On February 9, 2001, the USS Greeneville, an American fast-attack nuclear submarine, collided with a Japanese fishing trawler, the Ehime Maru, during a routine training mission off the Hawaiian Islands. The accident occurred when the submarine, embarked for a community relations day, ascended like a rocket during an emergency surfacing demonstration for sixteen civilian dignitaries and a visiting admiral. The Greeneville's powerful steel rudder, designed to surface through thick ice, destroyed the fishing boat, sinking it in less than ten minutes and killing nine crewmembers (see Figure 2.1).

Two extensive federal investigations, one by the National Transportation Safety Board and the other by a U.S. Navy Court of Inquiry, concluded that “the responsibility for collision avoidance rests solely on the submerged submarine.” Moreover, the Navy blamed the Greeneville captain, Commander Scott D. Waddle, for “the failure of the ship's watch team to work together” to avoid the collision.