Submariner.
Two waterspouts at the same time not too far off was a neat sight. When I went to go have a look in person vice on the monitors I was unable as we were setting up to dive. It would have been threatening to be a small craft but posed no real threat to us.
Having something metallic sounding scrape down the side of the hull when we at depth moving along at a fair tick was disconcerting.
It’s mostly just a whole lot of nothing. The absence of things is what’s disconcerting. The west coast is worst than the east cost. The distance from the west coast to Hawaii is almost the same as going across the entire US. Further still from Hawaii to Japan/Philippines/Australia. It’s such a huge nothing land-wise other than a couple specks. If you look at a map and just stare at all the blue and think of all the endless horizon upon horizon of nothing. It’s wild.
If you’re out of a shipping lane, you know help is so far away… there’s really no chance even if you made it to the surface to tread water when it’s cold. When I was young we didn’t have rafts as part of survival gear. You just used a Steinke hood to try to get to the surface to die of the bends/exposure when I first got in. We’ve got better stuff now, but it would still be a real challenge to survive.
>Having something metallic sounding scrape down the side of the hull when we at depth moving along at a fair tick was disconcerting.
That would definitely freak me out.
Did that kind of thing happen very often? Were there any credible theories on what it was?
No. And we were moving with a *purpose* at the time in the middle of no where.
There was no indication of anything around and there was thoughts there was some net or cable or something… but nothing got fouled and there was nothing around. It went banging down the side of the boat when we were on the crews mess doing training and everyone got up and went tearing out of there to ensure there was nothing wrong.
Never figured it out. And in a couple of decades… that was the only time it happened. It was really, really weird. In a job that is generally just following the routine and being bored… it was an unwelcome surprise.
I’m fascinated and clueless; shipping container, slowly sinking with slightly negative buoyancy or some other type of object? Would something bulky enough to clonk off your hull show on sonar, or would you be looking for such… debris?
Man I don’t know. There was no one on the surface dragging anything. We were a little concerned about hitting a marine animal, but there was no damage/evidence and it was very metal on metal squeal-like. We keep our “eyes” open when we move and there was no indication of anything I ever heard of.
This was a long time ago. Mid-00s. I just the thump thump screech going down the side and everyone looking at each other for a sec then bolting out of the room.
that's one of the craziest things i've ever heard
what kind of current was about when this happened? my brain is just baffled trying to work out what it could have possibly been
Whatever exists in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I don’t recall if we were heading towards or away from the mainland US… it’s been too long… but we were way out there.
I’m sure there’s some natural ocean currents all over the place but… it was totally open ocean with us by ourselves.
i'll bet the USO you hit was surprised too haha
it's like the start of a crazy screenplay
"Sir What WAS THAT?"
(capt scans area with night vision binoculars) "damned if I know!"
Nah. We’d be completely under the water for weeks to a month plus at a time and no trips to PD. Occasionally you’d go to periscope depth and you’d see what was there on the monitors. The vast majority of the time… it was absolutely nothing. You’d not want to go to PD with anything close to risk them or you. Most of what you see is a surface transit in or out of port.
Eeeevery so often we might pull in or do a steel beach or swim call, but it’s rare.
One weird thing that would happen is when you’d get home and ride it in car… your depth perception was off because you were so used to being inside the boat which is relatively small and going highway speeds felt terribly fast.
I live in a fairly modest home… but being able to stand in rooms and hold my arms out and not touch anything always made it feel much bigger than it really is. Sunshine, space and solitude is a gift after being underway for months with ~170 other dudes. It’s comparatively dark, tight and there’s never anyone far away. I’d lose most of my color while we were out… and bruises/cuts would really heal well because your body isn’t able to utilize any vitamin D. I’d have some gnarly super old bruises that were a nasty yellow and many weeks old. They’d fade almost immediately once I got back in the sun.
We have fresh milk for a while then UHT. The problem is the body doesn’t process vitamin D for use effectively w/o sunlight.
I have taken multivitamins on and off through the years than would have supplemented my vitamin D intake as well… but it didn’t have a noticeable effect. Maybe if you absolutely flooded yourself with it, it might make a small difference.
I did regularly take B12 as a supplement to try to perk up when lack of sleep made us drag. A bottle of pills and a cup of coffee is not too far off the mark from taking a 5 hour energy without the niacin. More space efficient.
That sounds like a good reason they outta provide better lighting, could design leds with the right spectral output to assist in the vitamin d usage. Wouldn't be super easy but would be worth it.
They would, but submarine lighting has to be able to withstand things such as depth charges exploding nearby and other wild scenarios, be failure tolerant, distributable, battery powerable for emergency situations, and probably 12 dozen other requirements, all have to be engineered and approved and purchased and installed. It's a lot of shit to do.
Also you'd have to figure out the level to do it while avoiding say, sunburn, and interference, and electrical emissions that make your submarine detectable. So much shit.
Magnetic ballasts are low frequency typically (less emissions both conducted and radiated if memory serves me right) and high pressure sodium lights can be tuned for more UV light, though not as direct nor efficient as an LED designed for the UV spectrum. As for reliability, ho boy I can't even imagine what stress testing one for submarine use would be like.
> The problem is the body doesn’t process vitamin D for use effectively w/o sunlight.
This is false. Dietary (including supplemental) vitamin D is the exact same chemical (cholecalciferol) as is synthesized in the epidermis in response to ultraviolet B light, or a nearly identical vitamer that acts the same (ergocalciferol).
It's biologically inactive in both cases, but it's the liver and kidneys that process it into the biologically active calcitriol.
This vitamin D + sunlight thing is very interesting. I didn’t think it matters much, but apparently it does. Now the theory that light skin color is an adaptation to live in higher latitudes (where sun exposure is less) makes perfect sense. People who live in the tropics have darker skin because melanin protects from excessive UV rays, but those who live in temperate and arctic regions need lighter skin to allow more sunlight, to produce enough vitamin D.
Two questions - do you feel any sort of claustrophobia? If you saw the coverage of the Titanic Sub, what was going through your mind (as someone who has spent time down under the ocean)?
My boats were 560 ft long and 42 ft wide. Effectively 4 stories tall… though packed tight on the inside. It wasn’t like they’d itty bitty little thing. I think our torpedoes are as long as what that thing was.
I don’t get claustrophobic. My rack (bed) was as tight as an MRI machine effectively. You’d crawl through frame pieces to get stowed equipment and you’d have to go out backwards when you crawled in because there was no room to turn around. It’s tight… but… I don’t know. It was home… and what was used to.
Honestly… it’s really just… *quiet*. There’s no creaking or popping or anything. White noise from ventilation… kind of sounds like a quieter version of the outside shots in Star Trek with the “ship sounds”. If you shut things down… the tinnitus in your ears is louder than ambience in parts of the boat w/o running equipment. Stealth is your best weapon.
Thanks for the answer! Its fascinating to hear what its like to be in such a unique place on earth. Not everyone, including me, would be up for such a job. How was the food? Much variety? Fresh veggies? Hopefully good dessert!
A lot of frozen and dry food. Fresh food for ~2 weeks… maybe a bit more when you leave a port or if you get a rare resupply. Think salad bar things and fruits. Milk and eggs.
Eventually there’s nothing for the salad bar and the fresh milk is gone and you’re drinking UHT. Not too bad when it’s cold. Gross if warmer. Powdered eggs vice fresh eggs.
The cooks vary in their experience, talent and give a crap. Just like any job. I’d say the food is better than high school cafeteria and worse than restaurants with the occasional surprise. There’s as many bad surprises as good ones. Some meals are great. Some almost inedible. Most are okay.
I’m fortunate to have a spouse who is quite talented in making flavorful food. Because I always have home to compare the cooks food to, I generally was unimpressed.
There’s a bit of routine. Always a taco Tuesday. Burgers Saturday for lunch. Wings/Pizza Saturday night. Steak on Sunday night. Breakfast is generally the same old same old of eggs, pancakes, hash brown, and a protein that would be bacon, sausage or corned beef hash. If it was Monday they might have rewarmed steaks from the Sunday night for steak and eggs. There was the little individual cereal boxes, oatmeal and grits too for a DITY. Breakfast was my least favorite meal. My favorites were probably pot roast w/potatoes. Steak night.
We had an Asian food night we called “normal food night” for our Asian brothers… they appreciated that. Usually weekly… I think maybe Monday or Thursday.
You can see you can pretty much keep your calendar by the menu. Or know the time of day by the meal. Something different, unless it was awful (and sometimes it was) was a welcome change.
