sal, it's important to cover incidents like this so that lesson can be learned. I'm more of an aviation nerd and the reason that industry is as safe as it is is regulations and practices written in blood. I don't know enough about the maritime trade to even think about having an opinion on this but I sure as heck trust your judgement and calm analysis. I wondered about the apparent lack of coms that might have communicated intentions but maybe that would have been too distracting. I'll check, but if you haven't already done so a piece on marine radio protocols would be appreciated. Great job as always, it's nice to learn from a pro.

Brilliant as always. Thanks Sal. So informative and hopefully educating others to avoid future incidents. My thoughts to the crew & families, and all involved in the search and rescue efforts. X

Very well done Sir😊

Great info as usual Sal no complaints here. I did the USPS courses back in the early 90s and I have forgotten a whole bunch of it since then.

You do great work on these videos. You also do great on the feedback communication and replies. Hats off to you kind sir. Keep up the great work.

Great job Sal , don’t pay any attention to the peanut gallery, some people will find fault with everything. I tend to listen to someone whose been there ! For those of us who have been to sea we understand things a little better…..

A shame these sorts of collision still occur but not surprising. Both ships will be held to account for their errors and someone will have to decide the percentage blame. A hard job indeed. For decades, maybe even now (?) the thought of the OOW grabbing the telegraph/engine control and pulling it back to slow down was the pinnacle of "WTF! you're not allowed to do that - the engineer(s) will be upset/ the engine will break down, everyone will be woken up, etc". Similarly, sharp turns to avoid close quarters situations would bring everyone to the bridge and the OOW would face a barrage of WTF? But, as first trip Third Mate I thank the Master for drilling in to me "the very first time you get that sinking feeling in your stomach with a situation, call the Master; you can sort it out together before drastic action is needed". is it possible the OOWs on these two ships had no-one to call, or were too frightened? Also, those lovely shaded traffic separation zones on charts could well be seen as Concrete Median Barriers 'never to be crossed or entered'. My 2 cent's worth: Verity had loads of room to dodge to starboard way before the collision area.

RIP to the persons lost and best wishes to their families. Thank you for continuing to report on this tragedy.

I'm really happy I stumbled onto this channel; it's highly informative and I'm learning a lot! Keep up the great work!

Great follow up video and deepest condolences to the families of the deceased mariners. I have never operated in this area and appreciated the many comments of those who regularly sail in the area. Many electronic aids were added to ships over the years, but at times it can lead to sensory overload. There is also a time lag between an actual event (course or speed change) and it registering on AIS or ARPA. It is still important to look out the window while using available tools.

Thanks for the update. Good commentary with the information at hand. People will disagree, it's human nature, but this incident is a good cautionary tale for seafarers in all craft.

Thank you, great video. I can't understand the thinking of people saying "don't use the radio, it causes more confusion". It's exactly what you are supposed to do in an unclear approach situation.

Sal.. sinking of fishing vessel “Evening” rescue at sea in the Pacific Northwest last week. Curious to hear your take on miracle rescues like that one.

Like yourself Sal I was a former mariner and have first hand experience navigating that exact stretch of water. From your explanation if I was the officer on the give way vessel I would have done a round turn to get some gauge from the crossing vessels. But yes there were lots of possibilities and a full investigation will no doubt apportion blame. One point that I would look at from one of the comments below was the time of the accident. Speculation here, was it watch change? Great work

As a pilot (aviation) I see many similarities to similar aviation scenarios. You are a Master. As such only another Master or someone trained in maritime accident analysis is qualified to critique your observations. It will be interesting to see what the official conclusion is in the final report by the investigators. Finally, perhaps a video on the different classifications of mariners would be useful.

Thank you very much for this very informative Update on this tragic Accident! Indeed, we need to know what happened to avoid such Accidents in the Future! RIP to the Deceased!

Keep up the fine work you do, Sal!

I think of a rule of thumb I learned and served me well when I was shipping, “never turn left for a vessel forward of the beam.” I also agree that the VHF isn’t always helpful, but when standing in front of a judge, jury or other such post incident examination, at least you don’t have to answer the question “why didn’t you try calling the other vessel” with “I don’t like to,” or such. Granted sometimes you get replies like “on course to waypoint.” Or my all time favorite “what are you’re intentions?” Was replied with the other mate’s carnal intentions with the calling vessel’s mates wife, sister and mother… 🙊🙉🙈

The traffic separation zone on the starboard side of the VERITY may have been afraid to turn the VERITY's navigator to starboard so that the Vessel Traffic Service would not record it. This could also be one of the reasons for not making a timely maneuver, which means hard to starboard.

An excellent review Sal. Spot on.

IMO, given a CBDR situation between Verity and Polesie while they were still several miles apart, and given that they both had AIS, there can be no justification for their mutual failure to establish bridge-to-bridge radio contact well before the extremis situation developed. Tragic failure due to lack of forehanded seamanship.

Thanks Sal. Very good video. Clearly Verity is the giving way vessel, and in my opinion should have reduced speed, and let Polesie, and the pax vessel pass safely ahead. Notwithstanding that, and when danger of collision was imminent, Polesie should have maintained course and speed, and not altered to port. If both vessels had complied with COLREGS,, it is unlikely that the very sad collision would have occurred. My opinion only,based on your video. By the way, there is a place in Surrey, England, called Effingham. So you can imagine what it gets called sometimes. Cheers Mike

I'm not a mariner, but an aviator; we have many of the separation requirements mariners have. In aircraft, our collision-avoidance systems communicate with conflicting traffic; onboard computers advise each flight crew what to do. This is bound to be a future requirement for shipping in congested waters. Further into the future, shipboard computers will communicate with the entire system, and resolve traffic conflict through direct control of ships' autopilots. That's my guess, anyway.

I think you do an awesome job, Sal. As I've stated before, I have no connection to maritime affairs other than being an average US consumer. Your channel has raised my awareness of the maritime scope of things. I find that the information you share is relevant and interesting. Thanks for your work!

This is a much better explanation because the ECDIS/ENC has been superimposed with track data. I agree that the instructor going on about an overtaking solution is complete nonsense. On the previous video it was not clear why Polesie turned to port, but here it is. It was a bad move as she was committed to complying with the RoR (Rules for Stand-on vessel) and the alteration could be deemed to be unsafe. As a Captain, my Standing Orders required the OOW to report when a ship had a CPA of less then 0.5 mile and when he was going to make an alteration of course in accordance with the Navplan and whether it was safe to do so, or if not, what he was going to do. Polesie has obviously followed the Navplan without due regard the shipping situation. I agree with the possible solutions that were open to Verity and going astern of Polesie and ahead of Iona would be OK if there was sufficient sea-room but there is no scale. Verity, should have been aware of the probability of crossing situations at this "crossroads" and been much more alert and taken actions much earlier.

Hi Sal all i know is if i was on the smaller vessel i would be on the radio confirming positions because if anything happened i would bear the brunt of the incident regardless of who is at fault.

Aircraft pilot here (its my understanding the rules for aerial navigation conflicts were adapted from maritime rules BTW) - airliners are required now to have TCAS - traffic collision and alert system that identifies possible collision targets and the system directs each aircraft to climb or descend to avoid the collision without ATC intervening (it's between aircraft, doesn't rely on radar control or ATC). It surprises me that ships don't have a similar system, since there are obviously all sorts of ways to track ships.

Thankyou for your high view of human life. It speaks huge volumes of your character and and why you present such important information. I have learned alot from you.

Please keep us updated!