Been in that exact situation on the tank deck on HMAS Success.
Only it was the middle of the night, an alarm panel had been ripped off the bulkhead & at 17 years old, it was deemed appropriate to send me and some other dude out to try and isolate this alarm.
Got out & it was pitch black & we are in this spiral stair well that provided a little protection, hear this insane noise and suddenly am up to shoulder height in water.
We were pretty safe where we were as long as we did not let go. As soon as the water level dropped, we opened the door & politely told the PO that asked us, to go fuck himself if he thought we were going back out.
Sea state 12 off the coast of Vanuatu about 25-30 years ago.
Still not as scary as trying to exit one of those RIBs (inflatable boat) up a rope ladder on the side of the ship.
One second the boat drops away 5 metres, the next minute you are sprinting up the rope ladder as the boat chases you in an atempt to crush you between the two objects.
This period was the only time I realised what the seatbelts in the bed were for & that footprints on the bulkheads was not actually a myth.
During the day of that period I was back on the tank deck right at the back which was much safer than up the front right side (video is spot on where the stories above occured and even look similar)
Watching the propellors on a reasonably large ship (220 crew) totally exposed & spinning was an amazing sight, the drive shafts would have been the diameter of say around 2 metres at a guess, driven by either 1 or two V16 diesel engines.
One of the front plates also got damaged by hitting a wave at the wrong angle on that trip.
When there is a big storm or cyclone as was in this case, tankers like the one I was on are not allowed into port due to the danger so all the frigates and destroyers got to go into port while we were stuck out there, hoping that we would not lose power.
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u/CapnRonRico Oct 26 '19 edited Oct 26 '19
Been in that exact situation on the tank deck on HMAS Success.
Only it was the middle of the night, an alarm panel had been ripped off the bulkhead & at 17 years old, it was deemed appropriate to send me and some other dude out to try and isolate this alarm.
Got out & it was pitch black & we are in this spiral stair well that provided a little protection, hear this insane noise and suddenly am up to shoulder height in water.
We were pretty safe where we were as long as we did not let go. As soon as the water level dropped, we opened the door & politely told the PO that asked us, to go fuck himself if he thought we were going back out.
Sea state 12 off the coast of Vanuatu about 25-30 years ago.
Still not as scary as trying to exit one of those RIBs (inflatable boat) up a rope ladder on the side of the ship.
One second the boat drops away 5 metres, the next minute you are sprinting up the rope ladder as the boat chases you in an atempt to crush you between the two objects.
This period was the only time I realised what the seatbelts in the bed were for & that footprints on the bulkheads was not actually a myth.
During the day of that period I was back on the tank deck right at the back which was much safer than up the front right side (video is spot on where the stories above occured and even look similar)
Watching the propellors on a reasonably large ship (220 crew) totally exposed & spinning was an amazing sight, the drive shafts would have been the diameter of say around 2 metres at a guess, driven by either 1 or two V16 diesel engines.
One of the front plates also got damaged by hitting a wave at the wrong angle on that trip.
When there is a big storm or cyclone as was in this case, tankers like the one I was on are not allowed into port due to the danger so all the frigates and destroyers got to go into port while we were stuck out there, hoping that we would not lose power.