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Storms at Sea World Naval Ships Forums Archive

Storms at Sea

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On the 21st of December 1989, French photographer Jean Guichard - a specialist in photographing lighthouses - approached La Jument lighthouse off the Western coast of Brittany during a great storm. The keepers had been sheltering in the lantern room, and fearing the 1911 lighthouse - built on a rock 300 yards off Ushant Island - was about to be destroyed, had called for help. Hearing Guichard's helicopter approach, and thinking this was the rescue, keeper Theodore Malgorne stepped out of a door at the base, and stood watching, his hands casually in his pockets as a vast wave engulfed the lighthouse from behind him. The seven frames that Guichard managed to snap off at that moment almost instantly became world famous, perhaps the most famous lighthouse photographs of all time. And Malgorne? He managed to turn around and slam the door in time, escaping unharmed. The lighthouse, it follows, and I'm glad to say also survived. Extreme weather shots are always appealing, and I'm adding several more here, mainly of the big storm that hit Britain and France in March last year. Of course this is a ball of string, but always glad to see more. P.S. FYI, Melbourne is in the midst of an historic heatwave as I post this, and expecting 44C+ (about 112-115F I think) later today. Is it just me, or are the extreme weather events becoming much more frequent. Many scientists say so.
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Just to give a naval dimension to this thread: On December 18 1944 the USN Task Force 38 was hit by a typhoon off the Philippines with three destroyers capsized and sunk, 28 ships damaged and 790 lives lost. The same task force was struck by a small but intense typhoon off Okinawa on June 5, 1945, with 36 ships damaged, including the carriers [I]Hornet[/I] and [I]Bennington[/I], while the cruiser USS [I]Pittsburgh[/I] lost 104ft of her bow, later recovered (pics below). The destroyer USS [I]Warrington[/I] also sank during a hurricane in the Bahamas in 1944 with heavy loss of life. At the time one of the US Navy chiefs said no modern warship should be lost to weather, but water had got into the Warrington's engineering spaces killing her engines - thus leaving her helpless in the hurricane. And the following year, the typhoons in the Pacific showed that nature remained bigger, even than the U.S. Navy. Here is a link listing all United States naval ships lost to severe weather in its history. [url]http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq102-2.htm[/url] On October 15-16 1951, during the Korean War many ships of the United Nations forces were damaged by Hurricane Ruth , including HMS [I]Belfast[/I] (carley floats and stanchion lost) and HMS [I]Unicorn[/I], a number of USN ships (I don't have the details), and most notably the Australian carrier HMAS [I]Sydney[/I], which appears to have hit the worst of the storm. [I]Sydney[/I] lost a firefly aircraft overboard, and had five others damaged beyond repair when their undercarriages collapsed and deck fixings came adrift. The ship also suffered fires in her electrical circuits which caused smoke to get into her ventilation systems. Minor injuries to personnel only (pics below).
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I've always found storms at sea most exciting and pictures of them fantastic. But I've never seen any as great as those lighthouse ones. Quite awesome - and I use the word with its correct meaning. To be on a ship in a giant storm must be an extraordinary experience. I've often marvelled at descriptions of ships sailing around the Horn. I recall one ship actually turned beam over beam in one storm. Then there was that terrible Sydney Hobart race when so many lives were lost. And a Fastnet some years ago as well. Hang in there K. At least a few have read this interesting thread. Perhaps one of them will deign to reply.

Have a LARGE, FRAMED version of your first pic, Kook, on my living room wall !! It's superb !!!!!!

[quote=kookaburra;36092] Is it just me, or are the extreme weather events becoming much more frequent. Many scientists say so.[/quote] It is just you. Many scientists say that extreme weather events are not more frequent. Bear in mind that there is a great deal more reporting of events than there used to be. For instance, I can still remember extreme weather in Melbourne in my youth. Just as hot and frequent as it is today. Perhaps this isn't the place to raise the great global warming lie.

