Rocking and Rolling

[John Arton]

From gcaptain here is a container ship doing a 40 deg roll in mid Atlantic.
http://gcaptain.com/40-degree-roll/?...Captain.com%29
So what was the biggest roll you ever encountered at sea?
I was on a forest product ship (picture of sister ship is in the gallery) and we did a 40 degree roll off Japan that resulted in the swimming pool we had built onn the top deck, going over the side. We were part loaded with steel at the time so even with 600 tons of crane on deck had a massive gm. These ships were terrible in ballast but fortunately we did not do much ballast passages. After discharge of timber and timber products in the U.K. and continent we would load either steel or cement clinker for the East Coast USA, discharge and back load Phosphate in Jacksonville, discharge that in New Westminster B.C. before loading timber and timber products in Vancouver and Vancouver Island (Nanaimo, Chemanious, Harmac, Port Alberni, Coos Bay being some of the ports I remember). Horrible ships in ballast but great runs, especially if we did a double header loading B.C. and discharging East Coast USA (Tampa, Jacksonville, Baltimore, Brookyln).
These were my third ships at sea after coming off the Beaverfir running up the Great Lakes and Montreal plus St. John N.B. in winter, which I thought was the best run ever until I experienced the joys of British Columbia.
rgds
JA

[Louis the Amigo]

Hi Shipmates, Hi John Arton, that took me back a few years, The small ships I was on you could only fit a few containers on, at sea were most part underwater not very nice in winter around the coast? Cant answer your question no way to find out the information....

[leratty]

Gad I recall that sort of rolling on the Oakwood a John I Jacobs bulker. We nicked named her 'The Yellow Submarine' as she would on the Atlantic run we were on US to Rotterdam regularly be doing rolls like that for what seemed hours often seeming to just hang when on the outer roll, scary. One of the guys bunk came away from the bulkhead on one trip during this. Worse for me was when she was powering into big green seas with green water coming over the bow & much of it still solid green when it struck the bridge. She had a Sydney harbour bridge type of structure forward which was frequently under white or green water & she would shudder where I swear you could see the foredeck flex. The C.O. used to take some rather impressive movies of it. He said it was some of the roughest weather he had ever experienced. On one trip I think it was the 2nd officer had his wife aboard, Rotterdam to Baltimore. She was sick the whole way & went home on arrival. Funny thing is you get used to it. The worst I ever had was in the Aussie Bight one Christmas, sailing west fully loaded & she rolled so much you were zigzagging on the edge of the bulkheads as she rolled & you were walking along an alleyway.

[Ivan Cloherty]

#3 sounds familiar, although being on one of Ropners it was the green submarine, it's surprising what punishment both man and ship could take, and we went back for more. On one North Pacific crossing the 'Wandy' gave such a violent roll one night she threw the breakers off the board and all electric power lost, we thought we'd bought it that time, but all credit to the lads down below working in the dark they got everything back together again. Bit scary losing your steering ability when plowing and troughing into forty foot waves, makes you appreciate good weather

[cappy]

#4 same affect as 2 pints of bass then ivan........ps always wore brown trousers in very bad weather.......but still to this day am always pleased to hear someone say .........ive seen it worse than this

[cappy]

#4 worst weather I was ever in was typhoon nancy sept 1961 off Osaka japan.....top wind speed of215 mph over 1000 thousand ships and fishing boats lost.......really thought it was the end .......36 hours later couldn't give a toss was in the happy palace bar ......best honky I was ever in in my life ist time I ever had 2 birds at once......mind it was me 21st a couple of weeks later.....ship was mv riseley......one of the ist accom all aft ....happy days

[robpage]

MV Earl Granville did a 35 degree in a following sea with a heavy cross wind , to the point where the stabiliser wing tips were visible on the starboard side .everything rolled across the control room and all the Engineers on stand By ended up in one heap on the Port side , just off of Nab Tower . She was 1 1/2 degrees from the point of no return , I needed a drink that night !!!

[Paul Racine]

I had some serious rock and roll experiences crossing the Biscay but by far the worst roll I ever experienced was on my third day at sea as a JOS on my first ship the Harcliff.
Approaching Goole at night on a incoming tide I was on the foc'sle head with the mate and an AB. In order to get into the lock the skipper decided to drop an anchor and swing the ship around on the chain.The mate let go the anchor but when he put on the brake it failed and an enormous amount of chain roared out from below.By the time the brake grabbed the ship was swinging wildly across the river. We must have hit the underwater edge of the channel because suddenly we started to keel over at an alarming rate. We all grabbed onto the rail and hung on for dear life. I remember the mate saying "She's going over.......jump for it boys!" I'm sure she must have rolled close to 40 degrees.Fortunately all derricks and hatches were well battened down so no problems there but astern a tremendous clatter from all kinds of loose equipment.Suffice it to say that no one jumped and I'm here to tell the tale.

Paul in Montreal

[happy daze john in oz]

Think the worst roll I ever had was in Port Elizabeth, at the time she looked very good but by the morning the look had worn off as I rolled out of her bed.

[Keith Moody]

the old Arcadia (of 1953) was one of the worst storms I ever went through on a ship, in December of 1957 we were running up between the Canaries and Gibralter when we ran into a blinder. we were running into it for some time then about 11pm we were hit by a wave on the side that pushed the ship over so that you walked on the bulkhead, it was very scary, she seemed to hang there for hours then slowly she came upright again, at this point the ship was faced into the waves and headed for New York direction.
damage was substanial with the grand Piano sherring its bolts and sliding to the side of the lounge where it was secured to a broken window panel with table clothes, the tourist end was awash from E deck to the lounges on the top decks with blankets being used to try and dry the place up a little, glass in the portholes were smashed even though the deadlights were down, for 3 days there was no saloon service with the exception of cold drinks and sandwichs, most passengers and crew were confined to their cabins, the captain name was Capt. Bodley, i think it was his first trip on this ship.
according to john Brown the ships builder she went over to far and should never have righted herself, i guess someone was watching over us that night as in that sea no one could have launched a lifeboat, and nobody would be here to tell the tale.
once the storm abated the ship turned around and putting on full steam headed for Tilbury, I spent over 3 years on this ship and never again did i feel her shake with speed like she did that trip in order not to be too late into dock.
I wonder if there is anybody on this site that was on board with me that trip and remembers it.?
keith moody
R635978