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A photo of the ship I crossed the Atlantic on


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Just thought I would share this photo with you here. I crossed the Atlantic twice back in 1975, I went to Rota, Spain and Naples, Italy and then came back home. The ship was 581' in length, had a beam of 79' and a draft of 27'.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Her she is, the USS Concord.

 

USSConcord.jpg

 

On my return trip I was on the USS San Diego, a sister ship of the USS Concord.

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Just thought I would share this photo with you here. I crossed the Atlantic twice back in 1975, I went to Rota, Spain and Naples, Italy and then came back home. The ship was 581' in length, had a beam of 79' and a draft of 27'.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Her she is, the USS Concord.

 

USSConcord.jpg

 

On my return trip I was on the USS San Diego, a sister ship of the USS Concord.

 

I bet there were no stabalizers...can you imagine the comments from many cruisers about that? Nice pictures.

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  • 10 months later...

I'm new to cruising and have never sailed on anything besides a cruise ship. However doing so has whet my appetite to ships and sea life in general. So thanks for sharing the photos. This former land lubber is off to look up info on some of the ships mentioned. Captainmcd I really enjoy your website!

Edited by xenagurl
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  • 3 months later...
I bet there were no stabalizers...can you imagine the comments from many cruisers about that? Nice pictures.

 

Hard as it is to belive, all Military ships come with stabalizers. Not so much for comfort, more for weapon platform stability.

 

Myself I spent over 20 years sailing the seas with the Royal Navy. Far too much of it in the South Atlantic. If a stab broke down there you sure did know about it.

 

Here is a link to a stab test aboard a British warship.

They are actually using the stabs to roll the ship, as opposed to keeping it steady.

 

Edited by Magnetchief
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I was on a Post Koreion war eara destroyer (USS Farragut DDG 37) that literally rocked at the pier.. I crossed the Atlantic 4 times on that ship over 18 months and did a 6 month deployment to med and crossed the artic circle. It had 4 1200 psi boilers and2 screws, did over 35 knots and shot a rooster tail at full speed. It had no stablibizers but the weapons were modern for 1987 timeframe except the 5 inch gun on the bow. I glad i was able to spend a tour of duty on that ship.

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I went to Vietnam on my senior trip in 1968. Was in the Navy, saw 1 ship blow up in Danang, never set foot on any boat. Was in MCB 22 Seabees and went to the DMZ. Thought it quite the nice vacation except the fireworks kept us awake.

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Hard as it is to belive, all Military ships come with stabalizers. Not so much for comfort, more for weapon platform stability.

 

Myself I spent over 20 years sailing the seas with the Royal Navy. Far too much of it in the South Atlantic. If a stab broke down there you sure did know about it.

 

Here is a link to a stab test aboard a British warship.

They are actually using the stabs to roll the ship, as opposed to keeping it steady.

 

 

I'm not sure about Royal Navy ships, but most US navy ships use the gyro type stabilizers, not the retractable wing stabilizers that cruise ships use. The gyro type is not speed dependent, unlike the wings which lose effectiveness at lower speeds.

 

I crossed the Atlantic for the first time on the SS Jean Lykes in 1973. This was a 1960's era "stick boat" or breakbulk cargo ship, that had such a low GM that the ship, even in 3-4' seas, would roll onto her beam ends, and hang there for a couple seconds "trying to decide if she wanted to roll back upright".

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I'm not sure about Royal Navy ships, but most US navy ships use the gyro type stabilizers, not the retractable wing stabilizers that cruise ships use. The gyro type is not speed dependent, unlike the wings which lose effectiveness at lower speeds.

 

I crossed the Atlantic for the first time on the SS Jean Lykes in 1973. This was a 1960's era "stick boat" or breakbulk cargo ship, that had such a low GM that the ship, even in 3-4' seas, would roll onto her beam ends, and hang there for a couple seconds "trying to decide if she wanted to roll back upright".