One of the truest rhymes I ever heard ... [I]Red sky at night Sailors delight Red sky in the morning Sailor take warning[/I] I abided by it always... Below, a couple of my own pics from a small boat off Bruny Island on the southern tip of Tasmania last March, and same area an hour earlier (it was not a storm really, just some swells, but the pics of this magificent but very changeable coastline just appeal to me). But first, HMAS [I]Melbourne[/I] also experienced some ups and downs from the Southern Ocean rolling into the Great Australian Bight. EDIT: But ...here's a link to some more TRULY spectacular lighthouse/storm photos from Cornwall ...do take some time to look at them, you'll be rewarded. [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/7247833@N04/2328199509[/url]
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The rhyme often has shepherds instead of sailors. But why not? Both have an avid interest in the weather. It's a very old saying. This from the Wycliffe bible: "[I]The eeuenynge maad, ye seien, It shal be cleer, for the heuene is lijk to reed; and the morwe, To day tempest, for heuen shyneth heuy, or sorwful.[/I]" It also appears in Shakespeare (doesn't nearly everything :)) "[I]Like a red morn, that ever yet betoken'd wreck to the seaman - sorrow to shepherds[/I]." ([I]Venus & Adonis)[/I] There is reason to put some reliance on the saying. Which is more than can be said for many others, like: St Swithin's Day, if it does rain Full forty days, it will remain St Swithin's Day, if it be fair For forty days, t'will rain no more St Swithin's Day is the 15th July. It's worth considering that Weather Bureau people still have major difficulties forecasting weather.

Thanks for that erudite expansion on the rhyme Herk. In view of your comments on La Jument, I just want to make sure you didn't miss the further truly spectacular lighthouse photos that I edited in as a link later to my previous post. Here it is again here : look at the whole series [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/7247833@N04/2328199509[/url] My interest in the Cornish coast is that it's where my forebears came from, a mix of miners, fishermen and seamen. I don't have a complete genealogy but I put up that court hearing link in an early Australia section post on the Chief mate of the brig [I]Elizabeth[/I] who died in a pistol duel on Garden Island in 1826. In the 19thC another was a RN surgeon, another a quartermaster on HMS Sealark who died and was buried on Ascension Island; another was the captain of a pilot boat in Devon, and another the superintendent of the HM dockyard at Plymouth. Most however were miners and mining captains (superintendents). It's a very small clan, but when the Cornish tin began to play out in the 19C, or the tin found in Malaya proved cheaper to access, they spread to every corner of the globe, wherever there was mining - from remote deserts of Bolivia to South Africa and Australia. Many of their lives ended rather tragically, reducing our numbers even further. The storms of life, eh?

They are astonishing photos indeed! Thanks for the link. Cornwall eh? That's next to England I think. :rolleyes: Mine are from nearby Devon. All sailors. There's even a street named after us in Brixham. And the Common was once our family's. Been there for as long as I've traced back - hundreds of years. Grandfather played a very important part in the ship building for WW1. Hard to trace too far as so many records were lost in the bombings. Storms of life - yes!

just adding that as I was posting these today, the temperature in Melbourne just after 3pm, with a high North wind, was ... [B]46.4 degrees Celsius = 115.52 degrees Fahrenheit[/B] It's not the hottest weather I've ever experienced, which was 120F in Deseret California in 1995 (I've got an old front page from the[I] Deseret News [/I]about that somewhere), and also felt something like it in various parts of the sub-continent and Australian outback, where temps sometimes exceed 50C. But with the ground multiplier effects in a city of almost 4m, let me tell you the impact of this in Melbourne is astonishing. I need a cool hit before I dash out with some more water for my poor, poor plants (I've promised the hydrangeas I'll stand by them). Anyway, here we go - Aegis missile cruiser USS [I]Lake Champlain [/I]in the Atlantic:
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And now as I type, I'm listening to reports of many bushfires in Victoria. And Ingham in Queensland has had 870 mm of rain!

