Why and how does happen? Mechanical?
It could have been any one of a dozen things. It could have been a steering failure, or it could have been a silly left / right rudder mixup by a seasoned and reliable helmsman.
It looked like the Florence was heading to port into the other. Might has lost steerage as it was running with the river flow.
Not much current, if any at all, being that there are locks at either end of this point
That could have been a lot worse.
Much!
This is hearsay of hearsay (a youtube comment then quoted on gcaptain), but it kind of makes sense to me since there were no "5 blasts" and the black ship ("Florence Spirit") looked oddly angled across the canal before the collision.
The black ship suffered a steering failure and was going to charge into the lock system and cause huge amounts of damage. They instructed the red ship to hit and push the black ship into the shore line to make it stop safely. The damage to the ships would be much cheaper and easier to fix then the entire lock system being damaged and out of order for many boats since it a huge shipping channel
The lack of whistle signals doesn't really surprise me. It was reported that the pilots of both ships were in communication on the radio, so whistle signals wouldn't have been needed.
I hadn't considered an intentional collision, but I'd be awfully surprised it was the case. They may have tried to coordinate how best to hit if they had the time and the ability to do so, but I wouldn't assume so. It looked like it happened without much warning.
You would have thought that the black ship if it had lost steering it would have either gone in reverse or dropped anchors or both.
That would have been my first few impulses. He may not have had time to drop an anchor.
Dropping aanchor downstream would likely have caused a full beam collision.
Full reverse would also caused a considerable turn due to prop walk.
It doesn't look like there was enough width to the channel that either could have turned fully broadside to the creek, but their sides could have been more exposed than they were. If they had to touch, I think they were lucky to meet at the bow flares.
Also, if Florence had gone full astern and propwalked sideways, she may have stuck her bow into the bank and slowed down that way, possibly reducing the total amount of energy of the collision with the other ship. She might also have stuffed her stern into the other bank, doing much more expensive damage to her family jewels.
Propwalk from reversing could explain why Florence was angled toward the wrong side of the road.
Hard to say, really. It's all speculation and armchair captaining on my part. All I can say with any confidence, is that there was a lot of paperwork and heartburn, and not much sleep to be had, and I feel for the poor bastards.