The Motion of the Ocean

The Motion of the ocean cause allot of commotion

Or so it goes. Well it does really, the sea being quite an awesome thing to behold in all its fury. It can also be extremely calming in its essence.

I once as Chief made the combined decision to travel around the top of Scotland just for something to do. You see we had to take a cargo from South East England to South West England but not for another four days. As we had extra fuel onboard decided to have a relaxed saunter around the islands whilst pretending that we were at anchor awaiting orders. Luckily they didn't change orders our orders during that four day period. Anyway it was the first time that I been up that way and the first time that I had encountered the calmness of the place. A bit mystical in its feeling. A very misty and silent morning, not a ripple on the sea, just a flat glass-like pond with the only sound being our wake as we moved along. Excellent stuff.

Generally ships roll. This way and that, up and down, backwards and forwards and which ever way except upside down thankfully. Little ships are even worse as they seem to roll even though the sea is flat calm. Yuck!!! I encountered a couple of hurricanes or rather we sailed through them on this ship or that and there is just nothing you can do but wait it all out. Like a lamb to the slaughter really. On one ship we just used it as an excuse to have a few beers. Well, you are being thrown from bulkhead to bulkhead, you cannot lie in your bed without hitting the deckhead above and you cannot work. So what else can you do we just tied the chairs to any stanchion available and kept a firm hold on our bottles. God forbid if you let that one go.

Often, it is not the actual motion that gets to you it is the monotony of it all. For hours on end you are bracing yourself against the motion and after a short space of time your muscles become weary of this. Even if you do manage to lie down you still tense the muscles in reaction to the abnormal motion. Hurricanes tend to twist vessels abnormally. A sort of corkscrew effect. Normally in rough weather only you will find yourself going forwards or backwards or rolling sideways but hurricanes go in all the unexpected ways. And always something breaks loose and you have to exert yourself to re-lash or secure the runaway item.

Two stories I recall involve non-secured cargo in bad weather. One involved a P&O container ship and was told to me by a fellow cadet - never sure whether to believe this one or not as it sounds a bit far fetched to me. Anyway it makes a good story and goes like this. The ship had encountered heavy weather and some containers in the hold had shifted. The captain decided to close remotely all the holds watertight doors incase of possible flooding but found that he could not. The ship took on water and the vessel subsequently listed to thirty degrees. Luckily they managed to reach sheltered waters and pump out the offending liquid before the situation deteriorated too far. Upon investigation it was found that one container had broken open and the cargo of teddy bears it carried had wedged themselves in the water tight door thus jamming it open. Please don't judge me on whether that story is true!

The other story involved a vessel that I had previously worked on before it departed the British Flag. Upon leaving a West African port they had encountered bad weather. Unfortunately, they lost steering capability and upon trying to investigate they found that the steering gear entrance was blocked by a container that had shifted and fallen in front of the door. The ship eventually sank due to running aground on the rocks, the ships crew all safely removed. I often puzzle over this story as most larger vessels tend to have two entrances/exits to the Steering Gear Compartment. If that was the case what had happened to the other doorway locked from the inside perhaps?

These two stories though are just an example of how dangerous shifting items are and how important it is that cargo is properly secured before a ship leaves port.

I joined one Offshore boat recently to find the Captain and his crew still in shock from a certain episode they had just experienced. And wow, I was glad that I had managed to miss it all. The vessel had been towing an oil rig in Vietnamese waters when a hurricane sprang up out of nowhere. To cut along story short the Captain, desperate to try and keep connected to the Rig ended up being towed five knots backwards at one point as the Rig dragged the boat behind it. All the Captain could do was to try and control the direction with which the Rig drifted as he himself did not have the Engine power to overcome the weather conditions. During the three days that this happened over the Captain did have another choice. He could have opted to cut loose the rig, thus allowing it to be destroyed on the rocks but he chose to battle on. He managed to save all with no loss of life but...........yeah, just glad that I was not present.

Calm and rough? What about blinding heat. Ouch and more ouch. Asian and Arabian places are bad for this. Endless beating sun blinding and sweltering down onto the metal ship. Everything you touch is red hot, fried egg hot, and the sweat just pours out of you. Not suitable weather for stepping outside and getting a suntan, nor is it suitable for a stroll on deck. All everybody wants to do is hide inside the accomodation where hopefully the poor struggling Air-Conditioning unit keeps on going.

Then you can get the total opposite the ice and the chill of Northern or Southern countries. Korea, stuck alongside the jetty due to ice formation in the harbor, trying to get ashore whilst avoiding the giant size hailstones. Suffering the steam heating system that is installed in the vessel and which totally dries you out during the night thus waking up with chapped lips and a sore throat. Then spending days in the shivering cold trying to thaw out the fozen steam pipes on deck or gain enough fluidity in the Heavy Fuel Oil so that it can be pumped. One of the major

Ach, but it is all fun. For me the weather has never been a problem. The motion of the ocean has never caused me to detest the sea, nor to cause me injury. Many people get seasick, including captains and Chief engineers but I have never had that infliction. I have progressed luckily from day one without ever being sick.

It is the cooks on a ship that I feel extremely sorry for. They have to feed the hungry officers day in day out and not with sandwiches either. Officers demand three big meals a day, hot ones and full of substantial ingredients. There we are just rolling with the motion and drinking beer to pas the time and there is this cook struggling amongst his pots and pans to remain upright. His galley is designed to support bad weather the galley range has roll bars allowing pots to be secured safely. But there is not much you can do with the liquid inside the pots and woe betide him if he leaves anything unsecured. He struggles to make a meal adequate for all, whilst holding on for dear life and trying to avoid contact with the hot plates or flying objects. I have seen many a cooks efforts on the floor and the cook swearing that this is his last trip. Yes, it is the cooks that I feel sorry for.

Some of the worst sustained weather that I have experienced was up in Taiwan during the hurricane season. It just never stops and for weeks on end you are just jolted around as the ship battles its way forward. I am surprised that this orm of torture is not recommended as a fitness routine because muscles are used that you never knew you had. Every time the ship lurches all onboard grasp whatever may come to hand and the muscles strain so as to keep the body upright.

On good ships all the cabins have two beds in them. Well, one is the real bed that you usually sleep in and the other one is called the day bed. Typically he day bed runs across the width of the vessel(port to Stbd) whilst the proper bed runs from Aft to Fwd. This then gives you a choice as to which way to sleep and will depend on the prevailing weather conditions. Especially necessary in bad weather when the vessel may be heaving and yawing or it could be rolling.

Talking of Port and Stbd, did you know where the term POSH comes from? It used to be when the cruise ships ran down to the cape and the hotter cabins where those on the Stbd side. Therefore the more expensive cabins were on the port side, getting less sun and a greater breeze. The Stbd cabin thus became the better cabin when on the return journey from the cape to Europe. Thus it became Port side Out, Stbd Side home. And there we have term POSH. Nowadays of course we can have whichever cabin you want, Port or starboard as ships have these amazing machines called air-conditioning units.

A big sideline.......What would we do without air conditioning and heating? I tend to divide the world up into two sections. The half that needs to buy air conditioning units to live comfortably and the other half that have to buy heating appliances. The we have ships that trade in both conditions and thus require Cooling and heating systems combined just a nightmare for the Engineers really! Enough sidelining and finish I will!