Dangerous Encounters with Ships at Sea

Over the years, after lectures or seminars on offshore sailing that I have given, the most common question from the audience is “What was the scariest thing that every happened out there?” Truth be told, I am more concerned with ship encounters at sea, particularly at night, than gales or whales or shoals.
Once in the Chesapeake Bay at 2100 hours, we were almost run down by a tug pushing a barge that was unlit. We missed being run over by 30 yards. I radioed the tug when we were clear but the captain did not reply. Once in the Gulf of Suez at the top of the Red Sea we were almost run down at 0300 hours by a ship that illegally broke ranks from the southbound convoy of ships and accelerated outside of the shipping lanes where we were steaming north. It happened so fast and so unexpectedly that there was no time for radio contact. We turned hard to port and steamed toward the reefs that were a quarter mile away figuring that grounding would be better than being run down. The ship missed us by 50 yards and missed our buddy boat companion by 20 yards. Read More