WINTER STORMS IN THE NORTH ALANTIC

[OLDNAVYMCPO]

From Sept 16, 1971 until March 16 1972, I was deployed with RVAH-12 on board the aircraft carrier, the USS Independence (CVA62). We were deployed in the North Atlantic and the Med. We earned the designation as "Blue Nose" sailors when we crossed into the Arctic Circle on 28 Sept 1971.

During subsequent operation called Royal Knight, we conducted cross-deck operations with the British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal. We transited the English Channel and the Strait of Gibraltar. We operated in the Med and flew recon missions throughout the Middle East.

In the North Atlantic we encountered winter storms and rough seas. Waves breaking over the bow, ice on the flight deck, plane watches being in harness and roped down, and fierce winds. We ran silent and dark, trying to be stealthy. Outside Scotland, we were over-flown by Russian Bears and Badgers.

We lost two hands in transit in the North Atlantic, over the side, never recovered.

I'm currently reading a novel about the battle for the North Atlantic during WWII. Its about a British Corvette on convoy escort. The book is " The Cruel Sea" by Nicholas Monsarrat. By no means would I compare North Atlantic storms aboard a carrier with being aboard a dinky Corvette in a raging sea. I can only imagine how brutal it would be.

Some of you Navy vets and Coasties have endured storms in much smaller craft.


The photo is of me as a First Class Petty Officer on the Indy., copied from the cruise book.

 

[nodpete]

Should be an interesting book, wish you luck ! I was never in the Navy but I did cross the Atlantic from New York to Bremerhaven , Germany in a troop ship in Dec 1960. It was a trip I'll never forget.

 

[STCM(SW)]

Yea, how many storms and tail end of Hurricanes I have been on a DE, DD or FFG!
When white water comes up to the bridge, your rolling!

 

[ditrina]

Managed TWO !

North Atlantic storm during a NATO exercise, waves breaking over the bow of the USS NEWPORT NEWS with the heavy cruiser shuddering to break free

Man overboard for the French Cruiser De Grasse.. Could not launch the Helo.

Crossing the Drakes Passage on the Coast Guard Ice Breaker
USCG EDISTO> Bridge recorded a 53 Deg roll Errrrp. On the way to Operation Deep Freeze '69

( You only remember the GOOD TIMES!! )

 

[vonn]

My Dad was Navy in WW II and till he passed he was very aware of the weather because of the storms they endured in the N.Atlantic. His stories of them were scary.

 

[LVSteve]

I was about 12 when I first read "The Cruel Sea". About that time was my first run at "HMS Ulysses" which was about the Arctic convoys.

I crossed the Atlantic on the Queen Mary in December of '66. It was one of her longest crossings ever. They did not let passengers outside for four days. Even at a very young age I realised that 82,000 tons of ship should not be pulling the evolution we went through.

 

[A-37]

Icebreaker

If you crewed on an icebreaker, you might like my build log and video of an old 5' icebreaker model I brought back to life after 70 years. Some interesting links to the history of the real West Wind.

West Wind Icebreaker - RC Groups

 

[Dave_n]

The Cruel Sea is an excellent book as is the B&W Movie based on it (Jack Hawkins played the Corvette's CO). The "joke" was "a corvette will roll on wet blotting paper" and it is correct! There is a photo of one of the Queen's during the War traversing the North Atlantic and a wave is breaking over her bows. There are also other photos of DDs where you can see under the keel and some where the "sharp and blunt" ends are out of the water. Think about loading depth charges on a rolling corvette with just a block and tackle! Dave_n

 

[Absalom]

.....
I'm currently reading a novel about the battle for the North Atlantic during WWII. Its about a British Corvette on convoy escort. The book is " The Cruel Sea" by Nicholas Monsarrat. By no means would I compare North Atlantic storms aboard a carrier with being aboard a dinky Corvette in a raging sea. I can only imagine how brutal it would be.
.....

"The Cruel Sea" is basically autobiography worked up as a novel, and is still considered a classic about the Battle of the Atlantic.

