WILD WATER

23 March 2025:  Spring looms and boats will be getting splashed for longing and deprived sailors and boaters - Some of us in the southern climes have been fortunate to have our boats all winter in warm sunny waters, but you folks in the frozen wasteland of snow country are finally getting the break you have waited for all these past few cold months. And speaking of getting out on the water, here's one for the more daring of you! From Live Science:

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Drake Passage: The 'most dreaded bit of ocean on the globe' — where waves reach up to 80 feet

The Drake Passage off the West Antarctic Peninsula is a notoriously dangerous channel that connects the Atlantic, Pacific and Southern oceans.

The waves are so strong in the Drake Passage, their effect has been dubbed the "Drake shake." (Image credit: Mlenny/Getty Images)

Why it's incredible: The passage is one of the world's most dangerous ocean crossings.

The Drake Passage is an ocean channel between the southern tip of South America and the West Antarctic Peninsula. Named after the 16th-century explorer Sir Francis Drake, it is notorious for whipping up wild storms and monster waves up to 80 feet (25 meters) tall.

The passage is "the most dreaded bit of ocean on the globe," Alfred Lansing wrote in his 1959 book "Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage to the Antarctic." At around 600 miles (965 kilometers) wide, the channel is relatively narrow compared with the ocean around it, meaning currents speed up as they are forced through the passage. The same goes for southern winds, which blow unimpeded from west to east around Antarctica before they reach the Drake Passage.

 

As winds funnel through the passage, they whisk up huge waves, some of which can be dangerous — and even deadly — for passengers on boats making the 48-hour-long crossing. In the best case, the waves make for a bumpy ride, known as the "Drake shake."

 

"It's always interesting when you go to dinner and they put sticky mats on all the tables to make sure your plates and things don't slide around," Karen Heywood, a professor of physical oceanography at the University of East Anglia in the U.K. who sailed through the Drake Passage in 2024, told National Geographic.

The Drake Passage is a "melting pot" of currents from the Atlantic, Pacific and Southern oceans, Heywood said. The waters are so turbulent that the layers which normally make up the seas mix together, meaning the passage draws a lot more carbon down into its depths than other parts of the ocean do.

 

The world's oceans lock away more than 30% of the carbon humans emit into the atmosphere every year, and the Drake Passage could be one of a handful of places where this activity is particularly pronounced, National Geographic reported.

The passage also keeps Antarctica cold, because it cuts off warm air that would otherwise blow south from South America. Research suggests that when the Drake Passage opened between 49 million and 17 million years ago, it triggered significant cooling in Antarctica and contributed to the growth of giant ice sheets on the continent.

The temperature drop as you traverse the passage is noticeable even for people on ships, Alberto Naveira Garabato, a professor of physical oceanography at the University of Southampton in the U.K., told National Geographic. "Suddenly you are in this icy world," Naveira Garabato said.

So, while extreme winds and currents inside the passage create terrifying conditions for passengers, they also help to maintain Antarctica's frigid climate — although climate change is slowing the system.

Were it not for the Drake Passage and its wild weather, the frozen continent would likely hold much less ice than it currently does.

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We have been through the Drake Passage - on a small passenger ship and we were blessed with relatively calm waters, but a single look at a chart or map will show you how, with nothing but open water all the way around the globe, the winds and seas can really get huge.... and those intrepid sailors who race the 'round the world single handed races can attest that those waters in the southern ocean can get pretty exciting!

Until next time,

                             Fair Winds,

                                    Old Salt

SUBMARINE "SINKS" TRAIN

 9 March 2025: Once again, we (most of the United States) went through the sleep depriving exercise of setting our clocks ahead one hour for ... well, not so sure these days. Used to be for the farmers, but now folks generally think it's a waste of time [pun intended!]. And with a look back in naval history, we have the story of the USS Barb, an American submarine which made her mark during WWII. From National Interest.org.

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Barb and her gonzo CO were a problem for America’s enemies—and a much-needed solution for the United States.

