Any of you ever been on a large Navy vessel in a hurricane?

[ABNAK]

My BIL was on the Teddy Roosevelt during Hurricane Hugo; they put out to sea into it because they apparently don't want ships smashed against the docks during a storm. He said damn near everybody got sick. As he explained it if you were topside you could at least orient to the horizon and it wasn't as bad, but below decks you had no orientation so your whole world was rolling from side to side non-stop. Vomit city! He mentioned something about the "pussy patch" (Dramamine) you put behind your ear to combat motion-sickness. Since you were considered a "pussy" (hence the name) if you needed one people resisted as long as they could but he said eventually everybody asked for one they were so damn sick!

Nope, fvck that. I bag on Squids my fair share but you can have that crap!

[Delta-3]

My dad (an old sailor) said he's been through quite a few hurricanes. He didn't ever see an issue with them as the Captain would just give the dive order & they would sail underneath them. Submariners have quirky sense of humor.

[just a scout]

Submariners have quirky sense of humor.

No. Bubbleheads aren’t quirky, they’re just broke in the head.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[One More Time]

Not a hurricane but I did the North Atlantic all the way up in the winter on a carrier.
It fared better than the smaller ships I thought.
More of a slow roll, you just looked down at your feet when going down the passage way and follow the footsteps on the bulkheads.
Looking ahead was weird walking on the walls.

Only time I had to strap into my rack to keep from getting tossed out of it.
Our berthing was all the way forward at the bow, right under the flight deck.
Hearing prepare to turn into the wave over the 1MC and you just lay there and ride it out.
You feel the ship crest the top and just hang there for a bit then it all comes crashing down.
On deck it's either all sky or a wall of water.

Flight OPs was pretty nuts, more than a few damaged planes.
I was on deck at night when an E-2 slid into another and sliced the wing off with the prop.
FOD walkdown forever, that shit went everywhere.
Got to do all that with 1950's winter gear that was pretty inadequate.

As soon as we hit Norfolk I got flown to San Diego with a couple of jets to ride the Constellation around the horn to Pennsylvania for dry dock so got to see both ends of the globe in a couple of months.
We got the current winter gear for that one.

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

What kind of duty schedule would you be on during a hurricane? I just assume that some tasks are impossible? I assume leadership positions like deck, watches, and stuff are even worse, because of the greater activity, and inability to sleep very well.

[flenna]

I remember my father telling me he went through a typhoon on an LST that was so bad it ripped the dock doors off. All the Marines strapped themselves into their bunks until it was over. He said it was just wall to wall puke by the time they got through it.

[hotrodder636]

Not sure it was a full blown hurricane but I definitely went through a tropical storm at minimum. We had waves crashing onto the flighdeck. Standing in the back of the hangar bay, you could literally see the ship twist. Outside it you would see only sky or only water. I just went down in the power plant I worked in—under the waterline, pretty much midship. It helped minimize the movement. Pretty wild though. So many people got sick.

[ABNAK]

Not sure it was a full blown hurricane but I definitely went through a tropical storm at minimum. We had waves crashing onto the flighdeck. Standing in the back of the hangar bay, you could literally see the ship twist. Outside it you would see only sky or only water. I just went down in the power plant I worked in—under the waterline, pretty much midship. It helped minimize the movement. Pretty wild though. So many people got sick.

I'll bet the chow lines were short!

[dwhitehorne]

I was on a UNITAS float on a LST in the summer/fall of 1989. Fortunately we were well south of Hugo when it went through but still were in general quarters for a day or so. Leaving Rosy roads in December heading back to Morehead city we went straight through a tropical storm. General quarters again and we were confined to the racks. I couple guys got broken arms and stuff from falling/getting tossed around. Flat bottom LST's were quite violent crashing into the waves. Of course we snuck up to the breezeway to look out one of the hatches. I saw the light on the top of the bow ramp (about 100 feet up) go completely under water. Seawater came crashing into the hatch we were leaning out of. We spent hours drying up the water and shining all the brass pipes that got wet. I was every shade of green for a couple of days. Diesel fumes, a rocking boat and BO from 100 confined Marines is quite unpleasant. David

[glocktogo]

I remember my father telling me he went through a typhoon on an LST that was so bad it ripped the dock doors off. All the Marines strapped themselves into their bunks until it was over. He said it was just wall to wall puke by the time they got through it.

