US Navy destroyer collision

[nigel1]

Originally Posted by TwoBlocked

But there is something I am not familiar with, not having sailed for over 15 years (after 24 years at sea). How much detail is there in the VDR data? specifically, will the time of the collision itself be able to be proved? Like what if it WAS at the time of the hard right turn, and not some minutes afterwards. Would the VDR data show that.

You can find a brief but accurate account on VDR and S-VDR here
Voyage Data Recorder on a Ship Explained

Hopefully, soon after the collision, someone on the Crystal remembered to press the record button on the VDR. Most VDR's have 4 hard drives. Pressing the record button stores all the data on one of the hard drives, and it is protected from being over written. If the record button is not activated, data more than 12 hours old will start to be overwritten.

I would imagine that a string of Filipino expletives might pin point the time of the collision.