And now, at 5pm - in what those familiar with Melbourne's famous changeability will recognise, a 'southerly buster' has hit, and it looks like we're in for a major [B]STORM[/B]. Should be good. Unfortunately I lost my camera a couple of months ago.

[B]Fires:[/B] 6.35pm: I am going to sign off the storm thread now, as the extent of the bushfires crisis becomes gradually apparent, and the incongruity here is no longer appropriate. Essentially vast areas of the State are on fire, as it was on Ash Wednesday in 1983 and Black Friday in 1939, but the heat today has exceeded all records. The temperature at Avalon Airport just outside Melbourne, was ... [B]47.9C = 118.2F [/B] Many homes have been lost, and first reports are beginning to come in of people missing. In heavily forested Gippsland, (Southeastern Victoria- a heavily forested State ) the southerly change will only have the effect of turning a huge fire there into new forest areas, and fire service spokesmen say the towns of Drouin, Warragul, Neerim and Neerim South could be threatened. There are huge resouces being sent there, however, and hopefully they will be okay. If interested, please just monitor news bulletins for further info. Like California, these things get very big here. In 1983, the Ash Wednesday fires, there was ash falling on New Zealand from Victoria. K.

I've just listened to the ABC news. It's all very bad. Thankfully not as bad as Ash Wednesday though.

Here's a couple of well worn old pix of the Arry in roughers in the Med 1972. Dave
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Hi K Just for your interest, the Cornish, or to be PC - Cornwall, pics in your first post are Sennen and Porthleven respectively. And for Herks, as I expect you remember, Cornwall serves one very useful purpose, it stops Devon being washed away........!! Mik

Just another day at the office, Here's good photo's. Regards CGRET
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Kookaburra, thanks for the pictures of the lighthouses and particularly the explanation behind the La Jument picture with the keeper standing in the door. I always wondered what he was doing standing there. Now I know. An amazing scene. I always fancied being a lighthouse keeper, but perhaps not there !! regards Vivian

Hi Dave Are the pics of Victory taken at the USCG 'school' for boat handling? Mik

Mik, Yes indeed. Very nice shot's of these classic's in action. [ATTACH]34327[/ATTACH] Unknown as far as name goes, But a good shot of the ship at sea. Regards CGRET
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I travelled to UK in January 1965 and in the South China Sea we went into a hurricane and spent 4 and a half days in it. Water was being shipped on the bridge, 60 feet above the waterline! Most of the waiters were hors de combat. I think I'd rather face an Atlantic gale than go through that again! Ian :(

I to have had some nasty day's at sea. The Bering Sea, South China Sea, Pacific ocean. By far the worse storm was in the Bering Sea. The storm's in that part of the world tend to come out of the blue. On one trip the ship ran bow on into storm that with in 1 hour the swells were 35ft to 40ft with 3 to 6 ft seas on top. The winds were calm then peaked at 70 to75 miles per hour. The Commanding Officer after awhile decided he had enough of this and decided to make for shelter. In trying to make shelter in Dutch Harbor, Ak we had to quarter the seas for a short period. That put the ship at a 15 degree list to oneside. We also we shipping water off of the bridge as well both mast. The air search(SPS-40) was secured earlier in the day. Shortly after making shelter the crew was called out to break ice of the ship's weather decks and part of the superstructure. Those were long day's of ice,snow,wind and just flat out COLD!

Ian I wouldn't be to quick to jump for an Atlantic Gale!! Been through two official hurricanes with waves 50foot plus and screaming winds 80 knots plus, and countless infamous 'deep Atlantic Depressions' mentioned on the BBC Shipping Forecast which were just as bad!! Made releasing a large met balloon off the backend when the deck was 6 foot above sea level on a calm day interesting!! The only saving grace of Severe Gale Force 9 and upwards was that the waves might be enormous but the wave length was long enough that the ship stayed dry, it might roll like a pig but at least it was a dry one!!!! I'm sure CGRET will agree with me on that one!! Mik

Mik, I would agree with you. Regards CGRET

Here is one of the USS Essex, USS North Carolina, [ATTACH]35063[/ATTACH][ATTACH]35064[/ATTACH] Regards Charles
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Ship's in sea storms, [ATTACH]37364[/ATTACH] Bouy Tender in rough seas Regards Charles
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I'll have to dig out pics from the May 2009 storms in Surfers Paradise...That was a great initiation for a Canadian Boy expecting 10 days of sun and beach. When we left the beach was gone, just gone...

