I was trained as a merchant watch keeper after High School. I joined the navy as a watch keeper after college. I understand the vast knowledge required for you to produce this. Regularly. Cheers. It's appreciated.
I swear every time I see a reenactment of the back of the Titanic sticking up out of the water while the front half is underwater it still gives me the chills to this day! That's just one of the most terrifying thoughts
Not only that, but every time I see this image in my mind, I now think about the absolute darkness all around due to a new moon. Imagine experiencing such a terrifying moment and NOT being able to see ANYTHING - like having one of your key senses taken away from you in a survival situation. Enhancing your other senses so you can hear every sound of crying and your mind using every bit of your imagination to fill in the gaps. That haunts me.
Imagine holding onto one of those shipside rungs/barriers as the whole ship tipped near vertical, hearing the metal torsion and tension groan under the weight of the enormous stress being placed on the welds and rivets. You'd be forgiven for shitting your daks. The idea pf a ship that large sinking ng in such a short time was unheard of. But you're holding on, bare white knuckled as that mega structure sinks below the waves. Do you jump and try to push yourself away before the rush pulls you under? Or do you wait, get sucked down, and release your hold once the air bubbles escape out of the end of the hull and push you upward to the surface? The frigid waters now your only enemy. Can you find a floating piece of debris to hold onto or mount? As hypothermia begins to shut down your extremities and rob your legs and arms of much needed blood to instead protect your essential organs. I couldn't tell you what I would've chosen. As a middle aged white man I expect I wpuldve been left aboard the ship to make my own attempt at saving myself. Hmmmmm....not my idea of fun.
I’m recently new to this channel, and I must say. This channel has brought me a passion for the history, structural, architectural, and machinery of ships, I just can’t get enough! Thank you for these well told stories, from your friend Tyler!
Ha! I’m barely awake from a heavy nights sleep, dazedly found this video, ended up in the comments section… and went “what wet blue stuff??” Thanks for the laugh To my credit, the ocean isn’t actually *blue* even though it appears that way to us ;)
1) Don't sail onto the sharp pointy things. 2) Don't rub up against the shiny white things. 3) Don't take your mandatory smoke break in the wood-panelled closet full of freshly dried bath towels. 4) Don't sail where there are planes dropping bombs or submarines loosing torpedoes. 5) When you get a call from the coast guard asking if everything's okay, *don't lie.* 6) When you have a car ferry, make sure somebody checks to see that the door is closed before you unmoor.
Sailing at night not only requires exceptional night vision it also requires excellent hearing. On the open ocean it's mainly other vessel's you are watching for. On smaller bodies of water or near shore things pick up substantially. Not only are you looking for vessel's but also rocks and shoals in calm waters and moonless nights, your hearing is more important than your vision. I can't recall how many times bird's warned me of a rock that because it was under the skyline couldn't be seen. Modern navionics have decreased shipwrecks exponentially. But accidents still happen. I personally believe that it's because we have become too reliant on instrumentation and neglect to use our natural senses. As always, a fantastic video Mr Brady.
Very interesting, thanks for the insight. Especially the part about the birds giving you a warning when rock formations are near by! Does the ships other equipment not alert you to an event like this? Though I do agree that it can be a slippery slope to rely too much on all these modern technological tools only.
@TheaSvendsen I spent quite a few years doing boat deliveries and not all of them had any navioncs on board and hardly ever any charts. You learn to sail by Compass and dead reckoning.
Mike narrating: "...and secondly they can shine into the darkness and around the ship and light up any potential hostile threats in case they're sneaking in close to engage" Me thinking: "Yeah, but they also can make you a target, like Hiei and that one destroyer in that night battle at Guadalcanal..." Mike continues: "In the 2nd Wold War in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal..." Me screaming: "GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"
Yeah, but he didnt sing 'Up There Cazaly"! What's the world coming to? Ok, I would've been happy with 'One Day In September'. But next time I click on one of his 'Oceanliner Designs' videos I better get some VFL era singing. 😅😂
@@shannonpincombe8485 alright we’re going to request our friend Mike Brady to do a little song and dance next time. If he’s a real friend then he’ll do it 😆
I'm ex Royal Navy 85/92 and part of my duties was being a lookout on the bridge. The bridge and surrounding area is in total darkness, except for a couple of red lights. Even the radar is behind black curtains. Night vision is needed and if you lose it, it takes about 15 minutes to get it fully back.
