Here's some factors to know...

Captain Smith operated the latest technology and still had a much higher accident rate than those others who were safely navigating in the same waters and under the same conditions.

He was valued by White Star Line because of his abiity to schmooze with the 1st class passengers, not for his attention to details or his leadership abilities.

Bow Thrusters are a fairly new invention and are completely useless when moving forward at 3 MPH or faster, with the exception of the Trolling Motor design on the Fast Frigates (Oliver Hazard Perry class). US Navy crews refer to this system as "Impulse Power". US Coast Guard crews on Icebreaking Tugs (Katmai Bay class) also refer to their Hull-Air Lubrication Systems, in open water, as "Impulse Power". That's another story.

Aids to Navigation (AtoN) systems still fail, get towed off station by vessels that hit them, and are sunk when run over. No Deck Officer ever completely trusts a floating AtoN.

Celestial Navigation is not that difficult, especially when one does it 4 - 6 times a day. Yes, south of Cuba, we used it regularly until GPS became a fact of life around 1984-5. This was due to having only 1 good Loran-C line (30,000/Raymondville, Tx) south of Cuba.

I started sailing around 1973 as a fisherman, over 10 years on Icebreaking Tugs, Buoy Tenders, Corvettes, and Patrol Boats. I have been in towboats since Dec 1999. I have sailed the North Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, Carribbean Sea, The Mediterranean Sea,and the Black Sea, the Intra-Coastal Waterway, the Great Lakes, and the Western Rivers. My duties have NEVER been uneventful and probably are worth writing about (if I could remember everything).