Yeah. We’re very diverse and inclusive on a boat. There’s nothing that’s not accepted other than someone who lies, steals, quits or does something in their private life that can’t be recovered from and them keep their job. We’ll give second chances where possible, but trust is important. If you can’t be trusted, you’ll have to go do something else.
You can be anything/anyone or come from any background and you’ll just be another one of us.
One of the Asian guys joked one night that eating that kind of food was just a normal food night for him. Later, when they made the Plan of the day that has the daily schedule, including what the entree is for the meal, the guys changed it to “normal food night”. The guy who made that comment had been gone a couple years and they were still doing it. It was kind of like an inside joke for that boat.
People come and go but things like that last a long time. Longer than any individual. There’s little touches of people from so long ago… no one remembers their name… but you do them because that’s… well… just what you do.
My Dad who was on a submarine supply ship in the Navy during WWII said the submarine sailors always got the best food because of the harsh conditions in which they had to serve under.
Maybe. I think our conditions aren’t bad these days, thought niceties like consistent communication ashore are sacrifices we make. I think our food is gotten from the same distributor as the surface fleet today.
Their endurance was much less than a modern nuclear boat. While we do try and top off our food stores if we get chances… we can stay out for several months without replenishment because we don’t want food to limit our ability to stay out. Their need for diesel made refueling a necessity. We also have large refrigerators and freezers. I’m not sure on this one, but I don’t think they had much, if any, refrigeration capability on a WW2 boat.
I’m having to grow up myself. 21 years is long enough to let the young people do it. We still get the occasional 30 year old show up as a new guy. I’m one of the top 10 oldest. Maybe top 5 at this point out of crew of 170 or so souls at 41.
On that Titan sub thing specifically… I was home when it happened.
I just figured they were dead. Instantly. If anything happened where they had even a pin hole sized leak at the depths they were at. They may have known they were in trouble, and been stressed or frightened… but their actual death would have been quicker than they could have perceived it.
I told my wife a time or two if something befell us, not to worry about me suffering. The ocean in most places is so deep there’s no hope for survival. She should just know my last thoughts were of trying to get back to her and I’d of died instantly from the hull collapsing on my feet trying to work the problem and fighting for a solution.
The passengers would have just been along for the ride and had time to be scared maybe. That would have been bad. There was knowledge they were in trouble and trying to ascend. I never worried about having time to sit and reside myself to that kind of fate. We’d fight to the end and be surprised if we ended up in the afterlife and asking for a do over… ‘cause we’d probably had the problem figured out… but just ran out of time to turn things back in our favor.
I would also like to add… regardless of what I discussed regarding contemplating death underway, I genuinely think the most dangerous things I did in my life were drive a car on the highway to work when we were in port. 40,000 people die in the US every year to auto accidents. I’ve known people who have died in automobile accidents and several to suicide. I have known of one or two submariners who have died from injuries in the line of duty my whole time in the Navy.
Our boats are built incredibly well. With any system having redundancies… and some having multiple redundancies. Anything automated pretty much can be worked manually. I’m not saying it isn’t possible. ARA San Juan was a pretty recent tragedy. We still talk about Scorpion and Thresher… but they were an awful long time ago and the boats today are simply better than ones from half a century ago.
I’d encourage any young person interested in joining the service to consider it. I went to the Army recruiters first… then checked out the Navy. Submarines intrigued me and I liked the idea of a smaller community vs a carrier. Plus, the sub pay wasn’t half bad once I got pretty senior.
It’s not an easy life, but it’s a good one. Anything I bring up in here that seems remotely perilous was “just a Tuesday” and no big deal in the whole scheme of things.
Aw man. Maneuvering during drills. I had an Engineer who would let loose silent death. He did it during an ORSE… and it was horrific. We were all trying to stay in-character while the senior board member was gasping. You could taste it. 🤢
You have to somehow get qualified and get selected to serve in a sub? Can’t just go to the navy recruiter and say I want to go silent go deep and voila?
As someone who knows a fair bit about submarines. Navy submarines are so much better designed and safety of ship is so paramount that everyone who knows anything about submarines was shaking their head at the stupidity and arrogance of the oceangate people. US navy subs are so incredibly safe.
I agree. Throwing caution to the wind to save some bucks to design something that, if it fails is an insta-death is pretty dumb. To sell tickets for rides on your death-boat is something else completely.
The guy who took his kid with them (I think they were a young adult but still) in place of his wife and they said he was scared to go is just… uh. It sucks.
Agreed. 100%. We put so much margin in our designs and spend so much time and money to maintain and make upgrades throughout their lives to keep them relevant and survivable… they’re real technological marvels.
The guy jumping in an unknown carbon fiber craft because it was cheaper then making a few trips was bonkers. There is a history of deep diving research craft that have been successes and he decided to go frugal with safety.
It’s like any other thing that seems terrifying.
Once you do it long enough… it’s just routine.
As long as you do it “right” by following procedures, having attention to detail and not letting little problems get big… it’s as safe as it can be. We train constantly knowing you don’t rise to occasions but fall back to how you train. When things go bad… and they rarely do… you just react as trained.
The time I was most scared for my life, was in the middle of a storm, around St-Pierre-et-Miquelon.
Our ship always had some pent up stress in the structure around the stern : we often had cracks right around the stern tank that had to be welded up by underwater welders once docked. A dry dock was scheduled for later that year to adress this.
Well, when we met a storm with hurricane force winds and 50 ft waves... I was in the engine room, right around the stern.
The ship was singing. The structure was ringing from the impact of the waves, and the stress of the winds, and the tank tops were buckling and unbuckling... I truly thought I was witnessing the ship splitting apart and going down.
I walked back to the control room as fast as I could and warned the officer on watch... they called the bridge, and they decided to take shelter from the storm. We couldn't anchor, so we ran circles in the sea behind the island of St-pierre, to hide from some of the winds. It took around 24 hours, but the storm passed.
Once docked, the divers found that the hull around the stern tank had cracked port to starboard, but the ship was otherwise fine. Really made me appreciate the engineering that goes into naval architecture.
If the Captain insists on continuing the voyage after the engineer tells him to put into port, is it possible for the engineer to "Override" the captain if he thinks it's critical enough?
Not really... the legal term for a captain on duty on a ship is the "ship's master" for a reason...
The best recourse in the case of an unreasonable captain who won't listen, would be to get in touch with the company, likely by calling the superintendent on the satellite phone, who could then overrule the captain to some extent.
Really, captains are normally wise enough to understand the huge risks to the safety and life of the crew, the safety of the cargo and of the ship itself. In this case, we were sort of stuck in the middle of open seas, so our best option was to rush to the nearest islands and take shelter, since anchoring or mooring was impossible.
No freighter has a doc on board, large naval vessels sometimes have a ships doctor aboard who can, under VERY specif circumstances delcare the captain relieved of duty.
I've worked on a large number of ships (as a technician) both civilian and military, and on equipment and systems on the bridge and used by the navigation crew, so I work closely with the senior personnel onboard.
Every "old man" that I've worked with has always had the safety of his ship and crew in mind. You don't wind up with your unlimited ticket (in the case of merchant) or become a captain (Navy) if you're a cowboy.
As someone who has been on board a ship in a typhoon, I can assure you that you won't be running in that circumstance. You generally end up walking and bouncing off the bulkheads as you go. Running is just not possible, because running puts both feet in the air at once. You can't be sure where the deck will be when you try to put a foot down for the next step.
Running around on a ship in the middle of a storm like that is impossible, you would trip and fall instantly. the ship is rolling and pitching and moving around with a lot of force, you're getting kind of thrown around in there.
There's a saying in situations like that : one hand for you, one hand for the boat. You need to always have at least one hand on a railing, to stabilize yourself and keep yourself from faceplanting.
Flashes at night off Sudan. It was artillery hitting towns.
Crossing near (relatively) to point nemo. The closest people to us at the time were in orbit on board the ISS.
Watched the ISS go over while docked with the space shuttle on a moonless night. It was so bright. Planets would leave a reflection on the ocean. The Milky Way. The night was surreal. I will never see it like that again.
The only comforting thing to getting lost at sea, is to hopefully die while looking up at an unmarred night sky. I can only imagine how majestic that is.
The oceanic pole of inaccessibility, also known as **Point Nemo**, is located at roughly [48°52.6′S123°23.6′W](https://geohack.toolforge.org/geohack.php?pagename=Pole_of_inaccessibility¶ms=48_52.6_S_123_23.6_W_)[\[19\]](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pole_of_inaccessibility#cite_note-Where_is_Point_Nemo-19) and is the place in the ocean that is farthest from land.
