I think I'm missing something here....your deck watch
abso-freakin-lutely should have called out "ship spotted" if they were on deck & if they were not too fatigued from staying at battle stations too long.
If they didn't or if it seemed they didn't you either missed it when they did, the crew was asleep from exhaustion due to forgetting to relieve them from battle stations (as aforementioned), a possible temporary glitch, they weren't posted on deck (left at damage control etc.)
I run all over the place at full 8K+ time compression on the surface & I always get taken out automatically by the watch/radar/sonar. If I get into a bind (which I have) it's always been my own fault
