Seagate’s chief officer was qualified to be the master of deep sea ships of unlimited size and had been a bridge watchkeeper for many years. However, on the morning of the accident he felt able to ignore the basic watchkeeping requirements of keeping an effective lookout and establishing whether a risk of collision existed with an approaching ship. Specifically, he had a misplaced confidence in his ability to determine by eye alone whether a risk of collision existed, and felt able to ignore the risks of making a misjudgment based on scanty information.