Assisting ships in distress

Regarding your Posting Des. Don;t wish to criticise,.Have no doubt of your accuracy, regarding the conditions ,you describe .
Though to set the record straight . The worse conditions ,endured , by that Gracious Liner, Happened to be in Summer of 1956

Arriving Sot'on One day late. She then went to the Dry Dock .to effect repairs. One of the jobs required was to replace the Window in the Crows Nest.
Much higher than the Wheelhouse windows. Believe the Lookout had quite a scare , to put it mildly'

Incidentally the Voyage , almost didn't take place, As the Queen Mother was travelling to N.Y. And Cunard ,in their wisdom , decided the Commodore Captain Should take Command. The Crew ,strongly objected. Being in favour , of it's then regular Captain . the late Donalld Sorrel.

It wasd ,touch and Go . one may say.



Anyhow . the Companies wishes obtained.

The most famous weather/rogue wave incident happened to this vessel during wartime.

In December 1942, Queen Mary was carrying 16,082 American troops from New York to Great Britain, a standing record for the most passengers ever transported on one vessel. While 700 miles (1,100 km) from Scotland during a gale, she was suddenly hit broadside by a rogue wave that may have reached a height of 28 metres (92 ft).
An account of this crossing can be found in Walter Ford Carter's book, No Greater Sacrifice, No Greater Love. Carter's father, Dr. Norval Carter, part of the 110th Station Hospital on board at the time, wrote that at one point Queen Mary "damned near capsized... One moment the top deck was at its usual height and then, swoom! Down, over, and forward she would pitch." It was calculated later that the ship tilted 52 degrees, and would have capsized had she rolled another 3 degrees. The incident inspired Paul Gallico to write his story, The Poseidon Adventure, which was later made into a film by the same name, in which Queen Mary depicted the Poseidon.

1942 was an 'annus horribilis' for the majestic Queen,because just 2 months earlier on 2nd October she collided with one of her escort cruisers HMS Curacao whilst zig-zagging in the North Channel,approaching the Clyde . A shockingly high 338 crew on the cruiser lost their lives.(101 survived) After the war,she was held to blame in the proportion of one-third for the accident,against the Admiralty's two-thirds....

Hi Evan.
Thanks for that. Old mans memmories, I was meaning to show an example of wave height, similar to what we were going through, and why we didn't have a chance of helping the poor lads on that ship.
Cheers Des

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Appreciate your reply Des.
Incidents as you describe .were Quite common in that area. Did the odd trip or two across there,Paper Pulp ,down below ,Pit wood on Deck.

Get over there ,just as the ,ice was breaking up'
;Bergs ,Fog , Growlers.,and Storms.

Hard -case , coal -burning firemen ,throwing out the Coal, ,in those ,unnerving conditions.
Those were the days!
How much worse for our fore bears ,enduring the natural elements, ,With the additional threats of torpedoes ,Mines, Bombing.
Also made it across there ,as previouly indicated , in some of the " Big Ones"
That's why in my estimation ,the' Queen Mary" has a living image ,in my thoughts .If that's the right word?

She battled those elements,for over thirty years
At an average speed of some Twenty-seven Knots.
And if it wasn't for the City of Long Beach and residents,California. Who ,( to the shame of the British Gov.t. )apreciated the accomplishmentss, that ,to some, inanimate object
,was preseved ,and to this day. Still reclines ,in Safekeeping , in the comfort of Her berth, ,alongside, .Has plenty of company,from those who have recognised her worth . .'Wish She could talk!

.

i had photos of me during the the rescue but lost them all ands all my merchant navy papers and records in the 1967 bushfires in Tasmanian where i live now,Du's anyone know where there is any photos or records of thing that happen at sea and is there any place that keep merchant seamen's records.

Hi shipmates, I was rescue age 10yrs from a old fishing boat, a group of us young boys, were messing about in Tenby on holiday in a borrowed boat { it was broken} on the the beach it sank not far from shore. I was pulled ashore by someone who could swim, at that age your clueless to danger, the sea can kill even on a calm sunny day, lucky no one was hurt. My time at sea I was not called upon to give help to any ship in distress.

Hi Shipmates, Hi Tony something like that stays with you for life , I was just learning to swim in an indoor pool, the sea with waves and currants are very real and dangerous, not to be messed with by anyone.

SS Hindsia between Singapore and Japan. We had had high winds for a couple of days and then we were in hurricane force winds.
The seas were extremely high and we had to change course to stop pooping (water coming in over the poop deck). At times were were rolling so far to port, and holding there, that all the boiler mowbreys tripped out and we had to peg them. To non engineers this means that the boiler steam drum was becoming empty of water due to the inclination and as a result the furnace fires were automatically tripped out. But then we would have had no steam for propulsion or steering. So we stopped the protection working.

This went on for over a day and we were sustaining damage on deck. We lost hand rails, the "bus stop" halfway between the bridge and aft had disappeared along with the elevated walkway. The bridge lost the drinking water pipework to top up the midship tanks. Steam heating pipework fractured in many places.
In the ER we had damage from shifting gear and minor injuries as well. The galley crew worked wonders keeping us fed with not only sarnies but with hot tea and coffee despite the impossibility to stand upright.

The RO, Deck Officers and Old Man's Tiger were all trapped midships whilst the crew and engineers were down aft.

During this period the RO received a distress call from another vessel a couple of miles away who were sinking. We were unable to change course to assist and the RO reported after a while that the signals had stopped.
Once the weather and sea calmed a little we made for the last known position but we saw nothing, not even any wreckage.

I have always remembered that time when a ship was lost and that we were unable to help.

robin was your heavy weather off japan in 1961 we had a typhoon 0ff Osaka in oct the winds were gusting over 2oo mph nobody knew how scared I was cos I had my brown trousers on it was the only time I never heard any one say ive seen worse than this regards cappy

Cappy,

It was early 70s and I got through trousers and boilersuits faster than I could wash them.

That area seems to be a bu**er for big storms.