Truely Miraculous Things
- A baby's Smile
- The Aurora Boriealis
- The Cliff dwellings at Mesa Verda
- Flying Fish
- Sunrise over a trout stream
- Sunset over the Southern Pacific ocean
- The curve of my wife's hip
- A well writen sentance
- The Moon landing
- "Pride and Joy" by Stevie Ray Vaughn
- The breath of a warm wind on a cool night
- The night sky over the Arizona desert
and finally
- A man exercising the right to vote
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
St. Mathews Island Part 1
“All hands on Deck” “All hands on Deck” yelled the 1st class Boatswain Mate as he walked through the berthing area, rousting us from our racks in the middle of the night. “Dress warm ladies, its colder than a which’s tit, lay to the foc’sle and grab an ax handle. Its going to be a long night.”
We were steaming north into a ranging gale, 2 Korean fishing trawlers with 161 men aboard had become trapped in the pack ice off of St Mathews Island in the north Bearing Sea. The winter pack ice had moved south at an unexpectedly quick rate and caught the trawler unaware.
The Cutter Storis was built in 1943 as a small Ice Breaker and had seen time in Greenland during the war and had been the first vessel to circumnavigate the North American Continent traveling across the north of Canada in 1952, but that was during the summer.
This however was the dead of winter. We were having problems long before we got to the Pack Ice. The usual north wind had generated 20ft swells and we were headed directly into them. Every time we hit a wave we would bury our bow and generate huge showers of sea spray, the spray would land on deck and immediately freeze, this created more weight, causing more spray and more ice, an endless cycle that was causing us to become top heavy and in danger of capsizing. The American crab boats would have the same problem and every year 1 or more would capsize with all hands lost. So the bos’wain was getting everyone on deck to break up the ice.
We put on sweaters and then heavy arctic parkas, this was the late 70’s, no GORTEX or other fancy stuff, cloth parkas with fur lined hoods. And thick fur lined gloves that reached to your elbow. Twenty of us mustered at the foc’sle hatch and grabbed ax handles and baseball bats and made our way onto the foc’sle. The deck crew had previously put up “Life Lines” across the deck. We grabbed these as we made our way forward. The ship had slowed down but was still rising and falling 20 ft every 15 seconds. You learned to control it with your knees. At the bottom, you flexed to take the weight, at the top you flexed to keep yourself from being launched into the sky. Like trying to stop yourself on a trampoline, only it never stops. This is one of the reasons my knees are sore to this day. 10 years of doing this stuff. When the spray hit us, we turned our backs to it. We were soon covered in ice ourselves but continue on. There was no other option. We had to get to the fishermen, and to do so we had to break off the ice.
Once on the foc’sle we started swinging our bats at the ice while others shoveled it over the side. You tried to hit the ice as hard as you could without slipping off the deck into the water. As they say one hand for the ship and one for yourself. We did this for about an hour till we had removed the danger then returned to the warm Mess deck, knowing we would have to do this again in a few hours. Ah to be in the British Navy and issued a cup of grog. Nothing for the U.S. Sailor, the puritans wouldn’t allow it. So, All night, 1 hour on deck, 2 hours getting warm, repeat.
After 2 days we finally reached the Pack Ice, this was my first time seeing it, some observations: the Swells were moving it up and down at the edges but within a few hundred yards, the swells had vanished, all the power that tossed our ship around so easily, could be tamed with a few inches of ice spread over hundreds of square mile. The Sky was blue and ice was White, whiter than anything I have ever seen, You had to wear sun glasses, even a few minutes and you would go blind. I also learned that the Ice was not one big piece, like on a lake or pond. But was constantly moving, large sections 100s of yards wide would rub up against other sections. Everything was slowly moving about, creating ridges and valleys, similar to Tectonic plates, but on a much smaller scale.
We made our way into the ice, at first we progressed easily, it was only a few inches thick and the Storis was made for this stuff, even when it thickened to 6 inches we continued on. A constant groaning sound coming from the hull. Down in the berthing area it was so loud that it was difficult to sleep.
After a day of steady progress we came to a sudden stop. The ice had become over 2 ft thick and we could go no further. At this point the Bridge watch started to look for breaks in the ice, long leads where the ice had split apart, sometimes as much as a 100 ft wide. These leads would open up, then close again a few minutes later. We would then back up and ram our way into a lead, travel a mile or so, then back and ram our way into anther lead, continually traveling in a northerly direction to the Korean Fishing trawlers.
