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Originally Posted by RickC Sniper
I have heard it said that the small destroyers can actually end up completely submerged and then pop back up in a bad storm, but I've never seen any film to back that statement up. Would her boilers stay lit if that happened?
I'm curious what you navy vets have to say about that.
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I was on a WWII leftover destroyer, and only went through one bout of heavy seas, which lasted several days. At the worst the bow would 'go green', dipping under the water all the way to the forward turret. The ship would then pitch back up and shake like a dog drying itself. As the water hit the turret the spray would drench us on the signal bridge where we were watching.
One midwatch it was my turn to empty shredded doc bags. This entailed carrying them from the radio shack to the aft end of the superstructure, then to the fantail to dump them out. Because we were in a running swell the water would come over the aft end as the ship rolled, about knee deep. The procedure was: wait by the portside door to the outside until the ship rolled to starboard, out the door with the bag, dog the door and grab the railing as the ship rolled back to port. On the next starboard roll, run to the fantail and hang on while the ship rolled to starboard again and water swirled around the knees. On the next roll dump the bag and hang on again, then reverse the procedure until you were safely back inside. Four bags, four trips.
But no, I never saw the ship actually duck under water to the bridge level, and I've never heard of it happening. During the war, however, there was a typhoon that sank three destroyers. Herman Wouk wrote a frightning account of it in
The Caine Mutiny. The storm is the centerpiece of the book and movie, but the film can hardly to it justice.
This sight describes the storm and has a photo of one of the DDs that survived...barely.
http://www.desausa.org/typhoon_of_1944.htm