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ReverendSlappy

ReverendSlappy

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ReverendSlappy
... that have ever mocked travelers of the Great Lakes, I humbly submit the following images of a cargo vessel on Lake Superior in November. Be sure to view them in order...
 

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ReverendSlappy said:
... that have ever mocked travelers of the Great Lakes, I humbly submit the following images of a cargo vessel on Lake Superior in November. Be sure to view them in order...
Click to expand...

Excellent shots, thanks.
There's enough fetch on Superior to squelch mockers!
Doesn't shallow depth often compound the huge wave problem too?
 
Dave Krall CFII said:
Doesn't shallow depth often compound the huge wave problem too?
Click to expand...

I'm really very much a novice sailor, but that makes sense to me. And, it's been my experience that the Lakes are much more "chop", whereas the ocean has seemed to be more "swell"... Though I've only been in Caribbean seas that were relatively docile, so I can't really claim to have much expertise.

All I know is that those pictures made for a pretty "Holy CRAP!" moment for me.
 
USS Ronald Regan - waves crashing at the bow ... and the seas "appear" to be relatively calm...

http://www.navsource.org/archives/02/027630.jpg

USS Valley Forge - the water looks a little rougher here
024509.jpg
 
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Anybody know the history of these photos (original post)? Look at the last one closely. It looks to me like the foremast is no longer centered on the ship....i.e., it looks like the bow has broken off and is still attatched but canted to the right. Making the ship ride low enough (prior to sinking?) to get blue water on deck.

If that is true, I wouldn't be standing there with a camera in my hand....

-Skip
 
Skip Miller said:
Anybody know the history of these photos (original post)? Look at the last one closely. It looks to me like the foremast is no longer centered on the ship....i.e., it looks like the bow has broken off and is still attatched but canted to the right. Making the ship ride low enough (prior to sinking?) to get blue water on deck.

If that is true, I wouldn't be standing there with a camera in my hand....

-Skip
Click to expand...

The storm pictures below were taken during a North Atlantic storm February, 13, 1987 on an eastbound passage from Tampa, Florida to Ghent, Belgium with a load of phosphates. The pictures were taken by Capt. George Ianiev, who was the ship's Second Mate at the time. The big blue wave was the largest wave the ship encountered during the storm; seeing it hit the ship made the vessel's master question whether they would survive the storm.
Click to expand...


Look at the bottom of the page
http://www.boatnerd.com/pictures/fleet/spruceglen.htm

Sorry it is the ocean unless there is a new route from Tampa to Belgium through the Great Lakes that I am unaware of.
 
ReverendSlappy said:
Well... Doesn't that make me look like a schmuck! :redface:

I'll appropriately smack the friend who forwarded those to me and claimed they were Lake Superior. ;)
Click to expand...

Don't feel bad I saw them claimed as such in several web sites too. But the site I quoted is one for Great Lakes Shipping and I trust it much more than any other source on the subject.
 
ReverendSlappy said:
Well... Doesn't that make me look like a schmuck! :redface:

I'll appropriately smack the friend who forwarded those to me and claimed they were Lake Superior. ;)
Click to expand...

Still, don't underestimate the power of the great lakes during bad storms...
 
smigaldi said:


Look at the bottom of the page
http://www.boatnerd.com/pictures/fleet/spruceglen.htm

Sorry it is the ocean unless there is a new route from Tampa to Belgium through the Great Lakes that I am unaware of.
Click to expand...

I think that is one of the few sights that would make me giggle and poop my pants at the same time.

Cheers,

-Andrew
who had a 15' decide to break over the rear deck on a 42' lobster boat once, and giggled the whole way through it (but was so terrified it wasn't funny)
 
DON'T sweat it Slap. The Great Lakes can be pretty bad. Lake Erie being the Shallowest has some horrific waves and I think more sinkings than the others. Fact is any body of water should be respected thier power is great.
 
ReverendSlappy said:
... that have ever mocked travelers of the Great Lakes, I humbly submit the following images of a cargo vessel on Lake Superior in November. Be sure to view them in order...
Click to expand...

Dude, that's a not so bad day in the North Sea oilfields... The Great Lakes can get rough, but they are nothing like a Mid Atlantic hurricaine.
 
Dave Krall CFII said:
Excellent shots, thanks.
There's enough fetch on Superior to squelch mockers!
Doesn't shallow depth often compound the huge wave problem too?
Click to expand...

Shallow water limits the height of waves but increases the steepness, though in the depth of water the big ore carriers operate in, there is little effect.
 
ReverendSlappy said:
... that have ever mocked travelers of the Great Lakes, I humbly submit the following images of a cargo vessel on Lake Superior in November. Be sure to view them in order...
Click to expand...

