WASHINGTON — US Navy ships worldwide will suspend operations for a day or two this week to examine basic seamanship and teamwork after the second collision of a Navy destroyer and larger commercial ship in two months, the country’s top naval officer said Monday.

Admiral John Richardson, chief of naval operations, said he had ordered two major actions after the collision between the destroyer USS John S. McCain and an oil tanker early Monday off the coast of Singapore that left 10 sailors missing and five injured.

First, Richardson said he had ordered an “operational pause’’ for Navy fleet commanders to review within the week teamwork, safety, seamanship, and other “fundamentals.’’

During that time, commanders will suspend ship operations for a day or two. Second, the admiral said he had ordered a broader, monthslong review to examine the specific situation in the western Pacific, where the Navy has suffered four major ship accidents since February.

“That gives great cause for concern that there’s something out there that we’re not getting at,’’ Richardson told reporters at the Pentagon.

Off the Singapore coast, search teams scrambled Monday to determine the fate of the missing sailors from the Mc Cain, a guided-missile destroyer that had been passing east of the Strait of Malacca en route to a port visit in Singapore.

At 5:24 a.m. local time, before dawn broke, the destroyer collided with the Alnic MC, a 600-foot vessel that transports oil and chemicals, the Navy said. The destroyer was damaged near the rear on its port, or left, side.

More than half a day after the crash, 10 sailors on the ship remained unaccounted for. Five others were injured, none with life-threatening conditions, a Navy official said. Ships with the Singaporean and Malaysian navies and helicopters from the assault ship USS America were rushing to search for survivors.

Families of the ship’s crew members waited through the night in the United States, hoping for news of their loved ones.

“No word yet but some sailors have called on cell to families,’’ wrote Marla Meriano, the mother of Meghan Meriano, a 24-year-old electrical officer, in a Facebook post. “Thank you for all the prayers and remarks,’’ she wrote two hours later. “God has his plan and we serve him.’’

The collision occurred in one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, a narrow waterway of strategic significance connecting the Indian Ocean with the South China Sea, where Beijing has been challenging US naval dominance.

It immediately raised questions about the training and safety record of Navy ships, coming just two months after another Navy destroyer, the USS Fitzgerald, collided with a freighter off Japan, killing seven American sailors.

“Clearly this is an annus horribilis for the US Navy,’’ said Euan Graham, director of the International Security Program at the Lowy Institute in Sydney.

A destroyer going through a difficult a passage like the Strait of Malacca would typically have half a dozen sailors, including two officers, on the bridge watching for the lights of other ships, said retired Navy Captain Bernard D. Cole, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and professor emeritus at the National War College.

In such clogged traffic, it would also be common for the commanding officer or the executive officer, the two most senior officers on board, to be on the bridge, he said. There would also be a navigator and other enlisted men in the combat information center scanning radar.

Once the oil tanker was detected, Cole said, the officer on deck or the commanding officer would propose some kind of evasive action to avoid the collision. But “in some places like the approaches to the Malacca Strait, geographically you don’t have a lot of flexibility.’’

A picture of the McCain showed a gaping hole in its side right at the waterline, but the ship did not appear to be listing.

In a statement, the Navy said the destroyer had reached Changi Naval Base in Singapore. “Significant damage to the hull resulted in flooding to nearby compartments, including crew berthing, machinery and communications rooms,’’ the statement said. “Damage control efforts by the crew halted further flooding.’’