I was on the Saipan (flat top helo carrier) during a blow in the North Atlantic. I remember looking out and watching the LST that was with us crash into the waves so hard, at times 3/4 of the ship would disappear in the spray. I was like “Nope! **** that!” I felt really bad for them, but not enough to trade places! :bad:

[teufelhund1918]

I was on the Saipan (flat top helo carrier) during a blow in the North Atlantic. I remember looking out and watching the LST that was with us crash into the waves so hard, at times 3/4 of the ship would disappear in the spray. I was like “Nope! **** that!” I felt really bad for them, but not enough to trade places! :bad:

I was on LHA-4 Nassau for a med cruise back in 1988. We hit a few big storms. I saw the same things with the LPD's(???), little skinny pencil like ships. They would hit a big wave... go right up it and hang up there... then back down with the screws coming out of the water a few times and the front of the ship down into the water. It was crazy. You could watch a wave roll the flight deck as the Nassau went over it. Walking through the ship a couple of times, you would walk on the floor and then have to half walk on the floor/wall, walk on the floor, then on the same on the other side. Once we had to strap ourselves into our bunks to keep from rolling out while we slept. At the end of the cruise, there was a 35-40 crack in the island superstructure due to the storms. They are designed to break free from the rest of the ship if it hits a certain number of degrees in a roll to prevent capsizing. Quite an interesting time.

[teufelhund1918]

I was on the Saipan (flat top helo carrier) during a blow in the North Atlantic. I remember looking out and watching the LST that was with us crash into the waves so hard, at times 3/4 of the ship would disappear in the spray. I was like “Nope! **** that!” I felt really bad for them, but not enough to trade places! :bad:

dang double tap...

[Hank6046]

I was maybe 100 miles outside of Guam on the 13th MEU in 2011 (USS Boxer) when the earthquake and Tsunami happened that caused Fukushima, one of the LT Col's wives started posting on Facebook page for military spouse's that everyone on board was probably dead, and she hysterical. We ended up in Guam for a day getting ready to go rescue people in a radioactive environment, but Japan's own 31st MEU ended up taking the task. We stayed in Guam the rest of the weekend, and they let us call our families letting them know we weren't dead.

[chuckman]

I was never haze gray and underway as ship's company, aside from a couple MEU floats, no real time at sea, and those were pretty benign. I did fly aboard the Ike once to teach a class for a few days. I was scheduled to teach again on the JFK in Sept 1999 when it was in its homeport in Jacksonville, Florida, but got leave for a vacation with my wife (then fiancé). While I was in Cape Cod with her Hurricane Floyd hit and the Kennedy put to sea to ride it out.

I talked with a colleague who was aboard the JFK during that time, one of the guys with whom I was supposed to teach, and he said the roll got so bad there were footprints on the bulkhead. He said it was a miserable experience and he had never been so sick, and this guy WAS a professional sailor, a SWO who had spent 15 years aboard destroyers.

[Diamondback]

Reading these give me a whole new appreciation for the men who had to face Typhoon Cobra with Halsey near the end of WWII, even more those who faced them in the "wooden shops and iron men" days.

[T2C]

I was stationed on a 22,000-ton vessel in 1982 when we sailed through Hurricane Debby. It was one hell of a ride and we had a bit of damage. The good part about it was that the chow line was short, and you could get seconds.

[chuckman]

Reading these give me a whole new appreciation for the men who had to face Typhoon Cobra with Halsey near the end of WWII, even more those who faced them in the "wooden shops and iron men" days.

Last week I watched a show on PBS about the strongest hurricane, ever, 1780. Historians and meteorologists have gathered all sorts of info and data to paint a picture of what that looked like. I can't imagine being at sea when it was a little breezy, a little choppy, then a few hours later looking at 50' seas and 200 mph wind.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Hurricane_of_1780

[Diamondback]

Out at sea under sail, I'd expect those winds to snap mainmasts like toothpicks. Consider that a mainmast is basically a dressed and smoothed entire TREE TRUNK...

[T2C]

I was never haze gray and underway as ship's company, aside from a couple MEU floats, no real time at sea, and those were pretty benign. I did fly aboard the Ike once to teach a class for a few days. I was scheduled to teach again on the JFK in Sept 1999 when it was in its homeport in Jacksonville, Florida, but got leave for a vacation with my wife (then fiancé). While I was in Cape Cod with her Hurricane Floyd hit and the Kennedy put to sea to ride it out.

I talked with a colleague who was aboard the JFK during that time, one of the guys with whom I was supposed to teach, and he said the roll got so bad there were footprints on the bulkhead. He said it was a miserable experience and he had never been so sick, and this guy WAS a professional sailor, a SWO who had spent 15 years aboard destroyers.

I have been through a few storms where you see footprints on the bulkhead above the handrail. It's a wild ride.