Hurricane at sea

This week we lived with a hurricane hitting the south Texas coast. As I sat here, 200 miles from where Dolly made landfall I thought back to when, as a sailor, I was in a hurricane at sea.

It is strange, I don't remember the date. I do remember how it felt. The sea was boiling. Waves were breaking above the fourth deck. (that is 4 stories up). I was walking on the 3er deck when a wave broke over me. We had tried to get out of the way of the storm but for some reason we were unable to avoid it. We were caught on the edge of the storm. The ship was pitching (rolling back and forth). We had to head into the storm as we didn't want to roll (side to side). Think Posiden adventure. We did do some rolling but mostly we were pitching. When the waves caused the screws to come out of the water the ship shook and made a terrible noise then when the stern went back into the water and the screws hit the water again we could feel the power of the engines driving the ship. Soon the word was passed "all hands stand clear of the weather decks." Or in normal speak, don't go outside. When duty called and one had to venture outside a life line was tied to him and four others held on to the line in case he was swept off his feet. Our look outs had to stand outside in the storm and keep a look out.

In a night I will never forget we had to tie our shoes to our racks so we could find them in the morning. If you forgot you had to search for your shoes when you got up. You hooked your legs around the rack or the chains that held up the rack to keep from falling out. Eating, for those of us that wanted to do so, was strange. After going through the chow line you entered the mess decks that did not have tables or benchs set up. Either you sat crossed legged on the deck or found one of the seats welded to the bulkhead with a little table on it. All the food was cold cuts as the cook could not take a chance of cooking with hot grease or hot water and anyway, the stuff would not stay on the stoves. But there must be a law decreed in heaven that ships must always have hot coffee. There was always hot coffee. All ways! Day or night. I did not get really seasick but I came as close as I ever had. I felt sorry for those that did. People do turn a green color when they are seasick. Really seasick.

I still remember the ship trembling as the big waves hit us and the ptiching and rolling. I remember walking with legs apart and ready to put out my hands to avoid bashing into a bulkhead. Then as time passed, we exited the storm and settled down to catch up on work that had not been done and enjoy a calm sea and warm sunshine.

All in all, better to be 200 miles away then in the middle of it all.