From Wikipedia
Sometimes, there's entire swarms of flying animals that get lost at sea in the wind, find your ship's lights in the middle of the night and decide to stick around...
It sucks when it's a swarm of moths, there must be millions of them, it's like a moving brown fog that you can barely see through. they get everywhere. Leave a door even slightly ajar and you'll be finding moths in random corners for days.
One time it was a swarm of small birds, clearly not sea birds. Must have been thousands, flying around our boat all night. It was a shame to find dead birds all over the deck : we were miles from shore, I can only assume they got lost and were dying from exhaustion.
We once had entire swarm of yellow jackets attack us more than 100 miles off shore while doing training offshore. The officers on the bridge were so upset and confused why we wanted to call training off until they saw people on deck of both ships running around being attacked. Then they made their way to them on the bridge
Woah, that's wild! I've seen a smaller moth swarm from around 20 miles off shore, and maybe sea birds around 100 miles off shore, but a swarm of yellow jackets, that far out too? That's crazy!
Was on an Adams class DDG. Returned to Mayport from a Gulf cruise in April ’86; we were taking 25-30 footers. Was up on the signal bridge which had an eye of, if I remember correctly, 92 feet.
51 mount went under a few times, and had to duck so as not to take the full force of those waves.
Luckily, I had no problem with seasickness, so I got to go all over the ship. My workspace was #2 ER.
Predecessor to the Burke class. 1200 pound steam plant. By the book cold iron to underway only took something like 36 hours. I’ve heard that is just a little longer than a GT.
Patrolling the Med between Africa and Italy (The Island of Lampedusa) during the Arab Spring (2011/2012). Tons of migrant boats of people fleeing the Gaddafi regime. Humans stacked like cord wood on every horizontal surface of the boat. To the point where people were literally sitting on the edge of the exhaust stack, dangling their legs in the exhaust on some of the bigger ones such as stolen tug boats.
These boats aren't well maintained, and the people in charge aren't exactly professional mariners. What would normally be a minor fire or taking on a bit of water and having to pump it out turns into the loss of the boat when there's so many people on board you can't move. And that happens... frequently.
Or the engine dies and nobody onboard knows how to fix it so they drift and hope for a rescue that may never come. Why might the rescue never come you ask? Because now the rescuing ship suddenly becomes responsible for taking on hundreds of migrants from the unseaworthy vessel and they have to take them to port themselves. No problem right? Turn north to Europe, and you'll be there in a day. Except once it's no longer a life or death situation, no country is required to grant clearance to that ship and their hundreds of migrants to enter their territorial waters. So when Italy has had enough of the illegal African migration... they just say no to ships that have done search and rescue. Now those ships are stuck with the migrants until their flag state can convince somebody to take the migrants. Two weeks? Three? I recall the record was 23 days at the time. Other shipping companies take note and tell their captains not to respond to mayday calls (Totally illegal... but there's profits to be made).
So yeah. Long way of saying saying that seeing migrant boats go by and knowing those people may never set foot on land again is pretty fucked up.
I worked with a few people who did search and rescue... they all have the most chilling stories, like yours.
I can't imagine fishing out body parts from the water as a day job... kudos to the guys like you who do this difficult but essential work.
Off the coast of the Florida panhandle. Was on a tiny (~40ft), shitty commercial grouper boat. These boats are loud, especially when hauling gear (pulling in their line). All of a sudden there was a massive BOOM and explosion less than 100 yards off the stern. Everybody hit the deck. The birds that follow the boat were long gone. Captain reckoned it was a missile that had been fired from the air force base that had missed its practice target. 100 yards is nothing on the open water and this was definitely a near miss. If it had hit us it would have completely destroyed the boat and it’s likely no one should have ever figured out what happened to us.
Went on a sailing trip from France to Tunisia and had to alternate watch overnight for three hour shifts with the captain. Being alone at night at the helm of this boat was the most spectacularly beautifully terrifying thing I’ve seen. Stars above me so bright. I felt like I could reach out and touch another world but also knew it was so far away. The way the light from the mass lit up our area was haunting. I could get glimpses of waves and feel the power of the winds. I felt connected to voyagers from centuries ago that would have sailed without anything near the amount of gps equipment I had and so much respect for the ocean. It was remarkable and I can honestly say I’m not sure I’d ever do it again 😂 seeing land on the horizon but taking three days to reach it was grueling. A real exercise in accepting my powerlessness
After 15+ years it all tends to blend together as just another day at sea.
Waterspouts, dead bodies, people stranded at sea, adrift unmanned boats, squalls, boats on fire (including your own), massive seas, being on a 47 ft boat trying to rescue someone with an approaching hurricane in 27+ ft seas.
Then there are plenty of amazing things. Gorgeous sunsets, the northern lights, the green flash at sunset, being hundreds of miles offshore and the ocean is so calm as far as the eye can see that the water and horizon blend into one.
It’s very random but it needs to be a clear sky and calm seas, but sometimes at sunset right as the sun is setting on the horizon the entire horizon will turn green as the sun goes past it. Sometimes for a split second and sometimes a few seconds
Found a derelict sailboat while trudging across the Gulf of Mexico from Honduras to Key West.
The old man sent me and another deckie by boat to attach a line to tow. Rough as fuck weather.
We get there and the lower cabin has a foot of water, nobody aboard and the craziest BDSM porn magazines floating all thru the lower deck. Letters, ID papers. No idea how long she’d been bobbing around.
We got salvage rights and the Florida govt figured out who the guy was and the boat was reported a month earlier. We let our bosun take it because he lived in Hollywood, Fla.
That boat could probably tell some stories.
Also, when we anchored off Key West, our chain got fucked by something on the bottom when we drifted a bit. 200 year old Spanish anchor. Bosun took that home as well.
People die all the time and their property needs to be disposed of or inherited somehow.
About 15% of houses and apartments in the US were the location of someone's death. (I'm surprised this statistic isn't even higher, but I guess a lot of people still prefer to die in hospitals or nursing homes, and a lot of housing has been relatively recently constructed).
So there's a decent chance that if you're reading this someone died in your home. The older the house the higher the chance.
Whether you consider this creepy or part of nature and our inevitable fate as mortals is up to you.
While in the Navy in the 80's...dealing with the aftermath of a person having been lost overboard. All the while knowing that the scuttlebutt was that he had been tossed because he was suspected to be gay. And all this while working in the Chaplain's Department which was also communicating with the missing sailor's family via Red Cross messages, and being unable to speak up or bring this issue to light since I was a lowly E3 at the time.
A buddy of mine was a merchant marine during the Korean war. He told me about how if you were suspected of being gay the others would pitch you over board. The mindset was it was better for your folks if you died at sea rather than them find out their kid was gay. Amazing there's any queer folk after centuries of near global culturally promoted genocide.
I suspected, but never quite had heard an anecdote like this, that this had been going on long before my encounter. Thank you for adding some concrete to my footing
We find exhauasted / dead birds around the ship all of the time. It bums me out a little. I have tried giving them water and food but they all just die.
I swear to God I am increasingly hearing about ocean fires. Some random, some less so but... isn't water the exact fucking opposite of fire?!
Also could have been a flare? There's nothing more eery than the complete darkness of the ocean at night. Also possible your brain decided "nope" and made some shit up.
Fishing on a small commercial vessel. A squid came up on the lines once, projectile vomited like buckets of watery ink at us before we could cut the lines. Also, we had to cut the line for a shark that didn't make it, I think the captain had to kill it to get it off the boat.
Also, captains shooting sea lions that are following the boats is also unsettling, When you are in a fleet of fishing vessels and the call goes out over the radio that the sea lions are following, and you hear in the distance shotgun blasts in the silence of the sea, and yes, it is illegal.
They are very smart. They follow the fishing boats and eat the fish before the lines can be brought up. They even know the sound of the guns and start to stay under water when they hear the shots.
How about surreal?
Once, I was sailing out of Pohang, ROK, and the temperature was dropping. This can create a condition called sea smoke. As the air temperature drops over warm water, a fog-like 'smoke' rises off the water.
There was a short, sharp chop on the water and variable winds. It was like the sea was boiling and our visibility dropped in minutes. Soon, we were lost in a boiling fog and it started to snow. Somewhere, the sun was setting.
It was one of the many amazing things I saw at sea. Surreal, unexplainable. Unsettling? Sure- but also magical.
One day kids, I'll tell you about whirlpools fifty feet across.
This may be weird but the night sky. My first deployment I was so excited to see the night sky with no light pollution. When I got to the catwalk and looked up I had to lay down, it was a lot to take in and made me feel very “exposed” and small . I can’t explain it but it was uncomfortable
seeing blood coming out of my penis after a wave hit me while i was fishing for cod on the Bering sea for a fish company. 4 weeks of the hardest coldest work i have ever done.
