You might be wondering why this freighter was a startling sight. It was because it just appeared about 2-3 miles off our bow. I was on watch, it wasn't long after we left Curacao. I was paying attention to the AIS ships, monitoring who was coming and going and staying busy with that. While on watch, we always have to look around, whether it's day or night. I obviously hadn't looked around for a little while or I would have spotted this guy instantly--it was sort of hard to miss. In my defense, it was directly off our bow and blocked by the head sail. Still...I didn't see him right away. When Ed came up and pointed to it, asking me what his course was, I was shocked. It wasn't on AIS anywhere. We hailed the ship to let them know it wasn't transmitting (very odd for a freighter this size) but they didn't respond to our hail. We were not on a collision course with it; it passed within about a mile across our bow. Still...I kicked myself for missing a visual on him. It's an important reminder never to rely solely on equipment and electronics, although in certain conditions that's all we might have. This was not one of those times.