According to the records, both colliding and struck ships are usually navigating
although their velocities may be reduced to a certain degree. Minorsky modeled the
effect of the forward velocity of a struck ship (10–16 knots) explicitly with increased
length of the damaged side area by 33% [1], which leads to the decreased depth of the
side damage. The adverse effect of the increased energy to be absorbed is not
expressed explicitly, however, that is implicitly incorporated because the resistance
factors were finally determined to fit with the actual collision data. The said factor of
33% may be too inflexible because the increased energy to be absorbed by the
structural damage depends on the effective mass ratio of a colliding ship to a struck
ship and also on the forward velocity of the struck ship.