Your friend Radarman Randy's remarks brought back a lot of memories, I used to do very similar work in the Navy as a Quartermaster, except I worked on the bridge, and they worked in CIC (Combat Information Center). We called each other "Scopes" and ""Wheels", for the symbols on the rating badges we wore on our left shoulders. We relied mostly on visual sightings but we had radar repeaters on our bridge which we used as well, and the type of maneuver he described was pretty routine stuff on a typical underway bridge watch. Modern ships rely a great deal on electronics, but there is no substitute for taking a look out the windows every now and then, and CIC is in a part of the ship with no windows.

He didn't mention whether the boot Ensign was on CIC watch or was officer of the deck; but while underway, both bridge and CIC would have been monitoring this encounter, with the OOD responsible for making a decision if the two conflicted. The situation that almost materialized on his ship was something we were well aware of and trained to avoid...we called it a "radar-assisted collision".

I wonder if this encounter occurred during Andrea Dorea's last Atlantic crossing. She was lost in another "radar-assisted collision" with the Stockholm at the entrance to New York Harbor about that time, with great loss of life.