If I recall in fog special orange fog lights are used as you are already effectively blinded once the fog gets thick enough, and orange isn’t there to help you see but to help others see you.
@@AtelierGod That would make sense, particularly in harbours and other high traffic areas! Though the idea of moving around a harbour in heavy fog still makes me want to nope right out.
After watching this video, i've concluded for myself that pirates must have worn eye patches so they could preserve their night vision in one eye in order to spot booty from afar! 😂
Hello Mike, thank you so much for another great video! You've put so much work into it! ❤ When I was 14, we had a small trip to Sweden with my classmates and teacher, we crossed the Baltic Sea on board of the wonderful ferry Silja Europa, which was the first to receive the Mayday signal from the MS Estonia. However, no one else was interested in the history of ships, I immediately checked the scheme of the entire ship, and told everyone that our cabins turned out to be exactly under the car deck, and I definitely would not sleep today😅. I remember the constant noise of ice screeching the metal right next to me all night, it was very scary then. It's hard to even imagine how it was for the passengers of the 3rd class on the Titanic to hear such thing. It is good that there are a lot of self-inflating rescue rafts, helicopters, wetsuits, modern rescue boats nowadays, but unfortunately, not all ships even now have wetsuits of the right size for sailors, as it was in the case of the MV Arvin.
Thank you Mike for this informative video. The next time I find myself on a ship I'm going to look around and see if it has any of the things you mentioned in this video. And if I find them I'm going to make sure I know exactly how to find them from my cabin, stateroom or anywhere on deck.
Night time lookout is always a bit tricky. I remember doing a SAR case and one of the local fire departments had their boat out. It was always a bit of a pain doing joint searches with them because they had these really bright headlights and flood lights. They were so bright that not only did it ruin our night vision being near them, but I'm pretty sure that if you were on the boat, you wouldn't be able to see anyone in the water more than a few yards from the boat because with your night vision gone, you're completely dependent on the illumination of the area immediately surrounding the boat. Night vision goggles were useless during shoreline searches because there wasn't enough ambient light in that area for the goggles to amplify and at the time we didn't have an IR lamp as part of our loadout, or if anyone was in the brush, the night vision probably wouldn't see them. The FLIR was really our best way to search outside of binoculars and the MK-1 eyeball.
My first ship was the old SS Manukai. Open lifeboats with flemming gear and a huge hand cranked radio. This was a long time ago. A friend of mine was on an APL ship that rescued many of the crew from another ship that had sunk, different company. A lot of the men drowned wearing their life vests. They had been in the water a long time. He said the whistles were a godsend and helped them find those still living. I was on the MV Manukai when we picked up a fighter pilot who plane had gone down near the Aleutions. There safety gear was way different from ours.
As an occasional cruise ship passenger, this is the best synopsis of rescue equipment I have come across. I would still prefer to be in an enclosed lifeboat in case of disaster, but my confidence in a raft is much higher, now. I always attend the lifeboat drill, and I always pay attention.
In light of all this advanced technology I have to wonder how the Costa Concordia disaster played out so pitifully bad. Close to shore, warm and moderate seas, plenty of time, and yet 32 passengers (of 3229 in total) lost their lives. I guess it really comes down to the officers and crew as to how these things will end up. The human factor strikes yet again.
@@Yen-pg3yd I think that supports my comment, in that even having all of this advanced technology available - if the crew / officers fail to do their jobs your chances are significantly reduced.
As Mike pointed out, on-board communications are the single most critical factor-deciding both the *extent* of potential casualties and also *who* (if anybody) gets out unscathed. The one thing _Titanic, Sewol, Concordia,_ and Air France 447 *all* had in common were crews that failed to communicate effectively once an emergency situation developed. In 1912, before the invention of PA systems, it's tragic but understandable. In 2007, or 2014, it's shameful.
Gotta give credit to the folks that actually have to sit down and analyse all these potential risks, and then come up with all these safety solutions. Remarkable!
7:35 I haven't noticed this before, but this a pretty cool picture as you can actually see the projectile that was fired just slightly above the horizon, and the shockwave it's creating as it flies through the air.
