Let me help put a few things in perspective as it pertains to the intersection in question and the vessels involved. I was the captain (master) of the Miss Susan's sister vessel when they were both owned/operated by Ellis Barge Line in the 1980's. The Miss Susan and her two barges (tow) were approximately 475' long and approximately 8' of draft (2 loads) and probably 35' wide (standard width barge) coming from the west where the intercoastal waterway merges with the Texas City entrance channel and continues easterly across the Houston Ship Channel at beacons 25 and 26 of the HSC. The intercoastal crosses and continue eastward to Bolivar, Tx. The Motor Ship Summer Wind is a Bulk Oil Tanker 585' long, 100' wide and a draft of 30'+ Roughly 46,000 tons moving at about 14knots with a current (inbound).
The pilot of the Summer Wind operating in a restricted by draft channel (there is a dredge spoil area to his N. E) and the channel is maintained for shipping at or was at 40' the depth of the adjacent bay and intercoastal is approximately 10-12'.
Given that the first communications between vessels occurred when they were approximately 1 mile or less apart the following assumptions can be made and are fairly evident in the video:
The Summer Wind is traveling at around 1,325 ft.per min. or around 4 minutes per mile. So less than 4 minutes to "stop" 9,000 tons. Note that a mile is about 10 of her ships length. A ship of that size does not just throw the throttle back and and slap it in R. There are throttle down, shaft breaks, and slow ramp ups that need to be maintained our you will not achieve the Reverse. At any rate a 5-6 mile range would be necessary to stop the ship and at that point the pilot would be at the mercy of the tide.
Note that there were also two additional vessels South Bound in the HSC not just the Summer Wind.
The Miss Susan had no business attempting to cross at that time. Normal routine on Tow Boats are changing watches at 6 & 12 twice a day. Captain stands the "front watch" six-twelve the pilot stands the "back watch" twelve - six. Any foreign flagged vessel (Summer Wind) is required to have a U.S. Pilot when underway inside the "sea bouy"
Rule 15, Rule 9, Common Sense rules all were broken by the Miss Susan.
A question that might be of interested in the forum is "when operating your vessel at Hull Speed, how many vessel lengths do you feel would be required to stop your vessel"?