The Night Mail

[jjb1970]

Something I find interesting about weapons, warships etc is that most of the time enthusiasts appraise them based on entirely the wrong criteria. It may sound silly (or obvious), but for example destroyers weren't primarily designed to slug it out with other destroyers, they were designed to fulfil a capability requirement. That may have included sufficient firepower to operate against enemy destroyers but it was more likely to focus on screening capital ships from torpedo boats and submarines, air warfare and torpedo attack of major enemy surface units. The Internet is full of people who drool over spec sheets, main armament calibre, speed, armour etc to pronounce that A is better than B without really appreciating they've arrived at a completely irrelevant conclusion. For warships especially some key determinants of performance are not really apparent from reading specification sheets, such as sea keeping, endurance, stability, structural strength and unless you understand what role they were intended to fulfil then trying to say they are good or bad is pointless. This is especially the case when it comes to people who judge ships from the amount of weapons they carry and decry some ships because they don't squeeze battleship armament into a destroyer hull. Other than modern air warfare systems nothing adds to warship size and cost quite like tank capacity and range but that's something all but invisible to many. I worked on a class of corvettes which are often described in glowing terms because they're so heavily armed, they are indeed heavily armed but they have short legs, marginal stability and are very lightly built. All qualities which might be important for some naval forces. 

[jjb1970]

I am not sure I'd be able to serve as a submariner on the boats that go really deep. I'm not sure I'd be able to be a submariner in any capacity but at least down to a certain depth they can use buoyancy to come back up, at deep depths they have to drive themselves up, and most are single screw. They have auxiliary propulsors in case the main shaft fails but most submariners I've known have said that if they were really deep and they had to rely on the 'egg whisk' they were done for.

[New Haven Neil]

I always felt seasick a bit for the first two or three days in rough weather, then was never ill again for the rest of the trip (4 months ish for us).  I was never actually physically sick when at sea for a living, but travelling to here across the Irish Sea on the &^%$£"! Seacat fast craft has had me very close to it a couple of times!  Hideous thing.

[J. S. Bach]

Test posting. Working now, I was having all sorts of trouble with TNM but not ER or any of the other threads that I follow. Strange!

Edited October 12, 2022 by J. S. Bach

[Happy Hippo]

For a second I thought JSB had posted Test Positive!🤣

[SM42]

I once got seasick sat in an office in central Birmingham 

 

Reason was I was watching a video of the aftermath of an incident and  it could not be edited for evidential reasons. 

 

The net result was the camera spent most of the  time rocking side to side as the operator walked through the scene. 

 

Seasickness is a very odd sensation to have in  a fifth floor office.

 

At sea I have no problems at all.

 

Andy

[Sasquatch]

The flower class design was based on a whaler and prone to pitching and rolling, a small ship to be out on in the north Atlantic.

 

We were on a Dunkirk-Dover ferry in a force 5 once. It wasn't too bad until the ferry turned around the sand banks. All the furniture was up against the starboard windows, all the passengers and crew were nowhere to be seen and Mrs. Squatch vowed never to get on a ferry ever again. I seemed to be the only one enjoying it, sitting in the middle of the boat not letting my mind wander from where the horizon was, which kept rising in and out of view from port to starboard! What made things worse was they couldn't get into Dover and we arrived 5 hours late.

 

🤢 

[Happy Hippo]

My mother has just been complaining to me that she keeps putting the wrong ingredients into her recipes.

 

I told her to use a spell checker!

Edited October 12, 2022 by Happy Hippo

[Sitham Yard]

31 minutes ago, Sasquatch said:

The flower class design was based on a whaler and prone to pitching and rolling, a small ship to be out on in the north Atlantic.

 

We were on a Dunkirk-Dover ferry in a force 5 once. It wasn't too bad until the ferry turned around the sand banks. All the furniture was up against the starboard windows, all the passengers and crew were nowhere to be seen and Mrs. Squatch vowed never to get on a ferry ever again. I seemed to be the only one enjoying it, sitting in the middle of the boat not letting my mind wander from where the horizon was, which kept rising in and out of view from port to starboard! What made things worse was they couldn't get into Dover and we arrived 5 hours late.

 

🤢 

My late mother was seasick on the Gosport Ferry! Apparently, there were two destroyers going past at the time.

 

Many years ago, I woke up in bed feeling seasick. Turned out to be an ear infection. 

 

Andrew

[Northmoor]

34 minutes ago, Sasquatch said:

The flower class design was based on a whaler and prone to pitching and rolling, a small ship to be out on in the north Atlantic.

 

We were on a Dunkirk-Dover ferry in a force 5 once. It wasn't too bad until the ferry turned around the sand banks. All the furniture was up against the starboard windows, all the passengers and crew were nowhere to be seen and Mrs. Squatch vowed never to get on a ferry ever again. I seemed to be the only one enjoying it, sitting in the middle of the boat not letting my mind wander from where the horizon was, which kept rising in and out of view from port to starboard! What made things worse was they couldn't get into Dover and we arrived 5 hours late.

 

🤢 

Similarly I've only once felt seasick, on a small tourist boat between Sarande (Albania) and Corfu.  It was fine on the way out and most of the way back, I was out on the stern in the sunshine and fresh air but the frequency with which the boat was rolling and pitching was obviously "just in the sweetspot".  I lay down in the middle of the lounge and was fine.