Your description of the life raft canisters was enlightening. On my wife and my 2023 cruise on the Sea Cloud, I often wondered about these racks of cylinders. My own theory was that there was still a significant enough U-boat threat in the Mediterranean that ships had to carry depth charges. I guess I was wrong.
Mike, at 03:30, don’t forget, for vessels over 50m there should be a forward white light at the bow in addition to the steaming light, and 50m+ is definitely ocean liner territory 🙂 So you should see the port and starboard laterals, the mast steaming light plus the forward white light. And at 07:15 … who could ever imagine a ship running aground in the Suez Canal and blocking it for days? 🫢 Here’s looking at you Evergreen!
COSPAS-SARSAT is an unsung hero. We all think of GPS and satellite communications nowadays. Heck, we'll just use a satellite phone and tell somebody of our GPS position! But COSPAS-SARSAT, a US-Soviet cooperation started at the height of the Cold War, was much simpler. The satellite did only one thing: It listened to the signals of distressed airplanes and ships at 406 kHz, and played back any signal to the ground station. Because the satellite's orbit and velocity were known, the engineers at the ground station could calculate the position of the wreck from the Doppler shift in the recorded signal.
I've done the recovery, after they test the viking rafts. Those things are pretty cool. Self deploying life rafts, with the chutes to get from deck height down to the water. I never got to go down the chute, but I did have to dive down and recover the big sleds they ride on.
Some people have much better night vision than others. Few nations gave this much thought, but Japan seized on this trait and carefully screened sailors to find those few with this gift. Japan actively used these sailors to give them an incredible edge in night fighting. The US Navy never knew about this advantage until after the war.
As someone who worked briefly in the merchant marine in the early 80s, I'm still astonished by the size and performance of modern cargo ships like the Evergiven. Just keeping track of the boxes (containers) must occupy some data servers somewhere. My god, the manifest for each voyage must be gigabytes of data!The idea of slow shipping to save fuel is interesting - do you suppose that will become more common in the future? BTW, in a real emergency, dropping anchor to stop might be necessary, but the amount of damage to undersea cables and the like can be substantial! Very interesting presentation, and I'd recommend it to anyone thinking about going on a pleasure cruise...cheers!
Mike, look into the atmospheric conditions that night. There was refraction, a kind of mirage that made relatively close objects disappear behind a kind of horizon. It was a major factor in not seeing the iceberg in time.
Radar IS a type of light, the same as the spotlights you mentioned in use during WWII. Radio waves are the precise exact 100% same thing as visible light. They both exist on the same spectrum (the electromagnetic or “EM” spectrum), with radio being a slightly higher frequency than visible light. The EM spectrum is enormous, encompassing everything lower frequency than visible light, like x rays, gamma rays and ultraviolet, and everything higher frequency like infrared, microwave and radio. The visible part- the stuff we can see with the Mark 1 Eyeball- is about 4 thousandths off the whole spectrum. Radio is about 30x times larger. So in a very real sense, radar IS a headlight.
I was out on the Mississippi River years ago with my fishing boat and the motor would not start.. so I had to paddle. Then a fully loaded barge came into view. He simply come over the PA stating "Move your vessel!" Over and over as I feevorishly paddle towards shore and a out of the main channel. Scary stuff.. I made it obviously. Strangely after I calmed down I tried the motor once again and it fired right up! 😂 I never had an issue with it again.
FWIW, the same principles for stopping also apply to river and canal boats. However, many rivers and canals have quite low speed limits (e.g., 6 mph on Shakespeare's Avon), so even a 15-ton narrowboat can almost always stop within its own length.
Battleships have two rudders which are used as a brake in an emergency. They would both turn inwards. But also note that is when you lose total control of your steerage.
I always look forward to watching your videos thank you for that. I'm no expert though but many ships in Greenland have lights, old ships on the top bridge and new ships on the front. In my 25 years of experience near and on the sea, I have seen many ships in my time in Greenland. So it's not just ice breakers that have lights
Japanese trained rourinely at night combat all through 30s in northern pacific hellhole waters wild waters. They even got harsh lessons of statibility of vessels. You train like in wartime.