KOOKABURRA. I believe that the typhoon you refer to in December 1944 was used by Herman Wouk in his famous story of USN destroyer life [B]'The Caine Mutiny'[/B], to depict the typhoon where Captain Queeg upset his crew enough for them to remove him from his command. This typhoon was vividly described in one of my favourite books of naval life. This video gives depth to your lighthouse waves! - [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJBVyNHkqZ0[/url] Who wants to keep a lighthouse now? Angus.

[QUOTE=Seagull;111943]You've probably seen this website: [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cruel_Sea_(novel[/url]) Does the sea on the cover of the book look cruel enough? Where are the huge waves and ocean abysses? Any artists out there to take up the challenge? Seagull[/QUOTE] Seagull, Some where else on this forum we have covered enormous waves and the cruel sea - not sure where. The difficulty at sea is the perspective - you see an enormous cruel wave towering over your ship but trying to photograph it accurately is difficult. I took some pictures of huge seas we encountered out in the Atlantic and some of them towered over the top of our frigate - quite a frightening experience - certainly teaches one respect for the sea.
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Invincible, these are fascinating photographs! Thank you for posting them. Any more? Or is this too far off the mark for this thread? Would anyone be interested in a 'Photographs of the Cruel Sea' thread! Seagull

[QUOTE=Seagull;111979]Invincible, these are fascinating photographs! Thank you for posting them. Any more? Or is this too far off the mark for this thread? Would anyone be interested in a 'Photographs of the Cruel Sea' thread! Seagull[/QUOTE] Seagull, Thank you - I suspect you are probably right that this is way off the thread. Nevertheless below is another of my photos and two others I have but did not take (I think I posted the last two somewhere else in the forum but am not sure where). There is a thread on freak weather but I don't think that covered waves.
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Guys if you wish to start a Rough seas thread in either Shore Leave or even Everything Else then I will transfer the pictures from here. It is a tad off topic for the Naval ficton thread even taking into account "The Cruel Sea" which was not really related to rough or stormy seas!

Most of us have encountered heavy and frightenening seas at some time or other during our time at sea. Some areas such as the Agulhas current or off Cape Horn have produced spectacular waves. When in company it has been possible to see other ships lifting right out of the water. This topic has cropped up in various threads but I wonder if anybody has managed to capture any good photos of ships in heavy seas?
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[QUOTE=astraltrader;112006]Guys if you wish to start a Rough seas thread in either Shore Leave or even Everything Else then I will transfer the pictures from here. It is a tad off topic for the Naval ficton thread even taking into account "The Cruel Sea" which was not really related to rough or stormy seas![/QUOTE] Terry, Many thanks - agree - you are absolutely right. Have opened a thread under 'Shore Leave'. Must now hunt for some good pictures.

Well done. I have moved all the old posts from the naval fiction thread over to here and as well promoted the thread to "Everything Else" as there is both a serious and a naval side to your pictures.

G'day,there was a KING SIZE GOFFERS thread which seems to have been swept away !

