Very true Joe,some how didn`t matter how far she went over in heavy weather you always felt she would come back. Brian W
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Very true Joe,some how didn`t matter how far she went over in heavy weather you always felt she would come back. Brian W
There was and is a rough way of calculating a vessels GM was by counting the seconds from the upright position and the port and starboard list and back to the upright position and dividing by a certain number, which would have to go back to sea and ask someone that is if anyone still knew. If the ship didn't come back upright tuff titty and you had a negative GM and were likely to go over. At the Inquiry no-one would be any the wiser, so the mate could sleep comfortably in his coffin, that's if his body was ever recovered. Nowadays this question of stability I believe is done shoresides by people who have fortunes to make, I would rather see ships personnel trained properly how to safeguard the ship and themselves. JWS
Speaking with a mater of mine who works the cranes in port Melbourne.
As he tells me all is done now by computer, and with the new cranes, they can now also be worked from an office by one guy controlling as many as six at a time.
The number of men now working the cranes is going down though with some ships because of size the auto cranes cannot be used.
Last week a ship came into port, has been seen before, with barbed wire all around the rails and half a dozen manequins at the stern.
You wouldn't catch me on the deck of a heaving and rolling deck of an offshore supply vessel with some goon driving a crane back loading drill pipe or casing. From 100 miles away in some office. Maybe they should concentrate more on little robots with steel hats on, to hook on and off. Maybe less lives lost. Cheers JWS
In 57 we were caught up in Hurricane Carrie we had broken down and was struggling on one engine, we had picked up
the distress call from the Pamir but unable to respond as we were in trouble ourselves. There was five of us in the mess
sitting at the table, two each side and one at the end, the ship was already being thrown about a bit and taking a battering
when she suddenly lifted and lurched to starboard, she rolled and just kept going, the two on the port side of the table ended
up laying across the table and the rest of us ended up on the deck, the mess door opened out onto the deck and had a worn
handle that was tricky to open, one of the lads panicked and struggled to open the door when the ship started her return roll
but thankfully couldn't open it, as she rolled back the sea came half way up the mess porthole, so who knows what may
have happened if the door had opened. Cheers John F
This says it all.........................
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https://youtu.be/kcHyyuGjuk0
Brian