One of your best videos. Thank you. My one comment is that I think your thoughts on open life boats and life rafts would be very much different if you ever had to use one. Life rafts are cheap, difficult to handle, and a poor alternative, to which the staff and crew are typically relegated. It is one area where one can see the class system still in place on modern cruise ships. Personally, I think they should go the way of Edwardian collapsible-life rafts, i .e., into the history books. They do have their beneficial uses, which you highlight nicely. I just do not feel they should be used as a front-line rescue tool of choice for anyone and certainly not for any particular class, but rather as a backup. One thing I would add… a far more common danger on modern ships is fire. I highly recommend that anyone, passenger or crew, when they first board and find their stateroom, seek out the closest fire fighting utilities so that know where they are kept. You will not be able to locate them once smoke is billowing in the passageway. I also recommending counting the number of steps from your room to the closest exit to the deck, because again you may not even be able to see the door when the passageway is full of smoke. Mike, there is so much more in regard to fire that it could make for a totally separate safety video. Just a thought.
We were entering Sydney Harbour at night a few years ago when we lost all steering, as we weaved around trying to steer using two screws a large cruise ship behind us lit us up with their searchlight, it was actually quite intimidating.
As a pilot, I learned that accidents, incidents and disasters seldom happen because of one wrong thing. It takes a cluster. Similarly, with Titanic, if they had heeded iceberg warnings, or radios were better used and distress rockets were the correct colour and keys to the binocular safe were available and if she was going more slowly and, and, and. Like I say, a cluster.
Nice video! Thanks for producing this great content! Also, in addition to radar, modern vessels can utilize FLIR (Forward Looking InfraRed) cameras to visually see into the darkness without a spotlight and spot a variety of obstacles and issues. Definitely doesn't replace radar but seems to be a great supplement to it.
dark little factoid: the first radar demonstrator was already close to 8 years old when titanic sank... and it wouldnt have helped anyways because icebeargs are nearly invisible on navigations radar. you can see them on weather radar thou.
Ships navigation probably has SOME new tech, such as Lidar, though even this would be challenging is certain situations, where rough seas would cause false transmisions or detection. More traditional radar would likely require very challenging tuning as well. Inter-ship signsling could resolve issues, with tech such as ADS or ADS-B, or Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS), also referred to as Airborne Collision Avoidance System (ACAS), is a system that utilizes secondary surveillance radar (SSR). These would require substantial investment and international cooperation, never an easy thing.
a "moonless" night has nothing to do with the moon being hidden by the earth's shadow: it means that the moon isn't up at night, because it's in the wrong location. 99.9% of the time, the moon isn't shaded by the earth. the exceptions are lunar eclipses, which happen during full moons.
Your section of the emergency equipment available, it's use and function, plus how safe they are/they make you, should be available for all cruise ship passengers to watch! Maybe even mandatory viewing BEFORE that first cocktail gets served... ? 😊 Its well thought out. It's as detailed as it needs to be. And your delivery style is sure to have passenger complete watching the segment. Overall an excellent video. Details about a few things I wasnt aware of. Such as Titanic's actual stopping distance. I knew it was part of her sea trials (like with all ships) yet i can't recall ever hearing the recorded stopping distance. Nor her turning radius...! Thank you for enlightening me of that one oiece if information.
My father had 20/10 vision until the day he died. I remember being up in the mountains and he could see small details from hundreds of yards or even a few miles that I would miss even after he told me where to look. There is no substitute for excellent vision/night vision. By the way using a spotlight in fog doesn't work well as the fog scatters the light making it useless.
I wonder why a red spotlight might not have been possible to both preserve night vision and provide distance illumination. My only guess is that that colored light is so weak that a spotlight wouldn't really be possible.
Mike, talking about disasters, would you consider making a video about the sinking of the HMT Lancastria, its tragedy has been hidden for a while but it is well know from western France, where im from ;) . Take care.
i can confirm, i have used the IJN Akizuki in war thunder and it has a high propensity for exploding. yes, i am a primary source. thank you for reading.
I've seen all these individual videos before, but I still watched this whole thing 😁Actually I'm not even sure why I've watched every one of your videos and became a channel member, I have submechanophobia and I'm absolutely terrified of large ships, what am I doing here, LOL
Seems the suez lights would have been beneficial as the source was below the rail and would have preserved night vision if it were aimed straight ahead and not towards the surface of the water.
Watching your channel is like diving into a world of fun adventures and incredible events. Keep surprising and inspiring us with your bright talent and creativity!🐛💕🤸
I think the biggest safety flaw of modern cruiseships: They aren't required to have a double hull - and their hull thickness is tiny in comparison to their overall size and weight. Sooner or later - one of these mega-cruisers will sink. It's just a matter of time....