 

I've sailed on the Jean Lykes and a number of her sister ships and when loaded properly with a GM of 2 or 3 ft. they ride well, but the extremes are not good. I sailed on a victory ship with bombs in the lower holds and fins on 'tween decks, with an 8 ft. GM and it rolled 45 degrees in 7 seconds in rough seas, and on a c-3 where when given a deck load of lumber required ballasting of the double bottoms, which the chief engineer did not do, and the GM went negative in mid ocean, causing the ship to list 10 degrees and nearly capsizing until the chief finally put water into the double bottoms and righted the ship.

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I've sailed on the Jean Lykes and a number of her sister ships and when loaded properly with a GM of 2 or 3 ft. they ride well, but the extremes are not good. I sailed on a victory ship with bombs in the lower holds and fins on 'tween decks, with an 8 ft. GM and it rolled 45 degrees in 7 seconds in rough seas, and on a c-3 where when given a deck load of lumber required ballasting of the double bottoms, which the chief engineer did not do, and the GM went negative in mid ocean, causing the ship to list 10 degrees and nearly capsizing until the chief finally put water into the double bottoms and righted the ship.

 

Definitely prefer the slow rollers to the snap rollers, but it gets a bit worrying when the ship hangs over there "thinking" about coming back.

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  • 8 months later...

My first sailing experience was aboard the USS General Mitchell, a troop ship, in 1958 returning from 15 months in Korea. We went from Inchon, Korea to Seattle in 16 days. I was on KP the whole time.

Edited by TFM70
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  • 2 years later...

I love these posts.

 

My uncle was a Commander in the Coast Guard who had a fascinating career starting with a lot of time on breakers in the Greenland shipping lanes to patrols off of Guantanamo (long before 9/11). He retired after a gig as Commander of the Alameda (Ca.) Coast Card base and bought a house in a small town inland (Yuba City) to see what it would be like.

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Funny, after finishing NNPS, I requested a cruiser (CGN-39).  My detailer thought I'd make a better submariner, I guess.  I ended up on the SSN-702.  I would have preferred seeing the waves than passing beneath them.

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On 3/6/2015 at 3:54 AM, chengkp75 said:

 

I'm not sure about Royal Navy ships, but most US navy ships use the gyro type stabilizers, not the retractable wing stabilizers that cruise ships use. The gyro type is not speed dependent, unlike the wings which lose effectiveness at lower speeds.

 

I crossed the Atlantic for the first time on the SS Jean Lykes in 1973. This was a 1960's era "stick boat" or breakbulk cargo ship, that had such a low GM that the ship, even in 3-4' seas, would roll onto her beam ends, and hang there for a couple seconds "trying to decide if she wanted to roll back upright".

One of the couple of non-pax ships I sailed on as a cadet was a reefer. Spent 9 months on here with complete circumnavigating of the globe. No stabalisers and hull form optimised for speed, not comfort. With a fairly low GM, since we had the same frozen meat in the lower hold and tween decks, we rolled 45 degrees both sides for days on end, most of the way from Perth (Aus) to the Red Sea. Nice slow roll with a short stop before the righting lever kicked in.

 

P&O reefer MV Wild Auk (1971), she was a fairly new ship when I signed on in 1977.

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  • 5 months later...

Ha! The trials and tribulations of reefers, especially side loaded reefers in Puerto Bolivar [emoji1] where the motto was “If it ain’t bolted down it will walk”
Before I joined her, a mooring line on the Wild Avocet ‘walked’ ... [emoji41]

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  • 5 months later...

I'm suing my parents lol -for endangering my life

by doing a trans-Atlantic trip ...two weeks, UK to Barbados

on this old tub... HILARY of the Booth Line.

 

August 1955. 

I was just five years old! That's me on deck.

Check out those sun loungers, man!

 

BJE,X,NWH,DNH,,X 1955.jpg

hilary3_postcard_2.jpg

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