Sea State in the Denmark Strait 24.5.41

[Vic Dale]

I have been watching some of the video clips of the Battle in the Denmark Strait and have become aware of a phenomenon I noticed when I was at sea. Standing on a gun sponson 25 feet above the sea the water looked a long way down in harbour, yet when the ship was at sea, the water looked that much closer. This was true forward as well as aft. As the sea became rougher, the water looked even closer, until it seemed as if I could reach out and touch it. That is how the sea looks to me in those clips and one has to remember that the camera is 30 feet above the sea, whilst it looks as though it is nearly at deck level.

Prinz Eugen has the look of a destroyer. And that is exactly how it felt, to me. A carrier seemed to shrink some as it got into rough weather. The sea in the DS that morning was considered very rough and Bismarck can be see shipping it green as she dips to the swell. The Atlantic bow is not keeping the water off the ship at all and many tons of water can be seen shipped and cascading aft to deluge the turrets. This despite the fact that Bismarck was a very stable ship.

There was relatively little wind blowing, it was just force three, so the rough sea is attributable to what was rolling in from the Atlantic coupled with the heavy currents in the DS, plus the rollers hitting the shelf around Greenland. Seeing how the sea is washing over Bismarck we can easily understand why the British ships reported difficult spotting conditions except at the higher levels. Hood's and PoW's 30 foot Turret mounted range finders would have been no use at all in such conditions.

In my time I have experienced all manner of foul and heavy weather, yet the most damage done to any ship I served in, was to HMS Albion returning from the Far East when crossing the Biscay. WE had been ordered to secure the ship for heavy weather yet there was not a breath of wind that day, the sun was shining brightly. Huge rollers were coming in off the Atlantic, striking the shelf and piling up very large waves which went rolling into the bay. The ship was rolled almost over on her beam ends at times and with each wave she hung there for a good while.

As a watch keeper with the whole day off, I enjoyed the spectacle and took to the motion as if it were a wonderful long fairground ride. However, on going below for my supper, I learned of the rather hard time those who stayed below endured. All of the lockers on the port side of our broadside mess deck broke loose and rolled about threatening to kill or break limbs. They had to be roped down to stop them crashing about. Heavy radio reception and coding equipment had overloaded their resilient mounts and they had to be heavily lashed to stop them destroying themselves. In the hangar they had a particularly entertaining time too, with the possibility of expensive Wessex V helicopters taking charge.

It seems there was damage done in most of the mess decks and masses of crockery was released from it's storm proof stowage to shatter on the deck. I believe also that was the day FFO was forced up a breather pipe and into a compartment on 3 deck. I had to help clean that up the next day. That stuff is like black treacle and smells evil.

[Vic Dale]

Further on the sea state on the morning of the 24th of May, I think this photo taken shortly after the battle shows just how rough it was and goes some way toward explaining why no ranges could be obtained from the turret rangefinders. PoW is making about 25knots at this time and the exit hole from the hit on the compass platform in the breastwork on the highest level can just be made out.

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[alecsandros]

Very interesting Vic,
From what ship was the picture of PoW taken ?

[Wordy]

As a watch keeper with the whole day off, I enjoyed the spectacle and took to the motion as if it were a wonderful long fairground ride.

When it was heavy weather we used to stand in the NAAFI flat and when the ship was coming down off a big wave we'd jump up and try and hang onto the support beams on the deckhead.

[Vic Dale]

Hi Alecsandros.

It was HMS Norfolk.

To Wordy.

I think we have somehow jumped threads here, not at l all certain how that might have happened.

We also got up to some antics in "roughers." My favourite on big ships was to go as far forward as possible and scoot up the ladders when she went into a trough. I once did this in the capstan flat and slightly over did the first step. I shot up the ladder and just about manged to steer myself through the manhole in the hatch above. I flew out of the manhole and nearly hit the deck head above, coming to a sprawling heap on the deck behind this guy, who was so surprised he screamed like a girl. Another time I misjudged the pitch or tried to go against it and the increase in gravity caused my leg to buckle at the knee and laid me in a heap on the deck. In really heavy weather, the forefoot of the old Albion would come clear of the water and the fight deck would often take it green, so the rise and fall would be more than 100 feet - what a ride.