Serious 'Pucker Factor' Here Folks!

[Dave Fleming]

Pucker Up Tight! (http://www.naval.com/heavy-seas/)

[ 12-10-2002, 04:47 PM: Message edited by: Dave Fleming ]

[Donn]

Gulp! :eek:

[Doug Wood]

Wow! My vote for the most terrifying image is the breaking sea on the deck of the M.V. Selkirk Settler. Those aboard must have been a "bit" uneasy.

[Scott Rosen]

Great photos.

[Alan D. Hyde]

A great site.

Well worth a look.

Thanks, Dave!

Alan

[cdragon]

Wow-those are great photos. Isn't interesting though that even in those extreme conditions the photographs don't look that hairy-cameras just never do the sea justice...I'd guess it was a wee bit more impressive on board!

[Dave Fleming]

From my own very limited knowledge of the Gulf of Alaska, it is 'mean' with a capital 'mean'.

At MARCO in Seattle we were abuilding Crab boats for use there and in the Bering Sea. One, a 90 footer came back for repairs. The front of the pilot house, starboard quarter, looked as if a giant had taken his fist and 'cold cocked' it!
That is right a dent in the plating 1/4 inch or better stuff, all the pilot house windows blown out, most of the gear in the pilot house was gone, swept out to sea. Those are stout boats, they have to be to work those waters but that was some eye opener. Bulwark height was increased on it and all subsequent vessels.
Every year there are several boats that go down and on others crew members are swept overboard. Waterfront tale is that no deck gang boss will take anybody that is older than 25 as deck gang. Reasoning is that you start losing stamina and quickness as you get older and they gotta put a limit on it somehow, so its 25 years of age.
Money was really good in the heyday and is still good these days. Enough to lure not a few souls to the far north each year.
Personally I have been on a US Coast Guard WAVP a 311 foot cutter in an Atlantic hurricane, the dangerous semi-circle to be exact. Pre sattelite weather days people and it was hell. Wind actually shreiks through the riggng, green water high as the pilot house and when the vessel digs into that it is like hitting a brick wall. The wave passes bye and the stern comes out of the water and the prop without the damping effect of the water vibrates like hell and the whole ship shudders and light bulbs burst and anything not really secured WILL break loose and smash about.

The deep blue can make a tough man weep for fear when it gets like that. Those 700 foot Alaska shuttle tankers must be something in such a blow.
Creaking and twisting and moaning, ohhhh lordy.
Wheres me rum, ah blast it is only 1:14 PM too early! ;)

[Donn]

If ya want a good "pucker read," try Working on the Edge: Surviving in the World's Most Dangerous Profession: King Crab Fishing on Alaska's High Seas by Spike Walker

[Dave Fleming]

If ya want a good "pucker read," try Working on the Edge: Surviving in the World's Most Dangerous Profession: King Crab Fishing on Alaska's High Seas by Spike Walker

Next time you gasp at the price of CRAB LEGS in a restrauant or market think of those stories.

Pots weigh about 700 lbs and can be placed hundreds of feet deep. Envision all that line comeing in over the power block coiling loosely on deck and then the huge square or round pot( depending upon crab specie) swinging like a beserk steel skeleton over the bulwark side and onto the rack, emptying the crab on deck, quickly scooping the keepers into the live wells and then some soul has to crawl into the crab pot to renew the bait holders, get the hell out and swing the heavy door shut and make sure the line is not coiled around your feet and over she goes.
Weather, water at freezing, wind chill below zero, seas sweeping over the bulwarks, deck crew grabbing at something, anything to prevent being swept over the side.
Oh lots of fun just like 'raking fer little necks' in the bay, ayup. :rolleyes:

[Donn]

and don't forget the buildup of ice on everything more than a foot off the deck. I was a nervous wreck, just reading it.

[JimD]

Anyone else see that tv show about Alaska crab fishing? Filmed aboard a crab boat in a big storm. Actual footage of men lowering and raising the traps in gotta be 50 foot waves, some crashing over the deck. Think I'll stick to trout.
jimd

[JeffH]

Hey! That S/R Puget Sound is my old ship! Different name, but there's no mistaking that deck, since I probably spent a good six months of elapsed time staring at it. I made the awning at the end of the bridge wing seen in the third picture down. I can also tell you the officer's lounge is 2 decks up from the main deck. Yikes.....

