Huge waves

if im surfaced and in a big swell doing 10 knots and sometimes the sea is higher than the tower - can the sub be flooded and the men washed overboard?

thanks

U57 - battling through Scapa Flow in a storm

[Einzelganger]

It won't happen. Apparently it's a hard coded thing in the game which can't be changed.

So your watch crew will happily take the plunge, so to speak.

[seafarer]

Well, the sub would not flood anyway. Only the Canadian Navy is foolish enough to cruise on the surface with the conning tower hatches wide open

[captain Guitar]

UCGeek --

My boys are often gasping for air, given the intensity of the storms that my boat routinely finds itself in the middle of. But they always manage to pull through!

I know there was one incident of a U-Boat's entire watch crew being washed overboard during extremely heavy seas. No one belowdecks knew ... the boat just sailed along for hours until someone -- the next watch perhaps? -- went up and realized that there was no one on the conning tower. Anyone else recall the number of that boat?

Captain Guitar

[seafarer]

I don't see any such loss on the uboat.net pages, but I was skimming quickly:

http://uboat.net/men/men_lost-1944.htm

<cut>?

Ooops, I needed to slow down - U106, 23rd Oct., 1941

An incredibly sad event befell U-106 on this date. When the replacement watch opened the tower hatch in rough seas they found out that the entire previous tower watch of 4 men had been washed overboard. [Oberleutnant zur See Werner Grüneberg, Fähnrich zur See Herbert von Bruchhausen, Oberbootsmannmaat Karl Heemann, Matrose Ewald Brühl]

There's also a LOT of busted arms mentioned!

[captain Guitar]

That's the one I was thinking of -- thanks Seafarer! I recalled reading about it in Blair's books, but I couldn't remember the details. Or rather, apparently I remembered everything pretty well except the specific boat.

That must have been quite a feeling, being one of the replacement watch and finding that your conning tower had turned into the Marie Celeste. I'm fairly ignorant on war-era U-Boat procedures, but would it have been normal practice for the watch crew to strap in somehow in heavy seas?

[Jimbuna]

http://uboat.net/boats/u106.htm

[Sailor Steve]

Yes, it was possible for the watch crew to be washed overboard in heavier seas. Later on they carried safety straps, and if it got bad enough they would dive.

As for flooding, in a sea that heavy they would keep the hatch closed, which is why in that case no-one knew what had happened until it was far too late.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by seafarer

Well, the sub would not flood anyway. Only the Canadian Navy is foolish enough to cruise on the surface with the conning tower hatches wide open

Never knew that

Who would credit it in the 21st century :hmm:

thanks for help - coats and hats all round then!!!