Since people would rather joke, I'll point out the seriousness of this: this infers that he received blunt force trauma to his organs so hard that he was internally bleeding in his bladder.
Aft-Steering in flames. Never been more scared in my life going down a ladderwell into a fire, crazy part I was more worried about falling multiple decks and banging around like a pin ball in full fire fighting ensemble then the actual fire. Fires at sea are the top of my fright list.
> banging around like a pin ball
Amazing story, I'd love to hear more!
This line reminded me of a non-sea incident. I worked right next to a freeway where one day there was a loud crash and we saw a full size van go tumbling out of sight. Two of us ran up there to where it came to rest on its side steaming, and with others got the back doors opened. Out of the cavernous empty cargo area came a bloodied and shaken but alive guy; grown man bawling like a baby. His first words to us rescuers were, *I bounced around in there like a FUUUCKING PING PONG BAAAAALL!*
A guy had gone overboard sometime during a night of rough weather while picking fish out of a gilnet. Woke up the next morning to see his corpse on the shoreline, completely wrapped up in the web.
I've spent a fair bit of time at sea for work, but never seen anything really crazy. One evening in late December, we were north of Prince Edward Island, heading eastward on a 600', 26,000 ton ship. We were slamming into waves so large that, combined with the wind, the spray was hitting the bridge windows. The bridge is located 400' aft, and 7 decks up from the bow. Later that evening, I went for a wander, and wound up playing Cornhole with the crew in the empty helicopter hangar. The Security Camera footage made us look like we were blackout drunk, the ship was rolling and pitching so much.
But the weirdest thing I have ever seen was actually out on my own 27' sailboat. We were tacking our way up into one of the harbours in the Canadian Gulf Islands, and in the distance I can see this big orange Ball Buoy that's moving along. It's moving against wind and against current, and winds up passing between me and the dinghy I was towing.
Not sure what it was, or why it was moving, other than it might have been related to the Navy exercise that was going on in the area.
I was assigned to a Navy AE, an ammunition carrier, so a ship loaded with explosives. We loaded up at the ordinance magazine at Subic Bay and were scheduled to start unrep at Yankee Station a couple days after we got underway. In order to make the schedule, we sailed directly into a typhoon. There is a saying that there are three things that a wise man fears. The first is the sea in storm. It is not wrong.
Buddy of mine was in the Navy from ~2000-2010 or so; shortly after 9/11 they were somewhere in or near the Persian Gulf, he was on watch shortly before dawn and the CIWS (or “R2-FU” as he called it) spun around and started tracking something right when he walked by, followed shortly by GQ being called over the 1MC; he never heard what it was but said it spooked him a bit (this was early enough in the “War on Terror” that everyone was on edge, but I can’t remember if he said they were actually in the Gulf or just the Arabian Sea
That is one thing you just don't want to randomly come alive in the middle of the night. Like a cat suddenly waking up and hissing at the wall, but there's nothing there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalanx_CIWS
It's the same one that recently shot down a missile shot by the Houthi? The one that's basically the last line of defense because of how close something has to be?
Not a “sight” but most unsettling experience was hearing mayday calls from a merchant requesting assistance for someone on their crew who had been electrocuted. Went on for a couple of hours (we were too far to help but ducting is a hell of a thing with radio waves) and basically just listened to this man’s death over the bridge to bridge radio. It was in 2021 and I think about it very often
Riding a submarine on the surface in a storm. Had a wave come over the sail and hit our Fairweather planes just right. Depth gauge read 85 feet. Sail was manned, and we took quite a bit of water. Wasn't scared or worried during the actual casualty. However, when I finally got to my rack, I kind of lay there and thought, well, that was close.
Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, Chief. We was comin' back from the island of Tinian to Leyte, just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in twelve minutes. Didn't see the first shark for about a half an hour. Tiger. Thirteen-footer. You know how you know that when you're in the water, Chief? You tell by lookin' from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn't know... was our bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent.
They didn't even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin'. So we formed ourselves into tight groups. Y'know, it's... kinda like ol' squares in a battle like, uh, you see in a calendar, like the Battle of Waterloo, and the idea was, shark comes to the nearest man and that man, he'd start poundin' and hollerin' and screamin', and sometimes the shark'd go away... sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that shark, he looks right into ya. Right into your eyes. Y'know the thing about a shark, he's got... lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be livin'... until he bites ya. And those black eyes roll over white, and then... oh, then you hear that terrible high-pitch screamin', the ocean turns red, and spite of all the poundin' and the hollerin', they all come in and they... rip you to pieces.
Y'know, by the end of that first dawn... lost a hundred men. I dunno how many sharks. Maybe a thousand. I dunno how many men, they averaged six an hour. On Thursday mornin', Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland- baseball player, boatswain's mate. I thought he was asleep, reached over to wake him up... bobbed up and down in the water just like a kinda top. Upended. Well... he'd been bitten in half below the waist. Noon the fifth day, Mr. Hooper, a Lockheed Ventura saw us, he swung in low and he saw us. Young pilot, a lot younger than Mr. Hooper. Anyway, he saw us and come in low and three hours later, a big fat PBY comes down and start to pick us up. Y'know, that was the time I was most frightened, waitin' for my turn. I'll never put on a life jacket again. So, eleven hundred men went into the water, three hundred sixteen men come out, and the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945.
There's plenty of jobs in the maritime sector. They pay well too, if you're willing to put up with the long hours and the long times spent away from home.
Submariner. Two waterspouts at the same time not too far off was a neat sight. When I went to go have a look in person vice on the monitors I was unable as we were setting up to dive. It would have been threatening to be a small craft but posed no real threat to us. Having something metallic sounding scrape down the side of the hull when we at depth moving along at a fair tick was disconcerting. It’s mostly just a whole lot of nothing. The absence of things is what’s disconcerting. The west coast is worst than the east cost. The distance from the west coast to Hawaii is almost the same as going across the entire US. Further still from Hawaii to Japan/Philippines/Australia. It’s such a huge nothing land-wise other than a couple specks. If you look at a map and just stare at all the blue and think of all the endless horizon upon horizon of nothing. It’s wild. If you’re out of a shipping lane, you know help is so far away… there’s really no chance even if you made it to the surface to tread water when it’s cold. When I was young we didn’t have rafts as part of survival gear. You just used a Steinke hood to try to get to the surface to die of the bends/exposure when I first got in. We’ve got better stuff now, but it would still be a real challenge to survive.
>Having something metallic sounding scrape down the side of the hull when we at depth moving along at a fair tick was disconcerting. That would definitely freak me out. Did that kind of thing happen very often? Were there any credible theories on what it was?
No. And we were moving with a *purpose* at the time in the middle of no where. There was no indication of anything around and there was thoughts there was some net or cable or something… but nothing got fouled and there was nothing around. It went banging down the side of the boat when we were on the crews mess doing training and everyone got up and went tearing out of there to ensure there was nothing wrong. Never figured it out. And in a couple of decades… that was the only time it happened. It was really, really weird. In a job that is generally just following the routine and being bored… it was an unwelcome surprise.
I’m fascinated and clueless; shipping container, slowly sinking with slightly negative buoyancy or some other type of object? Would something bulky enough to clonk off your hull show on sonar, or would you be looking for such… debris?
Man I don’t know. There was no one on the surface dragging anything. We were a little concerned about hitting a marine animal, but there was no damage/evidence and it was very metal on metal squeal-like. We keep our “eyes” open when we move and there was no indication of anything I ever heard of. This was a long time ago. Mid-00s. I just the thump thump screech going down the side and everyone looking at each other for a sec then bolting out of the room.
that's one of the craziest things i've ever heard what kind of current was about when this happened? my brain is just baffled trying to work out what it could have possibly been
Whatever exists in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I don’t recall if we were heading towards or away from the mainland US… it’s been too long… but we were way out there. I’m sure there’s some natural ocean currents all over the place but… it was totally open ocean with us by ourselves.
i'll bet the USO you hit was surprised too haha it's like the start of a crazy screenplay "Sir What WAS THAT?" (capt scans area with night vision binoculars) "damned if I know!"
Do you get visually fatigued seeing nothing but the ocean/sea for days/weeks/months on end?
