What I know about at sea Collisions -

 Having served on three Destroyers at sea and having over 175, 000 nautical miles under my belt, and standing underway Bridge watches - this is really bad... If you read in the article - notice the bow photo of the container ship - notice the water line of the ships load {the lower red line} shows it was only half loaded - it would be good to check what it had aboard! Plus under way in the open sea, we would open out {turn away) from any potentially dangerous contacts (ships) which had come within CPA of under 2 miles. - 
a CPA is not an accountant - it is the Closest Point of Approach!

  Underway in the Merchant Marine - ( BTW: I have held a Merchant Marine Document since 1970) they do not usually have only one person on underway Bridge watch. - 
While the US Navy has at least 6 people on under way watch on the bridge. plus another 5 or more in CIC, and at least one person on after lookout! Not accounting the engine room crew.... Then there is always some crew on the Sonar, and Fire control systems.
 Big difference!
It comes down to who was on watch on the Container ship?

 The ramming of the USS Fitzgerald – still being misreported as a "collision" –
 is shrouded in puzzling behavior.  This is an accident (if indeed it was unintentional) that should not have been possible.  Now comes news of something very suspicious.  The Associated Press has just filed a non-bylined story, "Japan investigates delay in reporting US Navy ship collision," that reveals:

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/06/more_fishiness_in_the_ramming_of_uss_fitzgerald.html#ixzz4kTqjmV5x
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Japan's coast guard is investigating why it took nearly an hour for a deadly collision between a U.S. Navy destroyer and a container ship to be reported.
A coast guard official said Monday they are trying to find out what the crew of the Philippine-flagged ACX Crystal was doing before reporting the collision to authorities 50 minutes later.

The coast guard initially said the collision occurred at 2:20 a.m. on Saturday because the Philippines ship had reported it at 2:25 a.m. and said it just happened.  After interviewing Filipino crewmembers, the coast guard has changed the collision time to 1:30 a.m.
What was going on that prevented a prompt report?

Nanami Meguro, a spokeswoman for NYK Line, the ship's operator, agreed with the revised timing of the collision.
Meguro said the ship was "operating as usual" until the collision at 1:30 a.m., as shown on a ship tracking service that the company uses. She said the ship reported to the coast guard at 2:25 a.m., but she could not provide details about what the ship was doing for nearly an hour.
"Because it was in an emergency, the crewmembers may not have been able to place a call," she said.

What about the USS Fitzgerald?  Was it in contact with the Japanese authorities?  If so, at what time?
There will be a naval official inquiry and quite possibly a court martial.  The facts presumably will come out.

Under no circumstances should a US Navy vessel possibly be damaged by a container ship at sea. Multiple systems exist to prevent this. Even CNN is noticing how little we know about the catastrophe that took the lives of seven sailors and almost caused a powerful warship to founder.

The USS Fitzgerald, an anti-ballistic missile destroyer that was part of the USS Ronald Reagan carrier strike group, will no longer be ready to defend the carrier and other ships from missile attacks launched from North Korea, should push come to shove in the current confrontation with the rogue regime on the threshold of the capability to attack New York, Los Angeles, and our power grid with nuclear missiles.  This is an incident that could affect the outcome of a nuclear confrontation of historic moment.

Brian Joondeph yesterday noted how the media have distorted what really happened, by reporting a “collision,” as if the ships randomly bumped each other in the fog or something. The truth is that the ACX Crystal, a ship with somewhat murky provenance, rammed into the Fitzgerald with calamitous results:

[Vice Adm. Joseph P. Aucoin of the 7th fleet] described the damage as "extensive," adding that there was a big puncture and gash below the waterline on one side of the ship. He also said three compartments were severely damaged.

The destroyer, the USS Fitzgerald, collided with a Philippine-flagged container ship four times its size off the Japanese coast

 Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin, the commander of the 7th Fleet, described a harrowing scene as other sailors fought to keep the ship from sinking. Most of the damage is below the waterline, including a large gash near the keel, Aucoin said.

Conditions were clear at the time of the collision, though the area is particularly busy with sea traffic.
The damage to the destroyer suggests that the container ship, the ACX Crystal, might have slammed into it at a high speed, raising questions about communication between the two vessels in an area where as many as 400 ships pass through every day, according to Japan's coast guard. Most congestion occurs in the early hours of the day, and fast currents make it a tricky area that requires experience and skill to navigate.
The ACX Crystal weighs 29,060 tons and is 222 meters (730 feet) long, much larger than the 8,315-ton destroyer.

Some ship trackers showed the container ship making a U-turn before the collision, a move that has raised questions about what happened. Both Aucoin and the Japanese coast guard, however, said it was too early to determine what led to the collision.
The coast guard questioned crew members of the ACX Crystal, and is treating the collision as a case of possible professional negligence, said Masayuki Obara, a regional coast guard official.
All of the ACX Crystal's 20-member Filipino crew were safe, according to Japanese shipping company Nippon Yusen K.K., which operates the ship.