My first video was about why ships don't have spotlights. And now I'm addicted to this for sleeping like cocaines while awake. Thanks, my friend. Mike Brady, I hear your name is.
Imperial Japanese Navy vetted all of their concscripts for night seeing. The best did that, and nothing else on ships. Nighttime lookouts. They had excellent observartion binoculars, BUT at dead of night, or showers, they could see better with naked eye than 8x50 observartion binoculars. No other nation scientifically selectected its night lookouts. Mk1 eyeball my shit. Japanese had atleast Mk2. Time and time again, withouth fail IJN ships did see visually enemy thousands of yards or minutes before them could see Japanese. Only centimetric SG radar constantly beat IJN lookouts, when operators and officers get used to it.
We have ARPA, and ECTIS. When we are steaming in the dark there are three in the bridge(captain, mate and AB Unlimited as lookout and navigator. Daylight two officers.
member the time they didnt pry open the locker to get the binoculars and the ship hit a snowball and sank or something.......should bring an owl on board they can see at night.....if it suddenly flies away you know youre about to crash lol
Australian football fields are usually close to 160 metres long. The iconic MCG is 161 metres long and that is the gold standard as far as I am concerned. So, when you use the phrase "as long as three football fields" you actually mean "Three soccer fields". Im disappointed you didny use the well used "Olympic Swimming Pool" measurement but that is usually for comparimg volumes of water. As if anyone knows howucj water an Olympic Swimming pool holds....
The most important thing on a ship is the crew and passenger list, even until comparatively recently inadequate passenger lists in particular have exacerbated tragedies.
I’ve been thinking about something after watching the Bruce I reputation video. Considering how it was basically expected that a gentleman, in that era, had a “responsibility” to go down with the ship rather than take a spot on a lifeboat when women and children remained behind - what of the crew and officers? Obviously some were assigned to man lifeboats. But was there basically an understanding that if a ship foundered, they were almost expected (in that era) to go down too? Or at least “every man for himself”? Was there any kind of escape plan for the employees of cruise liners?
I was trained as a merchant watch keeper after High School. I joined the navy as a watch keeper after college. I understand the vast knowledge required for you to produce this. Regularly. Cheers. It's appreciated.
Mike, I never gave maritime history a second thought. However your videos and storytelling have had me hooked for months. Thankyou.
I agree… never been interested in ships, but Mike really does an excellent job 🙂
Same! I love history but ships never interested me until I began watching Mike! I'm hooked
That makes 3 of us. His passion oozes out into these videos
I swear every time I see a reenactment of the back of the Titanic sticking up out of the water while the front half is underwater it still gives me the chills to this day! That's just one of the most terrifying thoughts
Not only that, but every time I see this image in my mind, I now think about the absolute darkness all around due to a new moon. Imagine experiencing such a terrifying moment and NOT being able to see ANYTHING - like having one of your key senses taken away from you in a survival situation. Enhancing your other senses so you can hear every sound of crying and your mind using every bit of your imagination to fill in the gaps. That haunts me.
Imagine holding onto one of those shipside rungs/barriers as the whole ship tipped near vertical, hearing the metal torsion and tension groan under the weight of the enormous stress being placed on the welds and rivets. You'd be forgiven for shitting your daks. The idea pf a ship that large sinking ng in such a short time was unheard of. But you're holding on, bare white knuckled as that mega structure sinks below the waves. Do you jump and try to push yourself away before the rush pulls you under? Or do you wait, get sucked down, and release your hold once the air bubbles escape out of the end of the hull and push you upward to the surface? The frigid waters now your only enemy. Can you find a floating piece of debris to hold onto or mount? As hypothermia begins to shut down your extremities and rob your legs and arms of much needed blood to instead protect your essential organs. I couldn't tell you what I would've chosen. As a middle aged white man I expect I wpuldve been left aboard the ship to make my own attempt at saving myself. Hmmmmm....not my idea of fun.
I’m recently new to this channel, and I must say. This channel has brought me a passion for the history, structural, architectural, and machinery of ships, I just can’t get enough! Thank you for these well told stories, from your friend Tyler!
