SEATTLE, Wash. -- The Coast Guard is investigating a close call between a state ferry and a cargo ship last night in Puget Sound.

Tom Dike is the watch supervisor at the coast guard and says he watched the near miss take place right in front of him on his radar screen.

The Coast Guard had told the ferry Wenatchee and the Knud-Maersk about each other when they saw the two heading right toward each other.. at that point, the Wenatchee said it would let the 1-thousand foot container ship pass,"

"We watched the situation ad it looked like the Wenatchee didn't do what it said it was doing on the radio. That's when we were getting ready to intervene and then the Port Angeles pilot on the container ship got on the radio and said you need to slow down" said Dike.

The Wenatchee then had to back down really hard to avoid a possible collision. The Coast Guard says the the two huge vessels came within about a quarter mile of each other.

"With that much inertia it could have been pretty bad," said Dike.