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Post by bobbbiez on Mar 8, 2010 12:44:53 GMT -5
Boy, that's some scary sh*t! Can't even imagine a 26 ft wave staring me in the face. The people we talked to who came in on a cruise ship docking in Jamaica were in horrible talking about the 20ft wave that hit their ship coming into port. They said it was a sight ya don't want to ever see and seeing the fright on their faces, I believe them.
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Post by Clipper on Mar 8, 2010 13:03:58 GMT -5
When I first joined the Navy I was on a destroyer out of Long Beach Calif. We encountered a typhoon in the Formosa Straits, while going to the rescue of a Panamanian Merchant ship that had lost power and floundered in high seas. We took "green water" over the signal bridge, which was three levels above the main deck, and the main deck was one level above the waterline. We had to go into a shipyard in Sasebo Japan after that storm because it actually had torn the five inch 38mm gunmount loose from the deck in places. It actually had torn the deck plating part of the way around the base of the twin mount on the Foc'sle of the ship. Water is a very powerful adversary and huge waves can bring devastation. We took rolls of over 35 degrees. Scary stuff. We would ride over one wave and dive through the next one.
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Post by Clipper on Mar 8, 2010 13:11:55 GMT -5
The happy ending to the typhoon story is this. Another merchant ship got to them ahead of us and rescued the crew. We were tasked to tow the ship back to Kaoshung Tiawan. While sitting on the bow of the merchant ship on the tow line watch, we decided to explore a little. We found 7 cases of Hennessy Five Star Cognac in the officer's mess. The gunners mates and boatswains mates partied every night for the rest of the cruise, with cognac hidden in the powder magazines below decks and in the chain locker where the anchor chain was stowed. We found out that if we threw a few rounds of expended powder cartridges overboard, two bottles of cognac could be hidden in the powder cannisters that formerly held the cartidge cases. Insulated metal booze containers, compliments of Seal Beach Ammunition Depot. haha.
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Post by Swimmy on Mar 8, 2010 16:21:33 GMT -5
It's not something I would want to live through. Though, it might be fun to try an surf. Just kidding.
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