CONTINUOUSWAVE

So, two ships collide in Singapore, one sinks. Since both were equipped with AIS we have a interesting youtube video:

http://maritime-executive.com/article/vessel-collision-and-sinking-in-the-straits-of-singapore

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzVQqBXQ4r8

Right off the Jersey coast, we have a Stolt tanker the "Stolt Degali", that was a victim of an at sea collision in November 1964 [52-years ago]. The SS Shalom sliced the Stolt Degali stern section clean off. It has become one of the premiere NJ wreck diving locations.

http://njscuba.net/sites/site_stolt_dagali.php

The AIS play back has been edited to remove all the other ships moving in the area at the same time. According to comments on the website that provided the video, over 70,000 ships pass through that strait in one year. That works out to over 190 ships per day. That is a tremendous amount of ship traffic in a confined area. It's not like these two ships just ran into each other in the middle of an open sea. Most people do not realize there is a major ship casualty every day on a global basis.

The Automatic Identification System (AIS) was designed to help avoid collisions like this. However, if an AIS display is cluttered with dozens of ships, it may not be immediately apparent that one of them is on a collision course with your ship. Or, perhaps at any moment, dozens of ships in range are on a collision course, but you expect them to take evasive action.

If you go to https://www.vesselfinder.com/?imo=9168647, you will see the Stolt anchored up with a pollution response vessel nearby. Zooming out will give you an overview of just how many boats are in the area.

Before AIS we used to call stuff like this "collision assisted by RADAR". Now it is collision assisted by AIS. I would think even if there were dozens of targets and CPA alarms going off, someone fell asleep at the wheel.

Proper RADAR, AIS and radio watchstanding, as well as a proper lookout could have prevented this collision. And without all the above, had the two masters followed the COLREGS, there also would have been much lower risk of a collision.

And Jim is right about the number of incidents worldwide. I get several news feeds that almost daily list some type of marine causality.

At the very end of the AIS track it looks like the ship that sank altered course and tried to pass ahead of the other ship coming toward her on her Port side. That is the proper move for collision avoidance, turn to the right. Unfortunately, that ship was T-boned by the other ship, which struck her amidships.

If you are going to be involved in a T-bone collision, you want to be the ship that is not the one getting hit amidships. Also, the other ship was Norwegian. Those ships always have ice-breaker reinforced bows. This reminds me of when the Swedish ship STOCKHOLM struck the Italian liner ANDRIA DORIA. The STOCKHOLM's heavily reinforced bow sliced open the ANDRIA DORIA.