[QUOTE=berry;112067]G'day,there was a KING SIZE GOFFERS thread which seems to have been swept away ![/QUOTE] Berry, King Size Goffers are still available from the goffer machine in the canteen flat, outside the NAAFI shop!!!! However if size is important, suggest you muster back aft in the sickbay flat:) Look out though INVINCIBLE is searching for more of his goodly goffer pics. It should have been a standing order that the ships phot' was on call during roughers/ruffers... purpose - big goffers, pic taking, safety harness wearing, for the use of!! Little h

Little h, size is always important,goffers,roughers whatever......... we can handle it all, regards Sid

There are some great pictures of the LEANDERS in rough seas. The design of their hulls made them such good sea keeping ships in rough weather. Some members of the forum must have some of thse pictures. Here are some old and rather poor quality of other ships: LEWISTON, a battleship, BLAKE, an old DARING, an old battleship. Don't know which the battleships are.
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Re Lewiston, if the pic was taken between Dec 69 and Mar 72, I was onboard!!! If not, been in that situation many times, North Sea and Biscay. Jack.

HMS ARETHUSA in roughers
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Some gut-wrenching photographs! The winner for me so far is the third photo on post No 3. Thanks everyone. Keep them coming. Seagull

[QUOTE=JackW1208;112121]Re Lewiston, if the pic was taken between Dec 69 and Mar 72, I was onboard!!! If not, been in that situation many times, North Sea and Biscay. Jack.[/QUOTE] Jack, The picture was taken in January 1969 in the North Sea, so presumably you would have been onboard LEWISTON at the time. Nine Ton class sailed from Port Edgar (HMS LOCHINVAR) to Hamburg. The story ges that almost all were sea sick when the squadron ran into a force ten at 12 knot! Will not ask whether you held on to the contents of your......Not many people were fit enough to take happy snaps.

[QUOTE=tonclass;112122]HMS ARETHUSA in roughers[/QUOTE] Rik, Great pictures of ARETHUSA! I like the third picture, which shows the bows coming right out of the water. I have seen other pictures of LEANDERS in similar dramatic poses.

[QUOTE=Seagull;112124]Some gut-wrenching photographs! The winner for me so far is the third photo on post No 3. Thanks everyone. Keep them coming. Seagull[/QUOTE] Seagull, Thank you. Did you recognise the unmistakable ship silhouetted in the trough of the waves?

Here are a few pictures of Warships taken in very stormy seas. The first two are quite well known shots of Scorpion taken in 1954. The third one is the carrier Eagle taken again in 1954. Picture 4 is a poor quality picture of Olna AGAIN from 1954 - what is it with that year?!! Picture 5 shows Cavalier roughing it - apologies again for a less than satisfactory quality.
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I just knew there was a GOOD reason I was a[COLOR="darkgreen"] Marine[/COLOR]...who stayed on dry land!!! DFO :eek::D:D OTOH, my wife and I joined Coastie friends for a cruise in 1969 on the old Minnetonka from LA out to Catalina Island: I enjoyed the ride (mostly standing on the deck above the bridg), she turned...shall we say, [COLOR="DarkGreen"]GREEN [/COLOR]and seas were maybe a 4-5' chop!!! :D

Re Invincible's post 17. Picture 3 of post 3 looks like VANGUARD. Pleased I wasn't onboard at the time. Regards.......... Paul

[QUOTE=astraltrader;112137]Here are a few pictures of Warships taken in very stormy seas. The first two are quite well known shots of Scorpion taken in 1954. The third one is the carrier Eagle taken again in 1954. Picture 4 is a poor quality picture of Olna AGAIN from 1954 - what is it with that year?!! Picture 5 shows Cavalier roughing it - apologies again for a less than satisfactory quality. Finally a shot of the USN destroyer Paul.F.Foster.[/QUOTE] Terry, Great pictures. I think the first four were taken in the North Atlantic, during the major NATO Exercise MARINER in September 1953. The ships ran into a terrible storm and many sustained considerable damage.

[QUOTE=Powers;112183]Re Invincible's post 17. Picture 3 of post 3 looks like VANGUARD. Pleased I wasn't onboard at the time. Regards.......... Paul[/QUOTE] Paul, Absolutely right, unmistakably VANGUARD. Ships in harbour can also be subject to a bit of roughers as shown by this shot of Devonport.
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