Few paddlers really appreciate how fast a commercial ship can move, even those that seem bulky and cow-like in their appearance.
Speeds amaze even very experienced paddlers.
Here is what John Chamberlain of San Francisco, California relates on the movement of large ships in his paddling waters of San Francisco Bay. A friend and I were going from Alcatraz back to San Francisco. We saw a large tanker was just moving under the Golden Gate Bridge. Beating it across seemed to be little problem. But as we set off we realized that we had greatly underestimated the speed of the tanker and wisely decide to do a U-turn out of its way.