USS Gerald R Ford

[Christel]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/1 ... d-anchors/

That must be quite a sight to see that coming around the corner :)

[Itskeith]

Definitely enough to put you off your golf swing!

[Les]

One missile in the right place and it's an expensive ornament for the fish to play in.

[hitchphil]

The pubs in Portsmouth & Southampton will be feisty tonight!

[1066]

I remember seeing the Nimitz in Chesapeake Bay when she was just launched in the early '70's - Quite awe-inspiring really.

[Plumose]

One missile in the right place and it's an expensive ornament for the fish to play in.

And if done in a suitable place/depth would get lots of divers visiting too

[Christel]

1066, it must have been...isn't it the biggest warship in the world, or at least close?

[1066]

1066, it must have been...isn't it the biggest warship in the world, or at least close?

I believe it was at the time. I was on a smallish 30,000 ton tanker, running between various ports in the Caribbean and up the Chesapeake Bay to Maryland in a regular 3 week cycle. It was winter-time and the difference in temperature between steaming up the Florida coast in the golf stream to a couple of days later into sub-zero was mind numbing.

Although I later served on ships twice the weight of the Nimitz at over 2000,000tonnes they never looked quite so dramatic as most of the bulk was under water.

[Christel]

1066, did you experience the hurricane season then?

[1066]

1066, did you experience the hurricane season then?

Yes, indeed. I was on another Shell Tanker, SS Asprella carrying volatile chemicals on a regular run from Stanlow UK to Puerto Rico, it was a regular five week round trip. As it was a regular run the ship was a "weather ship" sending in regular reports to the met office so the Atlantic weather charts could be drawn up.
The reports were compiled and transmitted every four hours by morse code. Every aspect was broken down into 5 letter blocks for transmission, sea temp, air temp, pressure, cloud type, cloud height, humidity, dew point, cloud coverage, wind speed etc.etc. It used to take most of the four hours to compile the data and as soon as it had been sent off, you started again.

In the hurricane season we would be asked to gather specific data and sometime had to send in two hourly reports. Highest wind speeds I encountered was around 140mph.

This was in the late '60's, early 70's, it seems so archaic now with the weather charts being printed out on teletype machines. And the first computerised radar being programmed with punch card rolls.