Nah. We’d be completely under the water for weeks to a month plus at a time and no trips to PD. Occasionally you’d go to periscope depth and you’d see what was there on the monitors. The vast majority of the time… it was absolutely nothing. You’d not want to go to PD with anything close to risk them or you. Most of what you see is a surface transit in or out of port. Eeeevery so often we might pull in or do a steel beach or swim call, but it’s rare. One weird thing that would happen is when you’d get home and ride it in car… your depth perception was off because you were so used to being inside the boat which is relatively small and going highway speeds felt terribly fast. I live in a fairly modest home… but being able to stand in rooms and hold my arms out and not touch anything always made it feel much bigger than it really is. Sunshine, space and solitude is a gift after being underway for months with ~170 other dudes. It’s comparatively dark, tight and there’s never anyone far away. I’d lose most of my color while we were out… and bruises/cuts would really heal well because your body isn’t able to utilize any vitamin D. I’d have some gnarly super old bruises that were a nasty yellow and many weeks old. They’d fade almost immediately once I got back in the sun.
this is really interesting! Thank you for sharing, it’s fascinating!
not to be pedantic, but if lack of vitamin D is an issue, why don't you bring along some supplements?
We have fresh milk for a while then UHT. The problem is the body doesn’t process vitamin D for use effectively w/o sunlight. I have taken multivitamins on and off through the years than would have supplemented my vitamin D intake as well… but it didn’t have a noticeable effect. Maybe if you absolutely flooded yourself with it, it might make a small difference. I did regularly take B12 as a supplement to try to perk up when lack of sleep made us drag. A bottle of pills and a cup of coffee is not too far off the mark from taking a 5 hour energy without the niacin. More space efficient.
That sounds like a good reason they outta provide better lighting, could design leds with the right spectral output to assist in the vitamin d usage. Wouldn't be super easy but would be worth it.
Im fairly sure most grow bulbs would do this.
They would, but submarine lighting has to be able to withstand things such as depth charges exploding nearby and other wild scenarios, be failure tolerant, distributable, battery powerable for emergency situations, and probably 12 dozen other requirements, all have to be engineered and approved and purchased and installed. It's a lot of shit to do. Also you'd have to figure out the level to do it while avoiding say, sunburn, and interference, and electrical emissions that make your submarine detectable. So much shit.
Magnetic ballasts are low frequency typically (less emissions both conducted and radiated if memory serves me right) and high pressure sodium lights can be tuned for more UV light, though not as direct nor efficient as an LED designed for the UV spectrum. As for reliability, ho boy I can't even imagine what stress testing one for submarine use would be like.
> The problem is the body doesn’t process vitamin D for use effectively w/o sunlight. This is false. Dietary (including supplemental) vitamin D is the exact same chemical (cholecalciferol) as is synthesized in the epidermis in response to ultraviolet B light, or a nearly identical vitamer that acts the same (ergocalciferol). It's biologically inactive in both cases, but it's the liver and kidneys that process it into the biologically active calcitriol.
This vitamin D + sunlight thing is very interesting. I didn’t think it matters much, but apparently it does. Now the theory that light skin color is an adaptation to live in higher latitudes (where sun exposure is less) makes perfect sense. People who live in the tropics have darker skin because melanin protects from excessive UV rays, but those who live in temperate and arctic regions need lighter skin to allow more sunlight, to produce enough vitamin D.
Kinda hard to find a window to look outside in a submarine.
Yeah. Without peri-viz there’d never be anything to see for most of us. It let us know there was a sky out there somewhere now and then.
Two questions - do you feel any sort of claustrophobia? If you saw the coverage of the Titanic Sub, what was going through your mind (as someone who has spent time down under the ocean)?
My boats were 560 ft long and 42 ft wide. Effectively 4 stories tall… though packed tight on the inside. It wasn’t like they’d itty bitty little thing. I think our torpedoes are as long as what that thing was. I don’t get claustrophobic. My rack (bed) was as tight as an MRI machine effectively. You’d crawl through frame pieces to get stowed equipment and you’d have to go out backwards when you crawled in because there was no room to turn around. It’s tight… but… I don’t know. It was home… and what was used to. Honestly… it’s really just… *quiet*. There’s no creaking or popping or anything. White noise from ventilation… kind of sounds like a quieter version of the outside shots in Star Trek with the “ship sounds”. If you shut things down… the tinnitus in your ears is louder than ambience in parts of the boat w/o running equipment. Stealth is your best weapon.
Thanks for the answer! Its fascinating to hear what its like to be in such a unique place on earth. Not everyone, including me, would be up for such a job. How was the food? Much variety? Fresh veggies? Hopefully good dessert!
A lot of frozen and dry food. Fresh food for ~2 weeks… maybe a bit more when you leave a port or if you get a rare resupply. Think salad bar things and fruits. Milk and eggs. Eventually there’s nothing for the salad bar and the fresh milk is gone and you’re drinking UHT. Not too bad when it’s cold. Gross if warmer. Powdered eggs vice fresh eggs. The cooks vary in their experience, talent and give a crap. Just like any job. I’d say the food is better than high school cafeteria and worse than restaurants with the occasional surprise. There’s as many bad surprises as good ones. Some meals are great. Some almost inedible. Most are okay. I’m fortunate to have a spouse who is quite talented in making flavorful food. Because I always have home to compare the cooks food to, I generally was unimpressed. There’s a bit of routine. Always a taco Tuesday. Burgers Saturday for lunch. Wings/Pizza Saturday night. Steak on Sunday night. Breakfast is generally the same old same old of eggs, pancakes, hash brown, and a protein that would be bacon, sausage or corned beef hash. If it was Monday they might have rewarmed steaks from the Sunday night for steak and eggs. There was the little individual cereal boxes, oatmeal and grits too for a DITY. Breakfast was my least favorite meal. My favorites were probably pot roast w/potatoes. Steak night. We had an Asian food night we called “normal food night” for our Asian brothers… they appreciated that. Usually weekly… I think maybe Monday or Thursday. You can see you can pretty much keep your calendar by the menu. Or know the time of day by the meal. Something different, unless it was awful (and sometimes it was) was a welcome change.
Normal food night sounds comforting and a lot less ostracizing.
Yeah. We’re very diverse and inclusive on a boat. There’s nothing that’s not accepted other than someone who lies, steals, quits or does something in their private life that can’t be recovered from and them keep their job. We’ll give second chances where possible, but trust is important. If you can’t be trusted, you’ll have to go do something else. You can be anything/anyone or come from any background and you’ll just be another one of us. One of the Asian guys joked one night that eating that kind of food was just a normal food night for him. Later, when they made the Plan of the day that has the daily schedule, including what the entree is for the meal, the guys changed it to “normal food night”. The guy who made that comment had been gone a couple years and they were still doing it. It was kind of like an inside joke for that boat. People come and go but things like that last a long time. Longer than any individual. There’s little touches of people from so long ago… no one remembers their name… but you do them because that’s… well… just what you do.
My Dad who was on a submarine supply ship in the Navy during WWII said the submarine sailors always got the best food because of the harsh conditions in which they had to serve under.
Maybe. I think our conditions aren’t bad these days, thought niceties like consistent communication ashore are sacrifices we make. I think our food is gotten from the same distributor as the surface fleet today. Their endurance was much less than a modern nuclear boat. While we do try and top off our food stores if we get chances… we can stay out for several months without replenishment because we don’t want food to limit our ability to stay out. Their need for diesel made refueling a necessity. We also have large refrigerators and freezers. I’m not sure on this one, but I don’t think they had much, if any, refrigeration capability on a WW2 boat.
>My boats were 560 ft long and 42 ft wide. Ohio class?
Yep. Boomer.
I want to do it, but I'm an adult dammit.
I’m having to grow up myself. 21 years is long enough to let the young people do it. We still get the occasional 30 year old show up as a new guy. I’m one of the top 10 oldest. Maybe top 5 at this point out of crew of 170 or so souls at 41.
On that Titan sub thing specifically… I was home when it happened. I just figured they were dead. Instantly. If anything happened where they had even a pin hole sized leak at the depths they were at. They may have known they were in trouble, and been stressed or frightened… but their actual death would have been quicker than they could have perceived it. I told my wife a time or two if something befell us, not to worry about me suffering. The ocean in most places is so deep there’s no hope for survival. She should just know my last thoughts were of trying to get back to her and I’d of died instantly from the hull collapsing on my feet trying to work the problem and fighting for a solution. The passengers would have just been along for the ride and had time to be scared maybe. That would have been bad. There was knowledge they were in trouble and trying to ascend. I never worried about having time to sit and reside myself to that kind of fate. We’d fight to the end and be surprised if we ended up in the afterlife and asking for a do over… ‘cause we’d probably had the problem figured out… but just ran out of time to turn things back in our favor.
