With the anniversary of the Titanic, it's probably appropriate to note that liners of the era often went full-speed through the Grand Banks, regardless of both the weather and the teeming fishing fleets.
One book I read mentioned the memoirs of a ship's officer of the period...one night they felt a slight crunch, and heard screams. He and another officer on the bridge just looked at each other out of the corners of their eyes, and said nothing....
In *this* case, though, I'm inclined to attribute it to bad communications.
Ron Wanttaja