From the videos I can’t say one way or the other who was moving in which direction, except to say at sea you must give way to vessels on your port side - that’s the left (everywhere except in USA waters, as usual).

But, what did concern me is that the Japanese crew continued to douse the stricken boat with water cannons after it was hit and hit hard enough that the cameraman on the Japanese boat felt it.

It was patently obvious that people on the Ady Gil were scrambling about trying to hold on to anything to avoid going into the sea.

That Japanese crew action was tantamount to attempted murder.

I saw the Ady Gill in Hobart and had a bad feeling about the sea worthiness of such a vessel, but then any vessel is not very seaworthy when the bow is cut off.
I can see that they Ady Gill were towing and entanglement line but still can’t understand why they stopped so close to the Japanese ship.
Surely it is not easy for such a large ship to manouvre that fast, they must have been moving towards the ship.
They are very brave but also not looking after themselves or their craft.
Why not just drop a rope out with a buoy on each end and if it doesn’t tangle the prop then pick it up an try again. That way they wouldn’t have to be so close to the Japanese war ship.
And war ship it is.

Here is the video from the Ady Gil for the three minutes before the Shonan Maru rammed the vessel.

You can see the crew saying goodbye to the Bob Barker, at the start you see and hear Pete Bethune ask the helm to go dead slow, then they talk about ‘going home’. The Ady Gil was supposed to return to Hobart on the the 15th for refueling. Then the Shonan Maru appears at high speed with it’s LRAD blaring and water cannons pumping. The ship turns into the Ady Gil and the crew scramble for their lives.

In an email Pete Bethune says, ‘We were just idling. My guy driving tried to turn to starboard at last minute but was too late. Also had a wave pick us up which carried us another metre or so into danger. In the end we had right of way. They were on our port side and they were also overtaking. So it is up to them to steer clear of us regardless. A good result for the Japanese in short term, but this will hurt them dearly in the long term I believe.’

See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfGM-LzGKjc