- Was going too fast for the number of ships in the area
- Did not call the captain when nearish other ships as procedure required.
- Had in fact gotten too close to several other ships that night.
- Gotten confused between which of two ships was where
- Did the calculations wrong on the closest approach of the collision vessel
- Denied a request to change course away from the collision vessel because then she would have to recalculate a new nearest approach distance
- When a collision was clearly in the future, did not contact the other vessel in any way
- Gave a late turn order, but then immediately countermanded it, keeping the ship on collision course
- spent the rest of the time until the collision freaking out (an enlisted man eventually gave the final turn order that saved some lives)
So it was about as bad as could be, and seven men died.
However, I have a feeling the Captain's court martial is going to turn out worse for him than this.