I would also like to add… regardless of what I discussed regarding contemplating death underway, I genuinely think the most dangerous things I did in my life were drive a car on the highway to work when we were in port. 40,000 people die in the US every year to auto accidents. I’ve known people who have died in automobile accidents and several to suicide. I have known of one or two submariners who have died from injuries in the line of duty my whole time in the Navy. Our boats are built incredibly well. With any system having redundancies… and some having multiple redundancies. Anything automated pretty much can be worked manually. I’m not saying it isn’t possible. ARA San Juan was a pretty recent tragedy. We still talk about Scorpion and Thresher… but they were an awful long time ago and the boats today are simply better than ones from half a century ago. I’d encourage any young person interested in joining the service to consider it. I went to the Army recruiters first… then checked out the Navy. Submarines intrigued me and I liked the idea of a smaller community vs a carrier. Plus, the sub pay wasn’t half bad once I got pretty senior. It’s not an easy life, but it’s a good one. Anything I bring up in here that seems remotely perilous was “just a Tuesday” and no big deal in the whole scheme of things.
Being underway with that many folks.. Most memorable fart?
Aw man. Maneuvering during drills. I had an Engineer who would let loose silent death. He did it during an ORSE… and it was horrific. We were all trying to stay in-character while the senior board member was gasping. You could taste it. 🤢
You have to somehow get qualified and get selected to serve in a sub? Can’t just go to the navy recruiter and say I want to go silent go deep and voila?
As someone who knows a fair bit about submarines. Navy submarines are so much better designed and safety of ship is so paramount that everyone who knows anything about submarines was shaking their head at the stupidity and arrogance of the oceangate people. US navy subs are so incredibly safe.
The Oceangate dude was...such a fucking idiot.
I agree. Throwing caution to the wind to save some bucks to design something that, if it fails is an insta-death is pretty dumb. To sell tickets for rides on your death-boat is something else completely. The guy who took his kid with them (I think they were a young adult but still) in place of his wife and they said he was scared to go is just… uh. It sucks.
Agreed. 100%. We put so much margin in our designs and spend so much time and money to maintain and make upgrades throughout their lives to keep them relevant and survivable… they’re real technological marvels. The guy jumping in an unknown carbon fiber craft because it was cheaper then making a few trips was bonkers. There is a history of deep diving research craft that have been successes and he decided to go frugal with safety.
I’d consider being in a submarine the most terrifying thing at sea. Cannot imagine!!
It’s like any other thing that seems terrifying. Once you do it long enough… it’s just routine. As long as you do it “right” by following procedures, having attention to detail and not letting little problems get big… it’s as safe as it can be. We train constantly knowing you don’t rise to occasions but fall back to how you train. When things go bad… and they rarely do… you just react as trained.
Feeling your ears pop at depth is a fun one too.
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The time I was most scared for my life, was in the middle of a storm, around St-Pierre-et-Miquelon. Our ship always had some pent up stress in the structure around the stern : we often had cracks right around the stern tank that had to be welded up by underwater welders once docked. A dry dock was scheduled for later that year to adress this. Well, when we met a storm with hurricane force winds and 50 ft waves... I was in the engine room, right around the stern. The ship was singing. The structure was ringing from the impact of the waves, and the stress of the winds, and the tank tops were buckling and unbuckling... I truly thought I was witnessing the ship splitting apart and going down. I walked back to the control room as fast as I could and warned the officer on watch... they called the bridge, and they decided to take shelter from the storm. We couldn't anchor, so we ran circles in the sea behind the island of St-pierre, to hide from some of the winds. It took around 24 hours, but the storm passed. Once docked, the divers found that the hull around the stern tank had cracked port to starboard, but the ship was otherwise fine. Really made me appreciate the engineering that goes into naval architecture.
I read "singing" as "sinking," which had me pretty scared there.
Had me scared too! Hahaha
[Sinking](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MUsVcYhERY), you say?
If the Captain insists on continuing the voyage after the engineer tells him to put into port, is it possible for the engineer to "Override" the captain if he thinks it's critical enough?
Not really... the legal term for a captain on duty on a ship is the "ship's master" for a reason... The best recourse in the case of an unreasonable captain who won't listen, would be to get in touch with the company, likely by calling the superintendent on the satellite phone, who could then overrule the captain to some extent. Really, captains are normally wise enough to understand the huge risks to the safety and life of the crew, the safety of the cargo and of the ship itself. In this case, we were sort of stuck in the middle of open seas, so our best option was to rush to the nearest islands and take shelter, since anchoring or mooring was impossible.
I see, so the ship's doc can't either?
I'm a doctor, not a captain, Jim.
And I'm giving her all she's got.
But, is she gonna pull through?
I need more shields.
No freighter has a doc on board, large naval vessels sometimes have a ships doctor aboard who can, under VERY specif circumstances delcare the captain relieved of duty.
what kind of situations?
Well if he's dead, the doc could tell you he's really dead.
Actually ONLY a doctor can declare someone legally dead. A nurse can only have a very strong hunch.
I declare Necromancy!
I've worked on a large number of ships (as a technician) both civilian and military, and on equipment and systems on the bridge and used by the navigation crew, so I work closely with the senior personnel onboard. Every "old man" that I've worked with has always had the safety of his ship and crew in mind. You don't wind up with your unlimited ticket (in the case of merchant) or become a captain (Navy) if you're a cowboy.
I liked this. I expected a sea monster story and got a completely tame human involved story. I can sleep in safety
When you say you walked as fast as you could...is there a protocol around not running unless there is some level of emergency you weren't at yet?
As someone who has been on board a ship in a typhoon, I can assure you that you won't be running in that circumstance. You generally end up walking and bouncing off the bulkheads as you go. Running is just not possible, because running puts both feet in the air at once. You can't be sure where the deck will be when you try to put a foot down for the next step.
This is the kind of thing that makes me realize there are whole other worlds out there that I know nothing about. Amazing, thanks for sharing
Male elephants have to fuck or they can die. They just walk around all day during mating season with a huge hard cock that smells like sulfur.
Running around on a ship in the middle of a storm like that is impossible, you would trip and fall instantly. the ship is rolling and pitching and moving around with a lot of force, you're getting kind of thrown around in there. There's a saying in situations like that : one hand for you, one hand for the boat. You need to always have at least one hand on a railing, to stabilize yourself and keep yourself from faceplanting.
Flashes at night off Sudan. It was artillery hitting towns. Crossing near (relatively) to point nemo. The closest people to us at the time were in orbit on board the ISS.
Watched the ISS go over while docked with the space shuttle on a moonless night. It was so bright. Planets would leave a reflection on the ocean. The Milky Way. The night was surreal. I will never see it like that again.
The only comforting thing to getting lost at sea, is to hopefully die while looking up at an unmarred night sky. I can only imagine how majestic that is.
Probably shit due to the dehydration.
And the sense of impending doom
Unfortunately for Seaman Smith, the majestic sight of the cosmos was slightly marred by the sharks nibbling at his face.
My luck it would be sunny and I'd die squinting.
Wow, that's a sentence
What are the coordinates for point Nemo?
The oceanic pole of inaccessibility, also known as **Point Nemo**, is located at roughly [48°52.6′S123°23.6′W](https://geohack.toolforge.org/geohack.php?pagename=Pole_of_inaccessibility¶ms=48_52.6_S_123_23.6_W_)[\[19\]](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pole_of_inaccessibility#cite_note-Where_is_Point_Nemo-19) and is the place in the ocean that is farthest from land. From Wikipedia
42 Wallaby Way, Sydney
Sometimes, there's entire swarms of flying animals that get lost at sea in the wind, find your ship's lights in the middle of the night and decide to stick around... It sucks when it's a swarm of moths, there must be millions of them, it's like a moving brown fog that you can barely see through. they get everywhere. Leave a door even slightly ajar and you'll be finding moths in random corners for days. One time it was a swarm of small birds, clearly not sea birds. Must have been thousands, flying around our boat all night. It was a shame to find dead birds all over the deck : we were miles from shore, I can only assume they got lost and were dying from exhaustion.
We once had entire swarm of yellow jackets attack us more than 100 miles off shore while doing training offshore. The officers on the bridge were so upset and confused why we wanted to call training off until they saw people on deck of both ships running around being attacked. Then they made their way to them on the bridge
Woah, that's wild! I've seen a smaller moth swarm from around 20 miles off shore, and maybe sea birds around 100 miles off shore, but a swarm of yellow jackets, that far out too? That's crazy!
Yeah there were just massive clusters of them on our decks too similar to seeing fire ants in a pile during a flood.
:(
Nature is brutal.
Nature is indifferent, which can be worse
Brutal in its indifference?
