Because the hatch was hidden from direct view from the bridge by the mast and other fittings and, not least, the continual green seas breaking across the deck the Master cannot see this happening. Because of the increasing pitch motions and wind and spray over the deck the Master also cannot see that the bow has lost freeboard. In darkness the crew could not switch on the fore mast floodlights since the switches were in the fore peak stores. As the main force of the Typhoon approaches the seas increase even more with substantial green seas now crashing onto the fore deck. The Captain heaves-to matching, as far as possible, the wave drift forces with his main engine and keeping the waves just off the bow on the starboard side.
Damages now begin to occur to deck fittings.
Ventilator mushroom heads and floating ball types are carried away or rendered open to the sea. The fore peak ballast tank for example begins to take on water with every wave and over some 12 hours is more or less filled. The vessel has now gone down by the head by some 2.5m but this cannot be realised by the Captain due to the ferocity of the wind and seas which are now crashing and whipping across the decks. The vessel would now be more sluggish to rise to the waves and 25m waves would be sweeping over the bow and dissipating their energies along the deck over the first 3 to 4 hatches. It is most probable at this time that the vessel took a bad one , a high steep wave, perhaps even a very high wave or a group of such waves of low probability of occurrence, combined with the vessel still driving its bow downwards on the back slope of a previous wave.