'pushed backwards' by one, 'pushed violently backwards' by the other. That sounds like a reasonable accounting of 2 people remembering conditions during a stressful event like they went through. No offense Jon, but I think you're searching for demons here.

Your parting jib sheet theory, "...in a classic series of cascading failures that led to the end result of,... rudder damage". That's kind of a stretch but it's a new idea.