Monserrat served as a Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve officer on corvette duty during the war. He had been a journalist and author before the war, so he knew how to write, and rather than pen a conventional war memoir he put his experiences in a novel instead. Great read.

 

[joe44va]

On a merchant ship in the North Atlantic in 1968-69 winter ( SS Exford) we went 52 miles straight back from noon to noon. Blue water over the bow for the whole 24 hours. No fun at all. Can't imagine doing that in a Corvette.

 

[Robspeire]

Coming back from the Med on DD 865 we hit a hurricane. Waves were breaking over the bridge and blew out 1 of the widows. At one point we rolled so far over we did not think we would recover as the wing of the bridge was under water & according to the pendulum we were capsized. The ship was shuddering as it was trying to right itself.
I was the helmsman with a ringside seat for most of it as I do not get sea sick. Most fun I ever had with my clothes on.

 

[LVSteve]

Coming back from the Med on DD 865 we hit a hurricane. Waves were breaking over the bridge and blew out 1 of the widows. At one point we rolled so far over we did not think we would recover as the wing of the bridge was under water & according to the pendulum we were capsized. The ship was shuddering as it was trying to right itself.
I was the helmsman with a ringside seat for most of it as I do not get sea sick. Most fun I ever had with my clothes on.

This must be a definition of "fun" with which I was not previously familiar.

 

[STCM(SW)]

Worst roll my ship took was 47 deg.
The Captain though that was great.....
Me? Not so much.

 

[vigil617]

North Atlantic fisheries patrols in the Georges Bank area off Massachusetts while on a 210 foot cutter were lotsa fun. When rough weather threatened and we knew there was no chance of doing any boardings, our captain would have us slip down to the lee of Block Island, off Rhode Island, to wait it out. We'd head back offshore when the weather improved.

On another trip, headed home to New Bedford from down south, we had a heavy following sea on our quarter, which is one of a helmsman's most challenging situations. The sea pushes the stern heavily to the side, makes the ship list, and the helmsman has to spin the ship's wheel hard in the opposite direction to surf down the face of the wave and back on course.

One of our less accomplished helmsman was fighting that battle one afternoon and for some reason, spun the wheel in the wrong direction, increasing the roll of the ship instead of counteracting it. We went over 47 degrees -- biggest roll I ever took -- and we hung there for what seemed like minutes. I'm sure it was only a few seconds, but what I remember most is the sound of dishes breaking and gear crashing throughout the ship.

CO was on the bridge at the time, and he fired the helmsman on the spot. For the rest of the watch, at least.

 

[muddocktor]

I don't have any Atlantic Ocean stories to relate as I never been in the Atlantic, but when I first started working offshore as a summer job in 1973 as a 17 year old galleyhand I was working on a drillship that was converted from a WWII T2 tanker originally named the Mission Capistrano (AO-112) and when I was on it renamed the Mission Exploration, we rode out a Cat 1 hurricane because they waited too late to try to evacuate. By the time the storm got to us they had only pulled the riser and BOP stack and pulled 3 of the 8 anchors that held us on location. I was working in the galley, which was in the aft end of the ship at deck level and we had 25-30 ft seas with a very short period hitting us pretty much bows on and I was loving it as it didn't make me seasick and hardly anyone was coming in to eat. During the storm, we lost 2 more anchors and I gathered that the captain was worried about this, but I was young and dumb and I didn't sweat it a bit.

One thing I did see during that storm was what kind of weather a helo could actually fly in during an emergency. Towards the end of the worst of the storm, a guy got hit in the head and they called for a evac by helo for the injured guy. So a PHI Bell 212 actually flew out to the ship and landed on the heliport on the stern of the ship to pick the injured guy up. I would guess the winds were still blowing a steady 50-60 mph and on and off rain with lots of low clouds. That was when the helicopter companies like PHI and Air Logistics had many, many very experienced pilots counrtesy of the US Army and the Vietnam War and those guys could really fly a helo. Damn, they were good.

