94091 Near Miss Crossing, Mediterranean

Own vessel "A" was proceeding on a SSWly course following the coastline, which was at a distance of between 5 and 10 miles on our starboard side. The American warship "B" was acquired on both ARPA sets and was displayed as a stationary target on the starboard bow. When we were within visual range, it was confirmed that the warship was stopped and showing us a port beam profile, well clear on the starboard bow. As we came closer to "B" he suddenly picked up speed and both ARPA sets showed him with a clearing distance, passing ahead of own ship at one mile. Own ship altered course to starboard in order to increase the CPA to 1.5 miles.

Whilst we were in the process of altering course to starboard, ship "B" made a sudden alteration of course hard to port and began to speed up even more, (own ship speed was 23 knots). Own ship immediately ordered hard a starboard but it very quickly became obvious that ship "B" was still increasing speed and was swinging very quickly to port and that the possibility of collision was very high. Own ship immediately ordered hard-a-port as it was the only available option to avoid a collision.

Eventual CPA was in the region of 3 cables and at this stage ship "B" had increased speed to 30 knots. At no stage during the proceedings did ship "B" respond on the VHF radio, only responding after we had passed. Collision was only avoided by the rapid alteration of course to port by own ship.