I had established contact with the Korean trawlers earlier in the day via Morse code, everyone onboard was OK and the ships had not experienced any damage yet, but they were firmly held by the ice and being pushed towards the island a few miles away, It was critical that we get there before they went aground. The island was uninhabited, so we could expect no rescue efforts from shore, if the ships were pushed aground, the ships would break up and the men would be unable to make it ashore, they might be able to evacuate to the ice, but close to shore the ice had a habit of breaking up. It was a dicey situation…….
See Part II in next post
We were steaming north into a ranging gale, 2 Korean fishing trawlers with 161 men aboard had become trapped in the pack ice off of St Mathews Island in the north Bearing Sea. The winter pack ice had moved south at an unexpectedly quick rate and caught the trawler unaware.
The Cutter Storis was built in 1943 as a small Ice Breaker and had seen time in Greenland during the war and had been the first vessel to circumnavigate the North American Continent traveling across the north of Canada in 1952, but that was during the summer.
This however was the dead of winter. We were having problems long before we got to the Pack Ice. The usual north wind had generated 20ft swells and we were headed directly into them. Every time we hit a wave we would bury our bow and generate huge showers of sea spray, the spray would land on deck and immediately freeze, this created more weight, causing more spray and more ice, an endless cycle that was causing us to become top heavy and in danger of capsizing. The American crab boats would have the same problem and every year 1 or more would capsize with all hands lost. So the bos’wain was getting everyone on deck to break up the ice.
We put on sweaters and then heavy arctic parkas, this was the late 70’s, no GORTEX or other fancy stuff, cloth parkas with fur lined hoods. And thick fur lined gloves that reached to your elbow. Twenty of us mustered at the foc’sle hatch and grabbed ax handles and baseball bats and made our way onto the foc’sle. The deck crew had previously put up “Life Lines” across the deck. We grabbed these as we made our way forward. The ship had slowed down but was still rising and falling 20 ft every 15 seconds. You learned to control it with your knees. At the bottom, you flexed to take the weight, at the top you flexed to keep yourself from being launched into the sky. Like trying to stop yourself on a trampoline, only it never stops. This is one of the reasons my knees are sore to this day. 10 years of doing this stuff. When the spray hit us, we turned our backs to it. We were soon covered in ice ourselves but continue on. There was no other option. We had to get to the fishermen, and to do so we had to break off the ice.
Once on the foc’sle we started swinging our bats at the ice while others shoveled it over the side. You tried to hit the ice as hard as you could without slipping off the deck into the water. As they say one hand for the ship and one for yourself. We did this for about an hour till we had removed the danger then returned to the warm Mess deck, knowing we would have to do this again in a few hours. Ah to be in the British Navy and issued a cup of grog. Nothing for the U.S. Sailor, the puritans wouldn’t allow it. So, All night, 1 hour on deck, 2 hours getting warm, repeat.
After 2 days we finally reached the Pack Ice, this was my first time seeing it, some observations: the Swells were moving it up and down at the edges but within a few hundred yards, the swells had vanished, all the power that tossed our ship around so easily, could be tamed with a few inches of ice spread over hundreds of square mile. The Sky was blue and ice was White, whiter than anything I have ever seen, You had to wear sun glasses, even a few minutes and you would go blind. I also learned that the Ice was not one big piece, like on a lake or pond. But was constantly moving, large sections 100s of yards wide would rub up against other sections. Everything was slowly moving about, creating ridges and valleys, similar to Tectonic plates, but on a much smaller scale.
We made our way into the ice, at first we progressed easily, it was only a few inches thick and the Storis was made for this stuff, even when it thickened to 6 inches we continued on. A constant groaning sound coming from the hull. Down in the berthing area it was so loud that it was difficult to sleep.
After a day of steady progress we came to a sudden stop. The ice had become over 2 ft thick and we could go no further. At this point the Bridge watch started to look for breaks in the ice, long leads where the ice had split apart, sometimes as much as a 100 ft wide. These leads would open up, then close again a few minutes later. We would then back up and ram our way into a lead, travel a mile or so, then back and ram our way into anther lead, continually traveling in a northerly direction to the Korean Fishing trawlers.
I had established contact with the Korean trawlers earlier in the day via Morse code, everyone onboard was OK and the ships had not experienced any damage yet, but they were firmly held by the ice and being pushed towards the island a few miles away, It was critical that we get there before they went aground. The island was uninhabited, so we could expect no rescue efforts from shore, if the ships were pushed aground, the ships would break up and the men would be unable to make it ashore, they might be able to evacuate to the ice, but close to shore the ice had a habit of breaking up. It was a dicey situation…….
See Part II in next post
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