Piloting a ship is a matter of strategy. You've got a vessel of hundreds of thousands of tonnes, a half kilometer or more long, with a stopping distance measured in kilometers, to which you can add or reduce energy (velocity) and/or change course only gradually, moving through a fluid which is itself in motion, often with rapidly changing currents changing direction and speed in only a few meters, through waves exceeding 30m in height, frequently operating in total darkness with few if any route markers, or in fog so thick there's no visibility past a few meters -- you cannot see the boundaries of your vessel let alone other ships or navigational hazards.
And that's with modern navigational aids. Consider sailing vessels up through the 1800s which traveled without any artificial light stronger than an oil lantern.
As recently as 1923, seven of a squadron of fourteen US Navy vessels sailed at flank speed into well-known and charted rocks at the north end of the Santa Barbara Channel. In the Honda Point disaster, seven destroyers traveling at 20 knots (37 km/h) ran aground. Two other ships grounded but managed to work free. Twenty-three sailors were killed.
Radio navigation was available and installed but not trusted. Sailing by dead reckoning in a heavy fog, the squadron commander ordered a course change too early and lead his fleet into the rocks.