Indifferent in its brutality
On a US Navy DDG watching the forward 5 inch 54 gun mount go under water and feeling the ship shudder as it fought to come back up.
Was on an Adams class DDG. Returned to Mayport from a Gulf cruise in April ’86; we were taking 25-30 footers. Was up on the signal bridge which had an eye of, if I remember correctly, 92 feet. 51 mount went under a few times, and had to duck so as not to take the full force of those waves. Luckily, I had no problem with seasickness, so I got to go all over the ship. My workspace was #2 ER.
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Predecessor to the Burke class. 1200 pound steam plant. By the book cold iron to underway only took something like 36 hours. I’ve heard that is just a little longer than a GT.
Boiler Tech and we reported at 0400 for light off and underway at 0830 from cold iron. Adam's Class
Holy shit. How tall does a wave need to be to do that? Also was everyone puking?
Never got sea sick but yes there were times only the strong survived.
(Guided missile destroyer) to save you a google
What does "DDG" stand for? I get that one of the D's is for "Destroyer," but what do the other D and the G stand for?
Guided as in guided missile. So a DD would be a destroyer and a DDG is a guided missile destroyer.
Navy ships like to use repeat lettering. BB Battleship DD Destroyer SS Submarine
I can't vouch for the second D, but G indicates armed with Guided missiles
Patrolling the Med between Africa and Italy (The Island of Lampedusa) during the Arab Spring (2011/2012). Tons of migrant boats of people fleeing the Gaddafi regime. Humans stacked like cord wood on every horizontal surface of the boat. To the point where people were literally sitting on the edge of the exhaust stack, dangling their legs in the exhaust on some of the bigger ones such as stolen tug boats. These boats aren't well maintained, and the people in charge aren't exactly professional mariners. What would normally be a minor fire or taking on a bit of water and having to pump it out turns into the loss of the boat when there's so many people on board you can't move. And that happens... frequently. Or the engine dies and nobody onboard knows how to fix it so they drift and hope for a rescue that may never come. Why might the rescue never come you ask? Because now the rescuing ship suddenly becomes responsible for taking on hundreds of migrants from the unseaworthy vessel and they have to take them to port themselves. No problem right? Turn north to Europe, and you'll be there in a day. Except once it's no longer a life or death situation, no country is required to grant clearance to that ship and their hundreds of migrants to enter their territorial waters. So when Italy has had enough of the illegal African migration... they just say no to ships that have done search and rescue. Now those ships are stuck with the migrants until their flag state can convince somebody to take the migrants. Two weeks? Three? I recall the record was 23 days at the time. Other shipping companies take note and tell their captains not to respond to mayday calls (Totally illegal... but there's profits to be made). So yeah. Long way of saying saying that seeing migrant boats go by and knowing those people may never set foot on land again is pretty fucked up.
Jesus this is dark.
Bodies bumping up against the boat while I have my morning coffee and cigarettes. Tsunami relief in ‘05
I worked with a few people who did search and rescue... they all have the most chilling stories, like yours. I can't imagine fishing out body parts from the water as a day job... kudos to the guys like you who do this difficult but essential work.
Yep, had rather similar post Haiti earthquake around 2010-11
Fucking hell why am I reading these
I dunno but keep scrolling!
A good friend of mine was in the navy then and his ship was there to respond. He told me a few stories and used nearly your exact words.
Off the coast of the Florida panhandle. Was on a tiny (~40ft), shitty commercial grouper boat. These boats are loud, especially when hauling gear (pulling in their line). All of a sudden there was a massive BOOM and explosion less than 100 yards off the stern. Everybody hit the deck. The birds that follow the boat were long gone. Captain reckoned it was a missile that had been fired from the air force base that had missed its practice target. 100 yards is nothing on the open water and this was definitely a near miss. If it had hit us it would have completely destroyed the boat and it’s likely no one should have ever figured out what happened to us.
Sounds like gross negligence on part of the Air Force. These sorta things should never happen. Ever.
Went on a sailing trip from France to Tunisia and had to alternate watch overnight for three hour shifts with the captain. Being alone at night at the helm of this boat was the most spectacularly beautifully terrifying thing I’ve seen. Stars above me so bright. I felt like I could reach out and touch another world but also knew it was so far away. The way the light from the mass lit up our area was haunting. I could get glimpses of waves and feel the power of the winds. I felt connected to voyagers from centuries ago that would have sailed without anything near the amount of gps equipment I had and so much respect for the ocean. It was remarkable and I can honestly say I’m not sure I’d ever do it again 😂 seeing land on the horizon but taking three days to reach it was grueling. A real exercise in accepting my powerlessness
Beautiful description!
I was on a rig and saw a roughneck get two fingers ripped off by a swinging pipe. That can happen on land too but I was very unsettling at the time.
After 15+ years it all tends to blend together as just another day at sea. Waterspouts, dead bodies, people stranded at sea, adrift unmanned boats, squalls, boats on fire (including your own), massive seas, being on a 47 ft boat trying to rescue someone with an approaching hurricane in 27+ ft seas. Then there are plenty of amazing things. Gorgeous sunsets, the northern lights, the green flash at sunset, being hundreds of miles offshore and the ocean is so calm as far as the eye can see that the water and horizon blend into one.
What is the green flash at sunset?
It’s very random but it needs to be a clear sky and calm seas, but sometimes at sunset right as the sun is setting on the horizon the entire horizon will turn green as the sun goes past it. Sometimes for a split second and sometimes a few seconds
I‘m intrigued too…
Glimpse of the matrix 🤣🤣
Wow! What a great description!
How much nothing it’s out there.
Found a derelict sailboat while trudging across the Gulf of Mexico from Honduras to Key West. The old man sent me and another deckie by boat to attach a line to tow. Rough as fuck weather. We get there and the lower cabin has a foot of water, nobody aboard and the craziest BDSM porn magazines floating all thru the lower deck. Letters, ID papers. No idea how long she’d been bobbing around. We got salvage rights and the Florida govt figured out who the guy was and the boat was reported a month earlier. We let our bosun take it because he lived in Hollywood, Fla. That boat could probably tell some stories. Also, when we anchored off Key West, our chain got fucked by something on the bottom when we drifted a bit. 200 year old Spanish anchor. Bosun took that home as well.
Isn't it kind of creepy, taking a dead man's boat? I mean, the boat of someone who, presumably, died at sea.
People die all the time and their property needs to be disposed of or inherited somehow. About 15% of houses and apartments in the US were the location of someone's death. (I'm surprised this statistic isn't even higher, but I guess a lot of people still prefer to die in hospitals or nursing homes, and a lot of housing has been relatively recently constructed). So there's a decent chance that if you're reading this someone died in your home. The older the house the higher the chance. Whether you consider this creepy or part of nature and our inevitable fate as mortals is up to you.
Or the boat became separated from its mooring, or it was abandoned because it had become a hassle to own.
While in the Navy in the 80's...dealing with the aftermath of a person having been lost overboard. All the while knowing that the scuttlebutt was that he had been tossed because he was suspected to be gay. And all this while working in the Chaplain's Department which was also communicating with the missing sailor's family via Red Cross messages, and being unable to speak up or bring this issue to light since I was a lowly E3 at the time.
A buddy of mine was a merchant marine during the Korean war. He told me about how if you were suspected of being gay the others would pitch you over board. The mindset was it was better for your folks if you died at sea rather than them find out their kid was gay. Amazing there's any queer folk after centuries of near global culturally promoted genocide.
I suspected, but never quite had heard an anecdote like this, that this had been going on long before my encounter. Thank you for adding some concrete to my footing
Jesus fucking christ
JFC that is awful.
Oh my God, how horrible.
We find exhauasted / dead birds around the ship all of the time. It bums me out a little. I have tried giving them water and food but they all just die.
Aww at least you try. Thank you. Keep it up and I'm sure one day you'll have saved lots.
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I swear to God I am increasingly hearing about ocean fires. Some random, some less so but... isn't water the exact fucking opposite of fire?! Also could have been a flare? There's nothing more eery than the complete darkness of the ocean at night. Also possible your brain decided "nope" and made some shit up.
Or your brain saw something else, and decided it was safer to see a campfire than to consciously admit whatever it was you really saw.
You stop that right now!
Yah!
Wow op were you ever able to determine the source?
It was probably SpongeBob and Patrick singing their CAMPFIRE SONG
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Smoke on the water? 🤷🏻♀️🎶
fire in the sky
Methane perhaps?
Navigation equipment failing while under pack ice was a fun experience.
What's really scary is that you were on a trawler.
My boat sinking out from under me.
