"Oh, Shi..."
From an E-mail I got, regarding the Jimmy Carter's recent bridge trunk washdown:
"They were making a surface run in heavy weather, driving rain. Three people on the bridge, two lookouts and the OOD. Lookout turns aft and sees something beyond the rudder, which he realizes is the propulsor... definitely not normal. Turns forward to inform the OOD and sees a huge wall of water coming in, over his head, about to crest the bow. Everyone hangs on. The ship is basically submerged as this wave washes over the ship and up the sail. One of the guys told his shipmates he was thinking about unclipping his harness to float to the surface and decides to hold off, and the water drains off and they are still afloat."
I've heard reports that there was pretty heavy weather off the southern New England coast last week, and every once in a while you get a "rogue wave" like that. I'm just glad the guy didn't unclip -- the consensus among everyone I've talked to is that the best thing to do is assume that even if the boat makes an inadvertant dive, the rest of the crew will be able to drive her back to the surface, so you should stay clipped in and hold on....
posted by Bubblehead at 2:33 PM
7 Comments:
Saw that happen twice. Once on 3rd Class cruise. The OOD and lookout both got hit by the windshield and gashes to the head (I never used the windshield when I was an OOD). Second time when I was qualified EOOW but not OOD. Woke up to yelling. Got out of the rack and my feet were wet. No one ever sounded alarms, but man did we have a lot of shorts. Figure we shipped 500-800 gallons of sea water. Mattress over the battery. Poor SOB's had about 3 months of sleeping on a moldy mattress.
10/19/2005 5:26 PM
Went through a fun one off the coast of Guam (can you say DEEP water?). Ended up getting knocked over the side and drilled against the side of the sail about three times...got really pissed off when my glasses (the only pair I had w/ me - always brought two pair from then on) went to the bottom ~1000 fathoms.
The best part was man overboard was called on the wrong side - so as I was swinging from my harness looking at the screw, the stern comes swinging over towards me.
After that, every time I went to the bridge, some smartass would say "The OOD has shifted his watch to the stbd FWP".
10/19/2005 7:05 PM
discussed this topic during quals for COW on the San Fran back in the day. the concensus was we would become very buoyant very fast if a large amount of water came down the bridge access... can you say EMBT
10/20/2005 12:58 AM
Ah yes, the good old rouge waves...when I read this one it took me back to my JO days on board the mighty JEFFERSON CITY. We went to San Francisco for a port call. Had a good time--my wife flew up from San Diego and we went to see my aunt. Anyway, I was the surfaced OOD for the manuevering watch when we left. We followed all the CSP guidance--minimum personnel on the bridge (CO, OOD, lookout), minimum equipment, and the bridge hatch shut. As we passed under the Golden Gate, we seemed to be going a bit fast (12 knots reported by the helm but I found out later we were doing about 18 knots over ground--out going tide). By the time we got to the "Potato Patch," the boat had started to pitch and the water level was progressively coming up higher and higher. It got to the point that I could reach out of the cockpit and touch the water. Still no big waves (yet). I was trying to call the inbound ships, which were pretty big, with no success and the bridge box finally gave up the ghost. I think they heard the flooding alarm belowdecks and the CO decided it was time to get below. He and the lookout started trying to get the upper hatch open while I was still trying to call these huge lumber ships. The waves were starting to wash over the sail at this point and I was sitting sideways halfway out of the cockpit on the starboard side. At one point I looked down to see what the CO was doing and then looked up at what I estimated to be a 35 foot wave about to smash us. It broke and came down about a foot in front of the windshield and I took it full on. It smashed the windshield and crushed me against the back of the cockpit (the windshield later looked like a dinosaur had taken a big bite out of it). I could not breathe, but it was very quiet--we had a depth reading of 55 feet. Several more waves crashed over us. I eventually got down (I fell from the upper hatch into control). I ended up with bruised ribs and face. Not a lot of fun...
10/20/2005 4:02 AM
After new construction on SSN 701, we were heading out to sea one fine day in a state “7” sea. We were taking waves over the bridge and the CO secured the bridge and we did the navigation from control. We were rocking and rolling and as the Machinery Room Maneuvering Watch, I had a hell of a time keeping the O2 Generator up and running. The DP was all over the place. That was the only time I can honestly say that I saw every hole going to a Sanitary Tank had someone puking into it. The XO, J.C. MacMacon(Spelling may be wrong) came in eating sardines. I didn’t get sick but I came real close. Three days later, we had to do a med-evac of our Chief Quartermaster due to dehydration.
That Damn Good Looking Aganger From Iowa
10/20/2005 2:51 PM
Do boomers experience "rouge waves" and fast attacks "rogues"?
Curious minds want to know.
10/20/2005 5:06 PM
Hey ftg2/ss, I was on Flying Fish when you had your little depth excursion. We left on deployment about two months early because of it. Thanks for hookin' a brother up!:)
10/20/2005 8:40 PM
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