Those guys were aware of where they were and yes so much wrong from the get go. But I can tell you it can easily happen. We are fishing 8 miles south of Nanticoke off the north shore of Erie here in Ontario on a bluebird sky clear August day. We had a mess when 2 lines tangled. My fishing partner in his late 60's is at the helm at trolling speed on my boat. I am tried to make some sense of the tangled leadcore from 2 rods on the deck of my 19 foot aluminum. I am concentrating on the carbunklement and apparently he's concentrating on me. I look up for whatever reason and I am staring at a lake freighter not 60 feet from us. I let out some kind of feeble screech and cranked the wheel hard to port while pushing him out of the way and throttled up. We came within 20 feet from colliding back the bow port side. They wouldn't even know we hit them or more like they hit us. Those things look slow creeping across the horizon but it had to be going 20 kts minimum. It was Canada Steamship Lines self unloader the "Toudesac" the markings are etched into my brain as clear as the day I saw it. They should have picked us up on Radar and sounded the horn but obviously did not. That was as close as I ever want to get. We headed in immediately as I thought Buddy was going to have a heart attach, I really was concerned due to his health. I did report it to the Canadian Coast Guard at Port Dover on the way back home. The crew of the vessel said they did sound a horn but I sure didn't hear it. CYA. 100% my responsibility. My boat I'm the skipper. Now I make it crystal clear that whomever is at the wheel must be driving the boat and let the fishing to those that are not. Piloting the boat does not mean staring at all the electronics. Erie looks like a big lake and it is but there are hazards here everywhere from freighters to commercial fishing nets. The worse offenders are the other recreational guys trying to troll so close to you they can hand you a bottle of water.
It can happen fast, real fast.