I never served in any navy but I've learned a lot of USN through my readings of history and other topics.

In USN, the captain is ultimately responsible for everything that happens to the ship and on the ship. I admire this trait in USN.

1) I really do feel bad for the poor captain as this is most likely not his fault directly but someone else's.

You will probably see one of these on the final report for placing the blame on the captain:

- Not keeping crew trained/motivated enough to be alert to avoid the accident.

- Not giving clear instruction to the crew to wake him up when another ship is near by.

- Having a hostile environment where the subordinates avoid waking him up or dealing with him directly.

- Not keeping equipment in proper order

I'm not saying any of it may be true or not, but usually that seems to be the common thread.

2) Check the case of 2009 USS Port Royal grounding. A USN missile cruiser grounded near Honolulu Airport. Airline Passengers coming in for landing at Honolulu Airport could see the grounded ship.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_USS_Port_Royal_grounding

The captain was relived of his duty within days. He didn't even get to stay long enough to command recovery effort of the ship.

The final report states following as the reasons of the grounding.

combination of a misread navigation system, a sleep-deprived commanding officer, broken equipment, and an inexperienced and dysfunctional bridge team.

The ship had just finished a major overhaul and they were busy testing the system, resulting in a captain with not enough sleep.

The direct reason for actual grounding?

Military contractors (engineer/technician) had flown into Hawaii to work on the ship during the overhaul and were on the ship. They were on the ship during the testing out in the sea which lasted longer than planned that day. And the contractors really really wanted to get back to their hotel that evening to play a round of golf the next day before returning to US mainland. To allow the military contractors to leave the ship on the small crafts that evening safely, someone ordered the USN cruiser move closer to the port. And it was during this movement, the cruiser grounded. This is not in the wiki but I remember reading about this in the local newspaper. Because some dudes wanted to play golf before leaving Hawaii, they ended up being one of the direct causes of causing multi million dollar damage to a USN cruiser.

3) Grounding a USN ship usually gets the captain fired, almost 100% of the time, like within days of it happening. Considering bureaucratic delays usually involved in an institution like USN, disciplining captain for accidental damage of a ship is lightening fast.

HOWEVER, Admiral Nimitz did ground a destroyer when he was a young captain sometime in 1920s. He famously went to sleep quite peacefully on the deck of the ship that night because he knew there was nothing that could be done that night. Ultimately, he was not blamed for the grounding because the chart he was following was later proven to be faulty. He went on to lead the USN brilliantly in defeating the Japanese Navy in WW2. Considering how revered Admiral Nimitz is by USN, it's quite an exception.