The traumatic aftereffects of collision at sea.

To determine the psychological effects of a maritime collision, the authors compared the performance and health of the officers and crews of the USS Belknap (N = 336) and the USS Yarnell (N = 387) during the 3 years after the Belknap's collision. Significantly more of the Belknap members were hospitalized or separated from service because of neuroses, and the men who had the highest percentage of psychiatric hospitalizations were the uninjured men who were evacuated, returned to the ship, then flown to the United States. Future disaster studies should evaluate the effectiveness of crisis intervention in reducing long-term psychological impairment.