The dealiest Catch

[Ulrich Rudofsky]

Someone mentioned these wild scenes to me and they are readily available on the youtube. So the next time you tear into a king crab think of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edOUDbFtFk0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRO6H8puHF8

[RF]

These wild seas would be very familiar to the crews of destroyers and small escort vessels of both world wars.

[Victor Dale]

Scenes like this evoke some of my happiest memories of life at sea. I absolutely loved foul weather and even now get excited when the winds blows. I suppose I could be termed a "sea masochist". A favourite passtime of mine was to go as far forward as possible and just try to survive. The feeling of loss of gravity in a really big ship when the bow plunges hurts the stomach and going up and down ladders can be hairy. You may not get the first step completed before crumpling on the deck at the foot of the ladder, or the first step may accelerate you up the full length of the ladder - depending on your timing - just hope the hatch above is open.

On destroyers or frigates the ship tends to ride over the waves, but with heavier ships where as much a two thirds of the hull may be below water, the ship tends to barge through each wave at first and then graduallly lift to the swell, rearing high. This is especially good when the ship is at speed. It is really something to look through the peep-hole and see the fo'csle on a carrier when the bow digs in and the water comes slamming back against the door. When time permits, enormous grilled covers are fitted to the wire-handling openings to dampen the effects of incoming seas, but all too often the ship finds itself already in bad weather which worsens to dangerous levels - then the fun begins.

We very rarely took a beam-sea, but when on active service and on patrol we sometimes had to turn and cross the weather. We were warned when this happened and I have known structural damage where heavy fittings broke their mountings to go tumbling across the decks. Traversing the Bay of Biscay necessitates crossing the direction of the incoming Atlantic swell and I have experienced a heavy carrier laying almost on her beam-ends and hang there, whilst we wondered if she would ever come back. This was on a sunny windless day.

I often think about Scharnhorst at North Cape where men in the open would be beaten unconcious and swept over the side if they ventured onto the main deck. The sheer violence of that heavy ship, low in the water, battering her way at maximum speed to make her escape must have been one of the most dangerous events at sea and in the dark too. It is all too easy for the yacthsman, or trawlermen and even destroyermen who have intimate knowledge of life in heavy weather, to underestimate the sheer scale of the conflict between ship and sea when a battleship is making speed in an Arctic gale. Duke of York had gun mountings ripped off the ship during that chase, moany of herboats were smashed and stanchions and davist were bent - one can only imagine the effect on men trying to man open mountings.

Some have seen the video footage of the inverted wreck of the Scharnhorst and on seeing that the open 150mm single mountings are trained fore and aft have criticised the fact that they had not gone into action. We should watch the video again and see if we think it would be possible to handle a 100lb shell and get it into the breech on the deck of that trawler, then multiply the effects of the sea several times and ask again, before raising any criticism of the men of Scharnhorst.

Vic Dale

[Bgile]

I agree ... those open 5.9" mounts would have been essentially useless in those conditions.

[José M. Rico]

Vic, you had already posted more than 200 messages with your "Vic Dale" forum account, why have you registered another account "Victor Dale"? You can either use one or the other but never both. Let me know which one are you going to use, the other will be cancelled.

[Victor Dale]

To Jose.

Disaster!

I had a computer crash and have not been able to access my email account in outlook for the past week. I am so fed up with outlook that I decided to go for Google mail instead but my password was stored in the outlook inbox.

I couldn't log in and I couldn't change my email account, because I didn't have my password. I couldn't go forward and I couldn't go back, so I decided to re-register.

I didn't expect to be able to use both accounts.

I could go back to the old account if you think that is OK but I don't have the password.

Cheers

Vic Dale

[José M. Rico]

No problem Vic,
I just sent you a message to your google e-mail account. Check it out please.

[Vic Dale]

Thanks Jose.

It is all working nicely again thanks

Vic