When one reads about the exploits of the World War II-era Gato-class United States Navy submarine, USS Barb (SS-220), one almost sits in disbelief that any Navy crew pulled off the kind of missions they did. But this is a matter of record.

The Barb, once dubbed “The Galloping Ghost of the China Coast,” was a product of her unorthodox skipper, Commander Eugene “Lucky” Fluckey. Over the course of the war, Barb conducted twelve wartime patrols and amassed a record that stands out even today among the US Navy’s submarine service. The sub is credited with having sunk a whopping 17 enemy vessels, totaling 96,628 tons, including the Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carrier Ur’yō. Indeed, most historians assess that the USS Barb’s contributions to the Pacific Theater of WWII were by themselves critical to the overall American victory in the Pacific. 

The Gato-class Specs

Gato-class submarines were a mainstay of the U.S. Navy in the Pacific. They were diesel-electric submarines that displaced approximately 1,525 tons when surfaced and 2,424 tons when submerged. Their surface speed reached around 23 miles per hour, and their speed undersea was about ten miles per hour. They had a range of around 11,000 nautical miles (12,658 land miles). Their maximum depth ranged between 300 and 400 feet. The Gato-class submarine had a crew complement of 6 officers and 54 enlisted, although this number could vary because of the war.

 

In terms of armaments, the Gato-class had 10 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes—six forward, four aft—and a total of 24 torpedoes aboard. These subs also came equipped with one three-inch (76 mm)/.50 caliber deck gun, and four .50-caliber machine guns. They could also come with two 20mm Oerlikon cannons for anti-aircraft defense.

As for what made this submarine go, she had four General Motors Model 16-278A V16 diesel engines driving electrical generators. There were two 126-cell batteries onboard, powering four high-speed General Electric motors with reduction gears to spin a pair of propellers.

Lucky Fluckey

Commander Fluckey was the real brains behind the Barb. During his time in command of the submarine, Fluckey devised innovative hit-and-run tactics to use against the Japanese that kept them reeling. Many of the tactics that Fluckey employed aboard the Barb were so great that they became part of the Navy’s submarine training repertoire (and, moreover, the stuff of legend). The Barb has numerous claims to fame, but one that stood out for the rest of Commander Fluckey’s life was what he claimed was the first ballistic missiles ever being fired from the USS Barb. Their target was a group of Japanese factories that were successfully destroyed by the attack.

For kicks, Fluckey deployed a group of American saboteurs ashore on Sakhalin Island, where they blew up a 16-car freight train. From that point on, Barb has held the high honor of being the only submarine in history to “sink” a train. The mission involved landing a team of volunteers on the Japanese-held island, where the saboteurs placed explosive charges under a railway track. These charges were triggered by the weight of an oncoming train, derailing it in a truly spectacular fashion and adding to Fluckey and Barb’s fame. 

And according to legend, Barb secreted herself into the notoriously shallow water of the Japanese-held Chinese Namkwan Harbor and, in the dead of night, let loose ten torpedoes, eight of which scored direct hits that sank three Japanese ships and gravely damaged another three. Barb then ripped out of the shallow harbor at her full surface speed, evading incensed Japanese defenders, and earning for herself the nickname “The Galloping Ghost of the China Coast.”

This action merely lived up to Captain Fluckey’s personal motto which read, “We don’t have problems, just solutions.” Indeed, Barb and her gonzo CO were a problem for America’s enemies—and a much-needed solution for the United States. Barb’s memory is so important the Navy announced that one of its new Virginia-class submarines will be named as the USS Barb.

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How about that for a "sea story" friends! As an interesting [ed: to us] sidebar, one of the US Navy Destroyers on which your scribe served during the conflict in Southeast Asia in the '60's earned the nickname "galloping ghost of the Vietnam coast" as we frequently turned up with guns blazing in widely separated locales. 

See you next time, 

                                              Fair Winds,

                                                   Old Salt