NavList:

I do understand the part wherein the Park Rangers were denied access to a US Navy warship.  The US Navy is not in the habit of permitting foreign nationals to board & inspect her ships, period.

However, in so denying them, the captain should have become aware that something was amiss.  "Why am I in park waters?"  "What in the heck was that?" Instead, the captain held course right onto to the reef.  I suspect his career is over, and rightfully so.    We all make mistakes and this one was a doosie.  227 million dollar mistake indeed.

("Doosie" comes from the car maker Dusenberg.  Those cars are way over the top, so when describing that car, you said "she's a doosie", which became synonymous with something over the top or superlative.)

The captain can blame his charts, his equipment, the navigation or, as is more appropriate in coastal waters, piloting.  He can claim improper, inadequate or simply missing buoy markings. The ship didn't respond.  The crew failed to follow his orders. All of those things can be wrong.  Yet in the end, the safety of the ship was his responsibility  He failed in that responsibility.  The ship is a total loss and that marine reef is damaged.  The only good thing is that (apparently) there was no loss of life.

Brad