"How Ships Avoid Disaster At Sea" Oh, oh, I know this one! Is it by keeping all the wet blue stuff on the outside of the ship?
🤣🤣🤣
Ha! I’m barely awake from a heavy nights sleep, dazedly found this video, ended up in the comments section… and went “what wet blue stuff??” Thanks for the laugh
To my credit, the ocean isn’t actually *blue* even though it appears that way to us ;)
1) Don't sail onto the sharp pointy things.
2) Don't rub up against the shiny white things.
3) Don't take your mandatory smoke break in the wood-panelled closet full of freshly dried bath towels.
4) Don't sail where there are planes dropping bombs or submarines loosing torpedoes.
5) When you get a call from the coast guard asking if everything's okay, *don't lie.*
6) When you have a car ferry, make sure somebody checks to see that the door is closed before you unmoor.
Sailing at night not only requires exceptional night vision it also requires excellent hearing. On the open ocean it's mainly other vessel's you are watching for. On smaller bodies of water or near shore things pick up substantially. Not only are you looking for vessel's but also rocks and shoals in calm waters and moonless nights, your hearing is more important than your vision. I can't recall how many times bird's warned me of a rock that because it was under the skyline couldn't be seen.
Modern navionics have decreased shipwrecks exponentially. But accidents still happen. I personally believe that it's because we have become too reliant on instrumentation and neglect to use our natural senses. As always, a fantastic video Mr Brady.
Very interesting, thanks for the insight. Especially the part about the birds giving you a warning when rock formations are near by! Does the ships other equipment not alert you to an event like this? Though I do agree that it can be a slippery slope to rely too much on all these modern technological tools only.
@TheaSvendsen I spent quite a few years doing boat deliveries and not all of them had any navioncs on board and hardly ever any charts. You learn to sail by Compass and dead reckoning.
Last time I came this early, SS Eastland was still standing upright.
😢
I miss her so much
This is a euphemism right?
😂☠️
Too soon
Mike narrating: "...and secondly they can shine into the darkness and around the ship and light up any potential hostile threats in case they're sneaking in close to engage"
Me thinking: "Yeah, but they also can make you a target, like Hiei and that one destroyer in that night battle at Guadalcanal..."
Mike continues: "In the 2nd Wold War in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal..."
Me screaming: "GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"
Cape Matapan and Prince Phillip also springs to mind!
Off work today and just sat down to relax for some RUclips and then my friend Mike Brady comes along! It’s going to be a great day
Yeah, but he didnt sing 'Up There Cazaly"! What's the world coming to? Ok, I would've been happy with 'One Day In September'. But next time I click on one of his 'Oceanliner Designs' videos I better get some VFL era singing. 😅😂
@@shannonpincombe8485 alright we’re going to request our friend Mike Brady to do a little song and dance next time. If he’s a real friend then he’ll do it 😆
39:19 That's the cruiser Indianapolis of WWII notoriety, not the early battleship Indiana
Ah good; I was hoping I wasn't just going crazy when I saw that
I'm ex Royal Navy 85/92 and part of my duties was being a lookout on the bridge. The bridge and surrounding area is in total darkness, except for a couple of red lights. Even the radar is behind black curtains. Night vision is needed and if you lose it, it takes about 15 minutes to get it fully back.
Wow thank you for you service
Love the channel Mike keep up the good work
He is keeping up the good work, here's the latest.
At some point, it'd be cool to see a Normandie stand alone video. I think its such an amazing ship!
😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢
It's our friend, Mike Brady!
From OceanLiner Designs!
😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢
Our friend indeed.
My experience with spot lights in a fog at sea is that the reflected light just about blinds you.
Same. I can't see what they could do that radar couldn't.
Exactly. I cringed when I heard that. Billions of water droplets reflecting the spotlight right back at you, like being inside a light cloud.
He ck, you can get that driving down the road in your car. Turn on the high beams next time you go into some fog.
If I recall in fog special orange fog lights are used as you are already effectively blinded once the fog gets thick enough, and orange isn’t there to help you see but to help others see you.
@@AtelierGod That would make sense, particularly in harbours and other high traffic areas! Though the idea of moving around a harbour in heavy fog still makes me want to nope right out.
After watching this video, i've concluded for myself that pirates must have worn eye patches so they could preserve their night vision in one eye in order to spot booty from afar!