I can remember going through the same thing they were in the pictures. We had to reduce to 65 rpm (110 is max) since the prop kept coming up out of the water and overspeeding the engine. Wound up averaging half a knot sideways for 24 hours. This preceeded arriving in Alaska durning the coldest cold snap recorded in the past 80 years. The fo'c'sle head had 18" of ice over everything from the seas coming on board then freezing. This meant we spent the 12-hour trip from Homer to Nikiski beating ice off the mooring winches with sledge hammers. Then we spent 7 hours tying the ship up (in wind chills to -90) since all the winch controls kept freezing. Then a large pan of ice came through on the 4-knot ebb current and parted all the after springs, even though the engine was at half ahead while we were tied to the dock. Long day. Here's one picture of it (the blob in the foreground is the stairway to the fo'c'sle covered in a foot of ice):

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid42/p3d308f271d14c7735e8378bed32d2273/fcf248a9.jpg

Great pics. I've tried many times to take pictures of truely nasty stuff, and they never do reality justice. Yowzer!

Jeff

[ 12-10-2002, 09:38 PM: Message edited by: JeffH ]

[J. Dillon]

Great pictures. Thanks for posting them.

JD

[Paul Scheuer]

I peek at the Panama Canal site now and then. I can't imagine some of the container deckloads I see there, standing up to those seas.

[Concordia..41]

Jeff - That is an amazing picture! I'm building quite an archive thanks to you guys smile.gif :cool:

Since I haven't asked a stupid question in an hour or so, will someone please tell me what S/R stands for???

Thanks!

- Margo

[JeffH]

Margo: Not a stupid question at all. S/R = SeaRiver. SeaRiver Marine is what Exxon Marine used to be before they spun the division off to spare the parent company the liability of a major oil spill. Hard to bring a $5 billion suit against a company that doesn't have $5 billion in assets. They name all their ships the SeaRiver Somethingorother. She was (or it was, if the folks from Lloyd's have their way) the Chesapeak Trader when I was a lowly third mate...

Paul: They don't. Witness all the yachts sunk by semi-submerged shipping containers drifting about the oceans.

[ 12-10-2002, 10:14 PM: Message edited by: JeffH ]

[plimsol]

So that is what its like topside. All I remember is that when the Exxon Benicia would get into nasty weather, she would occasionally hit a big wave and the shock wave would transmit through the hull and shake the entire engine room. There is nothing quite like being in shaft alley and watch 1/4" steel access plates lift up 6 inches and drop in Neptune's version of crack the whip. It was interesting at the time, but now I am getting major goosebumps.

[Wild Dingo]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! HOLY CRAP!! {as me favorite tv charector Frank from Everybody loves Raymond would say!}... gawd just lookin at them photos and me heart did a hop skip and jump... bet it was very uncomforatble feeling down below for them fellas on board!! get me some new jocks jack!!

Cant ye just hear ol Dave mutterin "aye settle down laddie tis jest a wee blow" :eek:

Take it easy
Shane

[nedL]

I remember seeing a picture back in the 1970's of a fairly new ULCC or VLCC that went through a rouge wave off the west coast of Africa. About 50' of the bow was shreaded & peeled back as if it had been stuffed in a huge meat grinder.

[Mrleft8]

I wonder why no ones out on deck working in those pictures... Must be lunch time or something...

[ken mcclure]

Um, maybe I should think more about rock climbing ... or farming ... or something ...

[imported_Daniel]

Wow, I cant even think of what it must be like to witness something like that firsthand, though I am sure I would need at the very least new shorts. Thanks, great post.

[Dave Fleming]

Frankly when you are in heavy weather like that you don't have time to be worried!
You have that vessel to worry about first.

Shaft Alley, oh them things is too much.
Big monster propellor shaft maybe 2 feet in diameter running at about 70 RPM or so supported in bearings as big as a volkswagen and that shaft just inches from your nose a humming away.
Best is in days of yore in drydock working replacing the Lignum Vitae stern bearing staves.
Close, no fresh air, temps in the baking zone from the flood lights and we thumping with top mauls and steel or wood wedges trying to break a stave loose from the steel band holding it in place with a nice trickle of greasy water coming in for flavour. What was the size of those staves?? 4 foot six inches sticks in my mind like the starting height of a fore and aft bulkhead in a grain fitting. First plank 11 feet 6 inches off tank top. Who the hell came up with that measurment? Why not a nice 10 feet off the tank tops? 2 of us sitting on the hatch beams of the next up hold level hauling on a line nailed at each end, oh those were 14 foot 3inch by 12 or 14 inch wide dunnage grade green Doug Fir. Wet as a bucket of water and all dead weight.
Arggh, you young'uns have it too soft. :D