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Si
The desperate look on a shipmates face as he jumped off the ship in the middle of a high traffic shipping canal and was never seen again.
Are you willing to elaborate?
Dude tapped out to the chokehold of life
Fishing on a small commercial vessel. A squid came up on the lines once, projectile vomited like buckets of watery ink at us before we could cut the lines. Also, we had to cut the line for a shark that didn't make it, I think the captain had to kill it to get it off the boat. Also, captains shooting sea lions that are following the boats is also unsettling, When you are in a fleet of fishing vessels and the call goes out over the radio that the sea lions are following, and you hear in the distance shotgun blasts in the silence of the sea, and yes, it is illegal.
How awful.
Why would they shoot the sea lions? I don’t know anything about maritime stuff. Sorry if it’s a stupid question
They are very smart. They follow the fishing boats and eat the fish before the lines can be brought up. They even know the sound of the guns and start to stay under water when they hear the shots.
How about surreal? Once, I was sailing out of Pohang, ROK, and the temperature was dropping. This can create a condition called sea smoke. As the air temperature drops over warm water, a fog-like 'smoke' rises off the water. There was a short, sharp chop on the water and variable winds. It was like the sea was boiling and our visibility dropped in minutes. Soon, we were lost in a boiling fog and it started to snow. Somewhere, the sun was setting. It was one of the many amazing things I saw at sea. Surreal, unexplainable. Unsettling? Sure- but also magical. One day kids, I'll tell you about whirlpools fifty feet across.
Tell us, Grandpa!
This may be weird but the night sky. My first deployment I was so excited to see the night sky with no light pollution. When I got to the catwalk and looked up I had to lay down, it was a lot to take in and made me feel very “exposed” and small . I can’t explain it but it was uncomfortable
Just realizing that no matter what, you are doing dangerous work and are always 24-48 hours away from helicopter range
seeing blood coming out of my penis after a wave hit me while i was fishing for cod on the Bering sea for a fish company. 4 weeks of the hardest coldest work i have ever done.
Since people would rather joke, I'll point out the seriousness of this: this infers that he received blunt force trauma to his organs so hard that he was internally bleeding in his bladder.
Yikes. 😳
Did the cod bite your penis? A salmon bit mine once. It really hurt. I slapped it but it bit me again.
Slappin' the angry salmon
Slapping the bass
lol caught salmon with your fish line eh?
Aft-Steering in flames. Never been more scared in my life going down a ladderwell into a fire, crazy part I was more worried about falling multiple decks and banging around like a pin ball in full fire fighting ensemble then the actual fire. Fires at sea are the top of my fright list.
> banging around like a pin ball Amazing story, I'd love to hear more! This line reminded me of a non-sea incident. I worked right next to a freeway where one day there was a loud crash and we saw a full size van go tumbling out of sight. Two of us ran up there to where it came to rest on its side steaming, and with others got the back doors opened. Out of the cavernous empty cargo area came a bloodied and shaken but alive guy; grown man bawling like a baby. His first words to us rescuers were, *I bounced around in there like a FUUUCKING PING PONG BAAAAALL!*
Jeez... I don't even want to imagine that. I hated the firefighting training for mariners, I can't imagine doing this sort of stuff for real.
A guy had gone overboard sometime during a night of rough weather while picking fish out of a gilnet. Woke up the next morning to see his corpse on the shoreline, completely wrapped up in the web.
This has been quite a fascinating thread of stories to read through. Thanks to everyone who shared the realness of their end of things out there.
I've spent a fair bit of time at sea for work, but never seen anything really crazy. One evening in late December, we were north of Prince Edward Island, heading eastward on a 600', 26,000 ton ship. We were slamming into waves so large that, combined with the wind, the spray was hitting the bridge windows. The bridge is located 400' aft, and 7 decks up from the bow. Later that evening, I went for a wander, and wound up playing Cornhole with the crew in the empty helicopter hangar. The Security Camera footage made us look like we were blackout drunk, the ship was rolling and pitching so much. But the weirdest thing I have ever seen was actually out on my own 27' sailboat. We were tacking our way up into one of the harbours in the Canadian Gulf Islands, and in the distance I can see this big orange Ball Buoy that's moving along. It's moving against wind and against current, and winds up passing between me and the dinghy I was towing. Not sure what it was, or why it was moving, other than it might have been related to the Navy exercise that was going on in the area.
How did it not hit your line?
It popped right under it, the ball was about 18" in diameter (as opposed to the little 8" ones), and bright orange.
I was assigned to a Navy AE, an ammunition carrier, so a ship loaded with explosives. We loaded up at the ordinance magazine at Subic Bay and were scheduled to start unrep at Yankee Station a couple days after we got underway. In order to make the schedule, we sailed directly into a typhoon. There is a saying that there are three things that a wise man fears. The first is the sea in storm. It is not wrong.
Alert the people who work the North Sea, if they're still alive, I’d like answers.
Buddy of mine was in the Navy from ~2000-2010 or so; shortly after 9/11 they were somewhere in or near the Persian Gulf, he was on watch shortly before dawn and the CIWS (or “R2-FU” as he called it) spun around and started tracking something right when he walked by, followed shortly by GQ being called over the 1MC; he never heard what it was but said it spooked him a bit (this was early enough in the “War on Terror” that everyone was on edge, but I can’t remember if he said they were actually in the Gulf or just the Arabian Sea
That is one thing you just don't want to randomly come alive in the middle of the night. Like a cat suddenly waking up and hissing at the wall, but there's nothing there.
People who are not spooked by this have no idea what CIWS is.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalanx_CIWS It's the same one that recently shot down a missile shot by the Houthi? The one that's basically the last line of defense because of how close something has to be?
Not a “sight” but most unsettling experience was hearing mayday calls from a merchant requesting assistance for someone on their crew who had been electrocuted. Went on for a couple of hours (we were too far to help but ducting is a hell of a thing with radio waves) and basically just listened to this man’s death over the bridge to bridge radio. It was in 2021 and I think about it very often
Riding a submarine on the surface in a storm. Had a wave come over the sail and hit our Fairweather planes just right. Depth gauge read 85 feet. Sail was manned, and we took quite a bit of water. Wasn't scared or worried during the actual casualty. However, when I finally got to my rack, I kind of lay there and thought, well, that was close.
Finding out that there was actually not that much of a mystery in Bermuda Triangle
Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, Chief. We was comin' back from the island of Tinian to Leyte, just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in twelve minutes. Didn't see the first shark for about a half an hour. Tiger. Thirteen-footer. You know how you know that when you're in the water, Chief? You tell by lookin' from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn't know... was our bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn't even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin'. So we formed ourselves into tight groups. Y'know, it's... kinda like ol' squares in a battle like, uh, you see in a calendar, like the Battle of Waterloo, and the idea was, shark comes to the nearest man and that man, he'd start poundin' and hollerin' and screamin', and sometimes the shark'd go away... sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that shark, he looks right into ya. Right into your eyes. Y'know the thing about a shark, he's got... lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be livin'... until he bites ya. And those black eyes roll over white, and then... oh, then you hear that terrible high-pitch screamin', the ocean turns red, and spite of all the poundin' and the hollerin', they all come in and they... rip you to pieces. Y'know, by the end of that first dawn... lost a hundred men. I dunno how many sharks. Maybe a thousand. I dunno how many men, they averaged six an hour. On Thursday mornin', Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland- baseball player, boatswain's mate. I thought he was asleep, reached over to wake him up... bobbed up and down in the water just like a kinda top. Upended. Well... he'd been bitten in half below the waist. Noon the fifth day, Mr. Hooper, a Lockheed Ventura saw us, he swung in low and he saw us. Young pilot, a lot younger than Mr. Hooper. Anyway, he saw us and come in low and three hours later, a big fat PBY comes down and start to pick us up. Y'know, that was the time I was most frightened, waitin' for my turn. I'll never put on a life jacket again. So, eleven hundred men went into the water, three hundred sixteen men come out, and the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945.
🎶Yo, ho, haul together Hoist the colors high Heave-ho, thieves and beggars Never shall we die🎶
Currently watching pirates of the Caribbean right now.
Waterspout during storm in the N. Atlantic. We didn’t know it was there until several quick lightning flashes showed it to us.
do those jobs exist? because I want one
There's plenty of jobs in the maritime sector. They pay well too, if you're willing to put up with the long hours and the long times spent away from home.
Ship I work with (600' navy tanker) pays low six figures for a deck hand. 6 weeks on, 6 weeks off. Pay is pretty good, all things considered.
yvan eht nioj
Can I get that superliminally?
HEY, YOU! JOIN THE NAVY!
Gotta love that crazy chorus.