For you current Navy Fans

[Monica Lewinsky]

This carrier is 90,000 tons. Imagine what this is like on a 2,200 ton destroyer escorting this carrier? The aircraft seen in the video is a helicopter from a deployed helicopter squadron (HS-14) based at the U.S. Naval Air Facility in Atsugi , Japan. The carrier is the USS Kitty Hawk, based in Yokosuka , Japan .

The 'Hawk' was underway for CQ (Air Wing Carrier Qualifications) in the Sea of Japan during the week of March 22, 2008.

The chopper seen on the ship's bow, tied down at Spot 2, is a Sikorsky SH-60F from HS-14. The pilot had just landed on deck, and his helicopter was tied down on Spot 2 because the seas were too rough to move it to a safer place. Fortunately, it only suffered some minor damage and a lot of salt water intrusion from the sea to the electronics.

While viewing the video, please remember that the carrier's flight deck is approximately 60' above the ship's normal water line.

http://learnabit.homeserver.com/lab/USSKittyHawkRoughSeas.wmv

FYI - there is no sound track; just video only.

[RickC Sniper]

DAYAM!

A little rough there :rotfl::rotfl:
Good tie-downs too

[Monica Lewinsky]

Makes you humble a little bit what Mother Nature can Kick Ass out of our modern war machines.

[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.

[Digital_Trucker]

I'll never b!tch that the waves in PE are too high again

[Platapus]

Talk about battening down the hatches. I am surprised the helo did not take a deep bath.

[Frame57]

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.

Remember the "storm of the century"? We were smack dab in that thing. We were at 400 feet and I remember it perfectly because i was in the Conn wondering why in the hell we were rocking and rolling at 400 feet. In about a nano second we actually broached the surface. That is how bad those seas were. Pullled us up like a cork. We brought in more water to get heavier, then went to 800 feet were things were OK.

[Etienne]

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.

I'm not a navy vet, but I'll give it a try:

I highly doubt that they'd be submerged (Usually, submerged ships don't come back up. Submarines go against God's law.), but you could completly lose sight of the ship for a few seconds, maybe a minute, if it's in the through of a wave, and you're in the next one.

Plus, spray plumes (The white stuff) can shoot off a hundred feet in the air, easily. That can make it seem like the ship is under.

The boilers would probably stay lit, I suppose. Is any modern ship still using steam? I'm more familliar with diesel; those can usually take a beating, weather wise.

I've seen it where all we could see were the deck cranes sticking out, and where water'd hit my forward facing porthole on the poop deck. But I can't go into great descriptive details, cause I was sea sick. Delirious, please-kill-me seasick.

[1480]

I was amazed by what I saw, but the one thought that kept going through my mind while watching it was, what company makes those wiper blades, and do they make them for my car ! :hmm:

[JALU3]

Well the Kitty Hawk isn't a 90K ton Nimitz class carrier, more around the 60K dead weight, and 81K loaded. But still . . . those are some pretty nasty waves, and it's no wonder that container ships lose their cargo every once and a while, or that car carriers capsize. Reminds me of the vidoes of the wash over the Lion. I am told that she was built with a leading edge that was better suited for rougher seas. Imagine having to conduct flight operations in those seas!?! Like that footage of the Mitchell's flying off the Hornet during the Doolitle raid.

[Sailor Steve]

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.

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

[Task Force]

Big waves. Just imagine thet on a Container ship.

[UnderseaLcpl]

Originally Posted by Frame57

Remember the "storm of the century"? We were smack dab in that thing. We were at 400 feet and I remember it perfectly because i was in the Conn wondering why in the hell we were rocking and rolling at 400 feet. In about a nano second we actually broached the surface. That is how bad those seas were. Pullled us up like a cork. We brought in more water to get heavier, then went to 800 feet were things were OK.

Fascinating Could you provide some more perspective into the nature of modern submarining (wtf is that a word?)
How can a sub be pulled up 400 feet? Doesn't the strain of such an ascent damage the hull? What was it like in general?

[Frame57]

Originally Posted by UnderseaLcpl

Fascinating Could you provide some more perspective into the nature of modern submarining (wtf is that a word?)
How can a sub be pulled up 400 feet? Doesn't the strain of such an ascent damage the hull? What was it like in general?

The swells were as such to be able to cause us to broach. I cannot explain those kind of tidal forces, but it kind of had a plunger effect on the boat. Our depth meter and cavitation indicators did not malfunction. Definitely not a common event. But the boats are very strong and have "Frames" that give great strength to the hull. Have you ever seen a sub perform an emergency surface? The boat comes halfway out of the water and experiences no hull problem. Bear in mind 400 feet is not really deep. If you stood the boat on its nose the screw would damn near stick out of the water, so you are only about one boat length deep. Once you hit a sea state of 4 or higher, even being at PD can be a nauseating experience. Usually going to 120 feet things begin to settle down. But that storm must have been producing ridiculous waves. I do not even know what sea state to give it. But if you ever run across another Archerfish sailor, chances are they will know of this story.