WK
All the available data fits with a deliberate approach to a fixed point (that just happened to be a handy line for a swing around the light house) which, for whatever reason, they misjudged
I will accept "The very limited evidence, together with a great deal of wild conjecture unsupported by any other evidence suggests that they might have been carrying out the operation (for which no other records exist) suggested by Walter."
To keep such an operation secret, given the consequences, is so improbable compared to the other conjectures supplied by all other contributors to the thread that I (and everybody else) dismissed it long ago.
Don't bother replying WK, I have mostly given up reading any of your posts.