I have been to sea on ships and boats of all sizes. My first tour was on a large naval tanker nearly a football field in length. Our bridge wings were about 50 feet above the waterline (when we were carrying a full load of oil). I have also been craftmaster of a 100-ft. patrol craft and a 65-ft. fast combat patrol boat. And I have sailed as navigator on an ocean-going sailboat.
I am telling you this because I think this breadth of seagoing experience gives me a certain perspective on what happens when big ships and small boats end up sharing the same waterways.
Everyone knows (at least I hope so) that the rules of the nautical road govern the required actions of vessels relative to each other in different scenarios. But you won’t find in any of the published rulebooks the one that I call the “Law of Gross Tonnage.” In a nutshell, it says that if you are operating a smaller and more maneuverable boat in the presence of large heavy ships, it makes sense to stay out of their way.
I have seen countless incidents in which small powerboats and sailboats cruise blithely across the bow of an approaching merchantman, no doubt confident in their “right of way” as the stand-on vessel under the rules of the road. I have sometimes wished I could energize a transporter device that would beam these poor ignorant souls up to the bridge of the approaching ship, so they could see the situation through the eyes of the ship’s watchkeeper.
I can tell you that the view from the bridge, which is usually placed at the aft end of most modern ships, is severely limited when it comes to small targets on the surface of the water forward of the ship’s heading. And small fiberglass boats make poor radar targets, even when they’re equipped (as every small boat should be) with a radar reflector in the rigging. There’s a visual and radar blind zone under the bow.
What this means is that if you’re driving a small boat, you cannot safely assume that the watch officer on the bridge of that containership can see you at all, much less intuit your intentions. In a crowded waterway, it’s impractical for the ship to exchange VHF calls with every boat surrounding it.
You should also remember that a fully loaded cargo ship traveling even at a moderate speed of 10 knots or less cannot stop on a dime. Even with its engines fully reversed it may take hundreds of yards to come to a full stop. And don’t forget that the shiphandler may be maneuvering to avoid other shipping traffic or to stay in deep water.
If this subject interests you, I suggest you visit the Confidential Hazardous Incident Reporting Programme (CHIRP) website at www.chirp.co.uk. The aim of CHIRP is to contribute to the enhancement of maritime safety in the UK, by providing a totally independent confidential (not anonymous) reporting system for all individuals employed in or associated with all types of marine craft. CHIRP’s quarterly newsletters are filled with frank reports and commentary on collisions, near-collisions, accidents and other incidents at sea. Many of them involve the interaction of small pleasure craft with large cargo ships. 
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