Stevenson Weeks, the attorney for Lady Mary owner Royal Smith Sr., said extensive damage to the boat's rudder and propeller indicates that some other vessel rammed it and kept going. Smith lost two sons in the crash.

Weeks said he based his suspicion on "the nature of the damage and the physics involved."

Weeks spoke during a break in a Coast Guard hearing investigating the March 24 sinking about 60 miles off Cape May. He said that striking another vessel and leaving the scene can be a crime, just as it is with a motor vehicle.

"If you can prove who did it," he added. "It's tough."

Since the hearing began in May, the Coast Guard has heard several theories regarding the cause of the crash. Besides the possibility of an at-sea collision, the panel also heard the theory that the Lady Mary's gear might have become tangled on the ocean floor, or with another vessel.

The hearing resumed yesterday following a five-month adjournment to allow divers to retrieve evidence from the wreck.

Among those testifying yesterday was a shipwreck diver who said he had found a 6-inch hole punched into the port side of the ship just above the water line.