😂
Hello Mike, thank you so much for another great video! You've put so much work into it! ❤ When I was 14, we had a small trip to Sweden with my classmates and teacher, we crossed the Baltic Sea on board of the wonderful ferry Silja Europa, which was the first to receive the Mayday signal from the MS Estonia. However, no one else was interested in the history of ships, I immediately checked the scheme of the entire ship, and told everyone that our cabins turned out to be exactly under the car deck, and I definitely would not sleep today😅. I remember the constant noise of ice screeching the metal right next to me all night, it was very scary then. It's hard to even imagine how it was for the passengers of the 3rd class on the Titanic to hear such thing. It is good that there are a lot of self-inflating rescue rafts, helicopters, wetsuits, modern rescue boats nowadays, but unfortunately, not all ships even now have wetsuits of the right size for sailors, as it was in the case of the MV Arvin.
Thank you Mike for this informative video. The next time I find myself on a ship I'm going to look around and see if it has any of the things you mentioned in this video. And if I find them I'm going to make sure I know exactly how to find them from my cabin, stateroom or anywhere on deck.
Night time lookout is always a bit tricky. I remember doing a SAR case and one of the local fire departments had their boat out. It was always a bit of a pain doing joint searches with them because they had these really bright headlights and flood lights. They were so bright that not only did it ruin our night vision being near them, but I'm pretty sure that if you were on the boat, you wouldn't be able to see anyone in the water more than a few yards from the boat because with your night vision gone, you're completely dependent on the illumination of the area immediately surrounding the boat.
Night vision goggles were useless during shoreline searches because there wasn't enough ambient light in that area for the goggles to amplify and at the time we didn't have an IR lamp as part of our loadout, or if anyone was in the brush, the night vision probably wouldn't see them. The FLIR was really our best way to search outside of binoculars and the MK-1 eyeball.
My first ship was the old SS Manukai. Open lifeboats with flemming gear
and a huge hand cranked radio. This was a long time ago. A friend of mine
was on an APL ship that rescued many of the crew from another ship
that had sunk, different company. A lot of the men drowned wearing their
life vests. They had been in the water a long time. He said the whistles
were a godsend and helped them find those still living. I was on the
MV Manukai when we picked up a fighter pilot who plane had gone
down near the Aleutions. There safety gear was way different from ours.
As an occasional cruise ship passenger, this is the best synopsis of rescue equipment I have come across. I would still prefer to be in an enclosed lifeboat in case of disaster, but my confidence in a raft is much higher, now. I always attend the lifeboat drill, and I always pay attention.
In light of all this advanced technology I have to wonder how the Costa Concordia disaster played out so pitifully bad. Close to shore, warm and moderate seas, plenty of time, and yet 32 passengers (of 3229 in total) lost their lives. I guess it really comes down to the officers and crew as to how these things will end up. The human factor strikes yet again.
The internet historian did a video about the sinking of the costa concordia and all the things the crew did wrong.
@@Yen-pg3yd I think that supports my comment, in that even having all of this advanced technology available - if the crew / officers fail to do their jobs your chances are significantly reduced.
As Mike pointed out, on-board communications are the single most critical factor-deciding both the *extent* of potential casualties and also *who* (if anybody) gets out unscathed.
The one thing _Titanic, Sewol, Concordia,_ and Air France 447 *all* had in common were crews that failed to communicate effectively once an emergency situation developed.
In 1912, before the invention of PA systems, it's tragic but understandable. In 2007, or 2014, it's shameful.
Any plans do do a video on the Endurance? The new images that just came out are amazing and it would make a fascinating topic.
Gotta give credit to the folks that actually have to sit down and analyse all these potential risks, and then come up with all these safety solutions. Remarkable!
I hope the next video is really good, since it clearly is taking a lot of effort!
I'm excited for it!
I love this channel, as well as the moderator. Fantastic content and well delivered.
very awesome! i love how your videos are packed with so much info an i love it, have learned so much from you an part time explorer
7:35 I haven't noticed this before, but this a pretty cool picture as you can actually see the projectile that was fired just slightly above the horizon, and the shockwave it's creating as it flies through the air.
I thought the best way to avoid disasters at sea is to pray to the ship's machine spirit? 😅
Flawless. Thank you!