 

We did several ferry day trips to Ireland (and duty free in those days) and Dad being Dad, we would go in winter when it was dirt cheap.  I was never bothered by the rough seas, unlike the locals (from both countries) who as soon as they were onboard, were looking in anguish for the bar to settle their nerves but which presumably made things much worse.  One return to Pembroke Dock was the evening sailing on the old Innisfallen in a Southerly gale.  Even in the dark so with no horizon as a reference, I wasn't bothered and slept through some of the journey, but there were people looking very ill everywhere.  Dad went out on deck at one point and found the crosswind was accelerating round the end of the bridge, such that he couldn't only pull himself forward along the railings, estimating the wind speed to be about 100mph.

[Happy Hippo]

7 minutes ago, Sitham Yard said:

My late mother was seasick on the Gosport Ferry! Apparently, there were two destroyers going past at the time.

 

Many years ago, I woke up in bed feeling seasick. Turned out to be an ear infection. 

 

Andrew

A lot of inner ear problems can cause balance issues.

 

I find a half bottle of good malt whisky is restorative of balance in such situations.

 

You either walk upright in a straight line instead of weaving from side to side, or fall asleep.

[Winslow Boy]

4 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

A lot of inner ear problems can cause balance issues.

 

I find a half bottle of good malt whisky is restorative of balance in such situations.

 

You either walk upright in a straight line instead of weaving from side to side, or fall asleep.

 

I'd like to see a hippo weaving from side or were you relaying something you'd witnessed Big H.

[PhilJ W]

36 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

My mother has just been complaining to me that she keeps putting the wrong ingredients into her recipes.

 

I told her to use a spell checker!

Don't you mean mother-in-law?

[New Haven Neil]

2 hours ago, Sasquatch said:

We were on a Dunkirk-Dover ferry in a force 5 once. It wasn't too bad until the ferry turned around the sand banks.

 

I suspect it was more than a 5!  We get 5 and 6 in the summer here, even the fast craft - the 'Vomit Comet' - goes in a 6 but not more.

 

In other news - I suspect a shudder can be felt in Hunt Towers from here......I suppose at least its not green.

 

[simontaylor484]

I once took the wife on a river boat cruise in York and she turned green with seasickness. My ex RN Grandad found it highly amusing. Although he used to say the rhythmic swell was worst for sea sickness. He served on an I class destroyer then a Ruler class aircraft carrier that was based on a cargo ship

[Compound2632]

25 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

In other news - I suspect a shudder can be felt in Hunt Towers from here......I suppose at least its not green.

 

 

No issue there - an accurate representation of the engine as it was at Butterley for some time - dates? Currently in blue faking it as an S&DJR example, I gather. Very smart it looks too.

 

Many years ago I had a Hornby one - 16440 - in the same as-preserved livery. 

Edited October 12, 2022 by Compound2632

[polybear]

7 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

I once took the wife on a river boat cruise in York and she turned green with seasickness. My ex RN Grandad found it highly amusing. Although he used to say the rhythmic swell was worst for sea sickness. He served on an I class destroyer then a Ruler class aircraft carrier that was based on a cargo ship

 

Bear has been across the channel on the Vomit Comet without problem, yet I do recall being on a Thames River Cruiser waiting for it to depart from it's moorings and thinking "If you don't get this f,thing moving very soon I'm gonna barf......".

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Good afternoon all,

 

I have news. I have not been seen in these parts for sometime and am unlikely to be seen for time again. Sadly life and all its trappings have manged to squeeze out any remaining time for RMweb. So i will not be visiting or posting regularly until at least the new year. Fear not, the black dog has not worsened and I am in no danger of dying. Time has simply become a very precious commodity in recent past.

 

My pm's will of course still be open and I'll do my best to reply speedily.

 

 

Douglas

Edited October 12, 2022 by Florence Locomotive Works

[New Haven Neil]

It's nice to see you pass by, Douglas.  Take care.

[Happy Hippo]

2 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Don't you mean mother-in-law?

She's mother in law to my brother's wife, so fits by association!

[SM42]

Why is it that when you paint  white emulsion it looks awful. 

It's patchy and there are dark patches visible from the surface being painted.?

 

Yet when it dries it seems to have developed some magical quality that makes all those annoying things disappear and coverage is greatly enhanced.

 

It is a most peculiar phenomena 

 

Andy

Edited October 12, 2022 by SM42

[Winslow Boy]

Have you tried switching off the light and getting down from the ladder. I only say that because I found that painting with the light on cast quite strong shadows. 

[SM42]

11 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

Have you tried switching off the light and getting down from the ladder. I only say that because I found that painting with the light on cast quite strong shadows. 

 

Makes no difference. 

 

That patch that doesn't seem to have covered well when the paint is wet, disappears when it dries. 

 

V odd, but useful

 

Andy

 

[simontaylor484]

I tried that Magic white paint here it went on pink but dries white. Problem was the plaster was that new it just dried it out in minutes and you couldn't make any discernable difference so you had to be up and down the ladder anyway

[Sasquatch]

1 hour ago, simontaylor484 said:

I tried that Magic white paint here it went on pink but dries white. Problem was the plaster was that new it just dried it out in minutes and you couldn't make any discernable difference so you had to be up and down the ladder anyway

 

Did you splash on some latex primer first? Very important that.