Fog

[j.sabourn]

Out of all the dangeruous situations at sea including Fire and Tempest, I think my worse dread was Fog. Most on this site were brought up with the teachings of using their powers of observation to advantage to overcome any disadvantages. With Fog your eyes were useless and your ears heard every imagineable noise even to someone passing wind on the bridge. With or without Radar which to a certain extent gave some a feeling of confidence , to me when amongst shipping it did little to alleviate the nervous tension , which one got when unable to be in charge of the situation. Any duendenal ulcers I was likely to get would have been due to this hazard I considered above all else. To lose your senses and have to rely on your sixth sense was disasterous for your health and well being as this also worked in with your imagination which was working overtime and trying to foresee any future disasters with any means of getting out of them. Fog was and still is to me the worse enemy a seaman can have. JS

[Ivan Cloherty]

Sailed on an Empire vessel with no radar, no gyro, dodgy echo sounder on the way from Takoradi to Burntisland we encountered fog passing Brest and didn't disperse until we had passed the Wash, as we were only a 9/10 knot vessel we reduced speed to 6/7 knots which increased the agony for all onboard. We had no radar to view to get an idea of what vessels were in the vicinity, so it was steam whistle every two minutes and listening for reciprocal signals, we did not hear many but we could hear other vessels thrashing past us, who must have assumed we had radar which they probably had. All us watchkeepers had watery eyes after a couple of days without sighting another vessel or landmark, although we did spot a couple of buoys and heard lightships and lighthouses prior and after passing through the Dover Straits, we relied upon DR, soundings, calculating tides and currents and cross checking our results. Capt Carter was on the bridge throughout. I was on other ships later without radar and gyro, but had a Decca Navigator which was an immense help in ascertaining our position, all in a days work so they say, but Decca Nav and Radar would have been useful assets together

[j.sabourn]

Sailed on that same Empire Boat Ivan. We are living in the past. Today you would probably be on the Bridge to make up the three , You Yourself and I. The old Rule of the road " Nothing in these Rules shall interfere with the keeping of a proper Lookout " sounds good and even better to someone conducting a Court of Enquiry as whoever was involved in any casuality has no way out. He is guilty whatever way he turns. His excuse re lookouts would be shoved under the carpet , probably would say the Chief should of been there if short handed or something equally stupid. I agree with the Decca and Radar components , but only if they supply extra people so could make use of them. The rules as we knew them and interpreted the same have no place in this so called modern world, the old values if not already gone are fastly disappearing. Cheers JS
PS sorry about the terminology of "Boat" as know it is a dirty word to you, but everyone does it today so got carried away with the crowd. JS

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Spent many a scary time on the forecastle staring into the white stuff ringing the bell, with no idea where the answering ring came from, and like Ivan said hearing the swish of a bow wave as the cross Channel ferries went by. When you are carrying a cargo of iron ore you knew it wasn't far to Davy Jones's home.
Des

[j.sabourn]

#4 Yes Des, the 4 years I spent on forecastle heads replying to the Bridge bells every half hour and reporting Lights are bright and burning bright, referring to own ships navigation lights , more to impress on the bridge you werent stretched out asleep , more than anything else , are no longer with us. Today the ringing of bells would incur on a persons right to have peace and quite. Anyhow most wouldnt know about such.

Your Insignia Lest We Forget , Covers a lot also of what we used to be. Cheers JS.

[happy daze john in oz]

Going through the Chanel with the fog horn blaring is not something that can be described as enjoyable.
Particularly when out of no where you see another ship in the same situation.
Prefer a rough sea to that.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Victoria my advice is don't buy another yellow car, science has proved that yellow is the most difficult colour to see in the fog. Just one of those useless pieces of information that sticks in your mind, probably because I was the owner of a yellow Ford Mexico at the time

[j.sabourn]

Anyhow ref. to that song " The fog on the Tynes all Mine all Mine " belongs to Cappy , I sold it to him for 1/6d. To pay off the debt he insists I owe him. JS

[cappy]

john the fog on the tyne reminds me of the everards allurity ,,,she was used for bunkering larger vessels on the north east coast running out of shields.... berthingjust above the old pilot station in south shields...opposite the lloyds hailing station ......we were coming up from the south in a real pea souper ...there was bells going sirens blowingblokes aft beating varios items.......as we came up the tyne we got to about the usual come round position to come over and old Brown the old man dropped anchor ......we sat there all night gonging etc .....as dawn broke i was on deck and heard only the sound of a engine a slow ahead ....but could hear the bow cutting through the water.......jeez didnt like that .....the bell was rung like mad and the bloke astern was clattering his whatever .......i then heard a geordie voice say effing hell whats all the noise about ....or similay words ....and lo and behold looking up to the sky saw abig shell tanker bow easing past us .....the fog was only laying about 12 or14 foot and they could see everything while we could see nix.....perhaps if she wasnt coming down river we would have been banging and belliing all day ....happy days cappy

[Keith Tindell]

Spent many hours pacing up and down the deck banging the gong, or whatever you could find, but most scared i have been was crossing from the Needles to Cherbourg in a 35 yacht, and approaching the shipping lanes fog came from nowhere, did have GPS on board, but it was a gamble, stick the engine on, full taps, and get across, still takes 45 mins to cross the 5 mile zone, but the disadvantage was the noise of the diesel engine drowns out the noise of approaching ships, a real trouser browner. And i was only doing it for pleasure !!!, kt