Marine Pictures and Videos.

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
HMAS Vampire in rough seas. Yes, bracing stuff ... but have a moment for the poor bastards working in the galley, in these conditions it's a bloody nightmare in there .... :eek:

HMASVampire.jpg
 

Mudgie

Well-Known Forumite
I remember sailing on the Waverley in Scotland, I think from Largs, when we were on holiday as a kid.

Just after we set off I asked my grandad what would happen if a large piece of wood went into the paddles.

Sure enough about half a mile from getting back it broke down because some debris had got stuck in the paddles.
My wife and daughter near there a few years ago had to make other arrangements after the Waverley collided with a pier.
I don't think paddle boats can be maneuvered as easily as other vessels.
 

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
I like this pix because of how it shows that Nature will claw back anything taken from it given time. The two pix are of the same site in the Aleutian Islands. A wrecked Japanese miniature submarine as shown in 1943 and again in 2021. It was the same type of sub that took part in the attacks on Pearl Harbour and Sydney Harbour, both incurring high losses. Not the safest craft to be in I'd say.
And Nature takes no prisoners ....

Japanesesub.jpeg
 

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
Unloading locomotives in Port Augusta in 1951 !!! I suspect Health and Safety was a lot further down the list of priorities back then.

To be honest, I don't think I'd have stood that close ....

healthandsafety.jpg
 

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
Very possibly your worst nightmare at sea. The World Concorde, tanker, broke in two off the coast of Pembrokeshire in 1954. Fortunately she was in ballast so pollution was kept to a minimum. (Given the nature of that coast if you've been that way, this could have been much worse.)

I don't know if it's just me, but these pictures of the two halves of the ship, somehow remind me of the condition of the world today. :rolleyes:

World_concord1954b.jpg
 

littleme

250,000th poster!
Very possibly your worst nightmare at sea. The World Concorde, tanker, broke in two off the coast of Pembrokeshire in 1954. Fortunately she was in ballast so pollution was kept to a minimum. (Given the nature of that coast if you've been that way, this could have been much worse.)

I don't know if it's just me, but these pictures of the two halves of the ship, somehow remind me of the condition of the world today. :rolleyes:

View attachment 13056
OK, so what does 'in ballast' mean? I'm thinking ballast is something in the bottom of the ship, to weigh it down?


*I could Google this, but it's nicer to have a propper answer from someone who knows....
 
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Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
OK, so what does 'in ballast' mean? I'm thinking ballast us something in the bottom of the ship?


*I could Google this, but it's nicer to have a propper answer from someone who knows....
Not carrying an actual cargo, but it still needs the weight for the ship to be stable.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
So what's in there? What is ballast?
It can just be sea water. All sorts of odd stuff has been used - cheap commodities that can be sold back at the place where the next real cargo will be loaded - bricks, etc. There was a coalfield in Ireland where the local buildings are, unusually for the surrounding area, built from the ballast bricks brought over by the ships that carried the coal away.

There can be some permanent ballast, that can be lead cast into the keel, particularly on sailing vessels.
 

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
Yes a ship needs to keep its centre of gravity low down, especially a tanker, which is a series of cathedral sized tanks welded together. @littleme was quite right about that. Tankers usually take on seawater as ballast, to get them lower in the water. Generally speaking tankers will only carry cargo half the time e.g. load crude oil in the Persian Gulf, bring it to Europe, go back to the Gulf in ballast.
Some tankers can carry cargo both ways e.g. chemical tankers. I used to carry concentrated caustic soda to Kwinana (near Perth Australia) then after a quick tank clean carry various veg oils and palm oil back to Europe from Indonesia and the Philippines. It goes without saying ship owners like this idea, because a ship not carrying cargo is not making money.
On tankers the ballast is usually pumped into a 'slop' tank where it's allowed to separate out (oil floats on water) Then is pumped overboard, carefully monitored these days for pollution, and the left over gunge is allowed to accumulate before being pumped ashore for refining.

It was not unusual for old style sailing ships to put rocks down at the bottom of the ship for ballast passages, and then heave them up and chuck them over the side when cargo was loaded. This tended to make those ships a bit smelly.
 

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
Hard call as to whether to post this in Aviation or Marine. One thing is for sure, I don't think it would make the Health and Safety thread ... :eek:

CarrierandSub.jpg
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
I had a day on Hermes in 1970. Being on the flat deck in a howling gale was quite alarming. It was noteworthy that falling off the side was 'reasonably safe', as there were nets below the deck edge that should catch you, and were yet not in the way of the air operations.

However, the lift had no possibility of any such safety apparatus - fall into that and you were gone. I kept well away from it.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
This yacht washed ashore in Ireland, in an obscure location, and the two aboard were there for three days without being spotted.

001cd05e-800.jpg


It's a rather harsh location and one of them eventually managed to get up the cliff to summon help, resulting in the other being winched up by a coastguard helicopter.


There is an inevitable element of suspicion about what might have been going on, but no evidence has been found at this point...
 

littleme

250,000th poster!
Couldn't they get to the beach? Sounds like something my 'rents would do, they were rescued by Richard Attenborough years ago after falling off their boat around the Isles of Scilly years ago.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
Couldn't they get to the beach? Sounds like something my 'rents would do, they were rescued by Richard Attenborough years ago after falling off their boat around the Isles of Scilly years ago.
The beach is only accessible from the sea, unless you're prepared to attempt the very dodgy cliff decent/ascent.

You won't often see an ice cream van there.

They may well not have survived at all without the residual shelter of the beached boat.
 
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