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Thread: Storm at sea...

  1. #1
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    Storm at sea...

    I've read and written of this particular typhoon, and it's effects many times in the past, but this article presents it in more graphic detail than I have seen before...
    As the barometer fell rapidly, the wind velocity rose sharply to 73 knots while 70-foot waves battered the ships from all sides. Some destroyers heeled over on their beam ends with their funnels almost horizontal. Water surged into their intakes and ventilators, shorting circuits, killing power, and leaving them adrift.
    Adm. Halsey reported he could not see the bow of his own flagship USS New Jersey at high noon from his position on the bridge...My Uncle was riding out the fringes of the storm on his 103 foot wooden warship, and not wanting to unduly alarm his sister (my Mom) who stayed in fear for her baby brother while he served his duty in the South Pacific of WWII, wrote her only that it was a stomach-churning experience...The top-heavy aircraft carriers lost lashed-down planes over the side as they were hit with 70 foot high walls of fast moving water...

    I rode out Hurricane Alicia in my own home in 1983, but I can only imagine what it would have been like on some of the smaller ships in December 1944......Ben
    The future is forged on the anvil of history...The interpreter of history wields the hammer... - Unknown author...

  2. #2
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    I enjoyed the information, but the read was tortured with incessant refreshes from the site. Anybody else have that problem?
    ...............
    “You can vote your way into socialism, but you have to shoot your way out.” — Too fundamental to have an attribution


  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by wacojoe View Post
    Anybody else have that problem?
    That's news to me, Joe...I usually read something from that site everyday, but I'm never asked to refresh anything...I'm on Chrome with Adblocker and AdBlocker Plus......Ben
    The future is forged on the anvil of history...The interpreter of history wields the hammer... - Unknown author...

  4. #4
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    My dad was on one of the oilers refueling the fleet. he was first mate. He said that they abandoned the forward con and used the aft bridge. the waves were so high that the ships bow and and front 2/3 of the deck were under water when the bigger waves hit. It would take close to a minute for the bow to shudder to the surface. They were carrying Aviation fuel for the planes
    "The only thing that we learn from torture is the depths of our own moral depravity"

  5. #5
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    I had my own experience on the General W. A. Mann off Japan in 1963. We spent three days in a typhoon, the second day being the worst. I was one of the very few not sea sick. The little I could see of the bow on the second day was alarming. A wave would come over the bow as it dropped into the trough and before it could recover another would hit.

    Not all waves were so kind as to come at us head on---they seemed to come from any direction. From my "duty station" in the "clipper room" of the mess deck I could watch through my porthole the scene change---from angry sea to angry sky interrupted only by the passing of the horizon as we rolled to what felt like 90 degrees at times.

    I spent three days trying to dodge the mess being generated with no control of time nor place by most of the other 5000 poor bastards with me on that dehumanizing journey.
    Last edited by Dave Grubb; 05-24-2019 at 11:07 AM.
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
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  6. #6
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    My father and his ship. USS San Diego



    "The only thing that we learn from torture is the depths of our own moral depravity"

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by TriGuy View Post
    My father and his ship. USS San Diego
    I checked and I don't find any interaction between your Dad's ship and my Uncle's ride, USS APc-48...So they may have crossed paths from time to time, but no mention in the War Diary......Ben
    The future is forged on the anvil of history...The interpreter of history wields the hammer... - Unknown author...

  8. #8
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    Got the ships name wrong, it's the USS Mission San Diego
    "The only thing that we learn from torture is the depths of our own moral depravity"

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    Quote Originally Posted by TriGuy View Post
    Got the ships name wrong, it's the USS Mission San Diego
    I cross-checked that one also...It served during the Pacific War as a maritime tanker, acquired after the war in 1947 by the USN as AO-121...Later returned to MARAD and continued to serve in the maritime until 2001...Quite a history......Ben
    The future is forged on the anvil of history...The interpreter of history wields the hammer... - Unknown author...

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