??? Doesnt look like a Lakes freighter to me, guess she is though.
 
Henning said:
Shallow water limits the height of waves but increases the steepness, though in the depth of water the big ore carriers operate in, there is little effect.
Click to expand...

If I recall correctly, with one famous ore carrier wreck in Superior they figured the hull struck the lake bed (maybe only about 20 feet!, below the keel, and plenty shallow to amplify waves).

IIRC, the ship lost clearance and struck bottom in a wave trough, then the next wave crest came over on top to further slam it down, cracking the hull and sinking it.
 
Which is worse drowning in freezing North Atlantic water or Freezing Great lake water?........................................... EXACTLY!
 
Dave Krall CFII said:
If I recall correctly, with one famous ore carrier wreck in Superior they figured the hull struck the lake bed (maybe only about 20 feet!, below the keel, and plenty shallow to amplify waves).

IIRC, the ship lost clearance and struck bottom in a wave trough, then the next wave crest came over on top to further slam it down, cracking the hull and sinking it.
Click to expand...
If I remember the story correctly, the ship was probably holed as it passed a shallow area and then kept going for several hours, taking on water. Finally she weighed so much that a large wave lifted the bow and she sagged enough to snap the keel.

The design of the ship had one large cargo compartment, not divided into several watertight compartments.

-Skip
 
Dave Krall CFII said:
If I recall correctly, with one famous ore carrier wreck in Superior they figured the hull struck the lake bed (maybe only about 20 feet!, below the keel, and plenty shallow to amplify waves).

IIRC, the ship lost clearance and struck bottom in a wave trough, then the next wave crest came over on top to further slam it down, cracking the hull and sinking it.
Click to expand...

I believe you're refering to the Edmund Fitzgerald, and she tagged bottom crossing a shoal. She rests in around 300' of water.
 
As I mentioned in another thread, I lived along the shore of Huron in the late 80's/early 90s, it was one of the best times of my life. I spent a lot of time in or near the water, I loved to watch the weather come in and whip the lake into a frenzy, sometimes it would cause crazy damage, but I could go back there in a minute.
It was easy to see the power of Mother Nature there, and equally easy to see how ships could be lost from the weather/lake interaction. We had great respect for it. There are literally thousands of ships and boats at the bottom of the Great Lakes.
http://www.boatnerd.com/swayze/shipwreck/
 
Dave Krall CFII said:
If I recall correctly, with one famous ore carrier wreck in Superior they figured the hull struck the lake bed (maybe only about 20 feet!, below the keel, and plenty shallow to amplify waves).

IIRC, the ship lost clearance and struck bottom in a wave trough, then the next wave crest came over on top to further slam it down, cracking the hull and sinking it.
Click to expand...

If you're talking about the Ed Fitzgerald, I don't think they ever conclusively proved the cause, but grounding
is one of the theories.

http://www.ssefo.com/info/theories.html
 
Henning said:
Dude, that's a not so bad day in the North Sea oilfields... The Great Lakes can get rough, but they are nothing like a Mid Atlantic hurricaine.
Click to expand...

Are those Mid Atlantic hurricaines worst than the North Pacific or where the Atlantic meets the Indian ocean?
 
Henning said:
The only place I know where it gets worse is off Cape Horn.
Click to expand...

I don't know... 50 deg south and below can be one hell of a place...

For a good poop-your-pants scale, I think of it this way:

Clean Undies - Western Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, Med
Race Stripes - Western Indian, Central Pacific, Central Atlantic
Probably need to change - South Atlantic, South-Central Pacific
Clearly need to change - North Sea, South Eastern Arctic
Diapers only - North Atlantic, Bearing Sea, Cape Horn, Far south Pacific

I think the three scariest places in the world to be are within (east) 300 miles Sable Is., within 200 miles of St Matthew Is., or within 500 miles of Cape Horn. Diapers don't work there - that is colostomy bag land.

Cheers,

-Andrew
who's great grandfather kept 55 years of ships logs travelling the world, and wrote about every freaking scary place on the planet
 
astanley said:
For a good poop-your-pants scale, I think of it this way:

Clean Undies - Gulf of Mexico,
Click to expand...

Hmmmmmmm..... Try running the Rabbit Feild getting into Fourchon in the middle of a hurricaine and let me know how clean your undies are.... Personally, I've had scarrier moments on the Mississippi with a 1/4 mile string of barges in fast water than I ever had in the open sea anywhere, and I earned my gold earring. Packed into the ice in the middle of an Antarctic storm was probably the worst though.
 
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