Collision in the Dark: Wasp–Hobson and Command at Sea
The inquiry quickly zeroed in on seamanship. Doctrine had been clear: a plane guard destroyer must never attempt to cross a carrier’s bow during flight operations. The cardinal rule had been broken, whether by misinterpretation, poor judgment, or both. Testimony from bridge officers revealed confusion over helm commands, some insisting they had understood the order correctly, others acknowledging ambiguity. The carrier’s maneuver itself was standard, executed in accordance with procedure for recovering aircraft. The destroyer’s response was the anomaly. In the final analysis, the board declared that the Hobson’s decision to cross the Wasp’s bow was the decisive error, a violation of doctrine compounded by human misjudgment. For officers across the fleet, this conclusion struck like a hammer: no matter how experienced a crew might be, the laws of seamanship were absolute, and breaking them carried the highest price.
