During my Navy days aboard USS Nimitz, we never encountered what I'd call really bad seas. However, as this video shows, it can happen. This is a Nimitz-class carrier rounding the horn of South Africa.

I'm hoping no one was trying to land on the deck in those seas.

Sandy

It's a miracle that helicopter on the bow didn't go over board.

A multi-point tiedown no doubt. I forget what we called it when we had a maximum tiedown. 8 point tiedown, 10 point, something like that.

That direct sea water to the aircraft can't be good either.

Can you imagine being on one of the escort ships.. say a missle frigate or something. Do they still you destorers for escorts?

Oh yes, carriers don't travel alone. There are usually two guided missile destroyers or cruisers along for the trip. In fact, before I was posted to the Nimitz I was on one of her usual escorts - the former USS Texas CGN-39.

Those Texas days were fun. That was where I first experienced 40 feet of green water crashing over the bridge as the front third of the ship went underwater every so often. Try doing that and keep two nuclear reactors running! Those were some amazing watches. I recall getting 37 pressurizer low-level alarms in one 4 hour watch. But the reactors stayed critical and we plowed on through the seas.

The original USS Texas is at Seawolf Park between Houston and Galveston. If anyone books a cruise from there and wants something interesting to do before or after their cruise, there are still guided tours of her. Very interesting tour, it's been many years since I did it, I think I'll head back down there soon and tour her again.

Cheers, Neil

In the great traditions of the Navy, we had a silver tea service aboard the nuclear cruiser Texas which had been on the original battleship. I love that kind of thing since it keeps a connection from the past with the new. I remember the memorabilia was in a couple glass showcases aft of the mess deck outside the Chief Engineers office.

Dave, that is a very interesting site; I never heard of it before.

Sonny

Please excuse the dumb question - how does the size of the carrier compare to that of a cruise ship?

I know some cruise ships sail around the horn, and I can't imagine too many passengers being happy with seas like that!

I think it looks pretty awesome, though - does that make me crazy??

Look at this website for a comparison between a Nimitz-class carrier and the Freedom Of The Seas. Don't confuse GRT with actual weight. The Nimitz displaces 97,000 tons and this is different than a GRT (gross registered ton), which is a measure of volume.

Essentially, both ships are about as long and about as wide except for the flight deck. The big thing is the draft, the more the better in rough seas. In the case of the Nimitz, that 37 feet of draft also includes a good part of two really heavy reactor plants. Another thing is cruise ships have stabilizers and carriers don't.

thanks dave, that's good stuff - i never did fully understand a ship's measurement

so, since the ships are roughly of equal size, and the Freedom has stabilizers while the Nimitz has a larger draft, is it possible that passengers could witness a similar sight during there cruise around the horn?

quote:

is it possible that passengers could witness a similar sight during there cruise around the horn?

Perhaps. Bear in mind that in the days of sailing ships, they encountered seas like those too!

You can bet that many hapless sailors have lost their dinghies in those waters. Mel Fisher's crew could probably pay of the national debt with the potential salvage of that section of Davy Jones' locker.

seriously....there must have been at least a few ships that went down in seas like that

and i just noticed my terrible "there/their" mistake in my last post...ugh, i hate doing something like that