It happens a lot in fishing. I've seen five boats beached. Strong currents pushed one onto the beach in the harbor while he was trying to manuever in a small spot to dock. The others were pretty much straight ocean -> beach. No excuse heh. No excuse for those professional military ships.
I almost did it one morning...tired as hell, in thick fog, went too far to one side of the channel. Dano came up and asked if I was checking how accurate the charts were. Luckily the tide was in heh and we didn't scrape on anything and I woke up quick. Coasties were out in one of their '47's for the 6am bar report...came over and guided me out.
This one happened the summer before last. Guy fell asleep on wheelwatch with autopilot on heading for home. Didn't wake up until his boss smacked him upside the head. I think they had $80k of tuna on board. Took them two days to unload catch/fuel/etc and tow it off the beach. Spent the next 10months missing the crab season while getting repaired in dry dock.
I was standing behind the camera drinking coffee and bs'ing with an old timer when this was taken