 

[cherrypointmarine]

Never got to the Atlantic , but did a Westpac aboard the USS Midway (CV41) from 1978-1979 . I remember having to wear cold weather gear and tying off if you were on deck . The waves were breaking over the bow (80 ft off the water line) and most everybody was seasick . Finally , no one was allowed on deck until we made it through the Straits of Singapore . The worst thing , we lost hot water and had just cold showers . With all the sick , and no one taking a shower , we were a ripe bunch after a week .

 

[shouldazagged]

In winter of 1943-44 my dad, a war correspondent, crossed the North Atlantic aboard a flat-bottomed LST to prepare to cover the Normandy invasion. He said that in heavy weather you could stand on the bridge and see the hull flex and twist. A roll of 40º was achieved and survived more than once.

The Cruel Sea is, I think, the best, most engrossing sea novel I've ever read. I reread it every few years.

 

[Toyman]

My father in law was in the Coast Guard in WW 2. He served some time in the North Atlantic on board this ship. The back of the photo says DG 42 HASTE.

Some additional info the ship was PG 42 not DG 42
USS Haste (PG-92), was one of a group of Canadian corvettes turned over to the United States Navy and manned by the Coast Guard. She was laid down as CN-310 by Morton Engineering & Dry Dock Co., Quebec, Canada, and launched on 22 August 1942 as HMS Mandrake. She was taken over by the US Navy, renamed Haste and commissioned on 6 April 1943, Lieutenant W. A. Dobbs, USCG commanding.
Haste took up regular escort duties following shakedown, making ten voyages to Newfoundland or the Caribbean before November 1944. Small patrol ships such as Haste did much to lessen the effect of U-boat patrols on allied commerce during this critical period of the war. During the period November 1944—May 1945 the corvette served on patrol duty for 10-day periods out of New York. After making two more escort voyages to Newfoundland and return, the ship departed New York 2 July for Charleston, South Carolina, where she arrived 3 days later. Haste decommissioned 3 October 1945 and was returned to the Maritime Commission.

 

[Whitwabit]

From Sept 16, 1971 until March 16 1972, I was deployed with RVAH-12 on board the aircraft carrier, the USS Independence (CVA62). We were deployed in the North Atlantic and the Med. We earned the designation as "Blue Nose" sailors when we crossed into the Arctic Circle on 28 Sept 1971.

During subsequent operation called Royal Knight, we conducted cross-deck operations with the British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal. We transited the English Channel and the Strait of Gibraltar. We operated in the Med and flew recon missions throughout the Middle East.

In the North Atlantic we encountered winter storms and rough seas. Waves breaking over the bow, ice on the flight deck, plane watches being in harness and roped down, and fierce winds. We ran silent and dark, trying to be stealthy. Outside Scotland, we were over-flown by Russian Bears and Badgers.

We lost two hands in transit in the North Atlantic, over the side, never recovered.

I'm currently reading a novel about the battle for the North Atlantic during WWII. Its about a British Corvette on convoy escort. The book is " The Cruel Sea" by Nicholas Monsarrat. By no means would I compare North Atlantic storms aboard a carrier with being aboard a dinky Corvette in a raging sea. I can only imagine how brutal it would be.

Some of you Navy vets and Coasties have endured storms in much smaller craft.


The photo is of me as a First Class Petty Officer on the Indy., copied from the cruise book.

March 8th 1972 was one of the worst storms ever to hit the northern Greenland area .. I was at Thule then and it was the worst of the Phase's that we had .. That phase had 200 + mph winds .. and wind chills off the scale ..

I left at the end of March back to the World ..

Edit :The third highest wind was recorded that day which was 207 mph

 

[hoosierone]

Went from Oakland to Okinawa on a troop ship (Mitchell) 11-61. The farther north we got, the worse the conditions. Often we weren't allowed on the "weather" deck. With the constant pitching and rolling a lot of guys couldn't eat. It cured me from ever wanting to be on a ship again.