Your description of the life raft canisters was enlightening. On my wife and my 2023 cruise on the Sea Cloud, I often wondered about these racks of cylinders. My own theory was that there was still a significant enough U-boat threat in the Mediterranean that ships had to carry depth charges. I guess I was wrong.
Mike, at 03:30, don’t forget, for vessels over 50m there should be a forward white light at the bow in addition to the steaming light, and 50m+ is definitely ocean liner territory 🙂 So you should see the port and starboard laterals, the mast steaming light plus the forward white light.
And at 07:15 … who could ever imagine a ship running aground in the Suez Canal and blocking it for days? 🫢 Here’s looking at you Evergreen!
Attn: The flares in the video 26:27 are automotive flares. Never found on boats, I hope
COSPAS-SARSAT is an unsung hero. We all think of GPS and satellite communications nowadays. Heck, we'll just use a satellite phone and tell somebody of our GPS position!
But COSPAS-SARSAT, a US-Soviet cooperation started at the height of the Cold War, was much simpler.
The satellite did only one thing: It listened to the signals of distressed airplanes and ships at 406 kHz, and played back any signal to the ground station. Because the satellite's orbit and velocity were known, the engineers at the ground station could calculate the position of the wreck from the Doppler shift in the recorded signal.
With good crew and everything working.
I am seaman retired.
And luck too.
I've done the recovery, after they test the viking rafts. Those things are pretty cool. Self deploying life rafts, with the chutes to get from deck height down to the water. I never got to go down the chute, but I did have to dive down and recover the big sleds they ride on.
Why is the ship that got stuck in the Suez called Evergiven if Evergreen is written on it?
Some people have much better night vision than others. Few nations gave this much thought, but Japan seized on this trait and carefully screened sailors to find those few with this gift. Japan actively used these sailors to give them an incredible edge in night fighting. The US Navy never knew about this advantage until after the war.
As someone who worked briefly in the merchant marine in the early 80s, I'm still astonished by the size and performance of modern cargo ships like the Evergiven. Just keeping track of the boxes (containers) must occupy some data servers somewhere. My god, the manifest for each voyage must be gigabytes of data!The idea of slow shipping to save fuel is interesting - do you suppose that will become more common in the future?
BTW, in a real emergency, dropping anchor to stop might be necessary, but the amount of damage to undersea cables and the like can be substantial!
Very interesting presentation, and I'd recommend it to anyone thinking about going on a pleasure cruise...cheers!
Mike, look into the atmospheric conditions that night. There was refraction, a kind of mirage that made relatively close objects disappear behind a kind of horizon. It was a major factor in not seeing the iceberg in time.
Joe Franta’s channel actually has a great video on the free fall lifeboat. Shows the launching of it along with a tour inside.
Radar IS a type of light, the same as the spotlights you mentioned in use during WWII. Radio waves are the precise exact 100% same thing as visible light. They both exist on the same spectrum (the electromagnetic or “EM” spectrum), with radio being a slightly higher frequency than visible light.
The EM spectrum is enormous, encompassing everything lower frequency than visible light, like x rays, gamma rays and ultraviolet, and everything higher frequency like infrared, microwave and radio. The visible part- the stuff we can see with the Mark 1 Eyeball- is about 4 thousandths off the whole spectrum. Radio is about 30x times larger.
So in a very real sense, radar IS a headlight.
I was out on the Mississippi River years ago with my fishing boat and the motor would not start.. so I had to paddle. Then a fully loaded barge came into view. He simply come over the PA stating "Move your vessel!" Over and over as I feevorishly paddle towards shore and a out of the main channel. Scary stuff.. I made it obviously.
Strangely after I calmed down I tried the motor once again and it fired right up! 😂 I never had an issue with it again.
Blinded by the light, Revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night
FWIW, the same principles for stopping also apply to river and canal boats. However, many rivers and canals have quite low speed limits (e.g., 6 mph on Shakespeare's Avon), so even a 15-ton narrowboat can almost always stop within its own length.
Thank you mike brady
Battleships have two rudders which are used as a brake in an emergency. They would both turn inwards. But also note that is when you lose total control of your steerage.
Love my friend Mike Brady
Another excellent video
I always look forward to watching your videos thank you for that. I'm no expert though but many ships in Greenland have lights, old ships on the top bridge and new ships on the front.
In my 25 years of experience near and on the sea, I have seen many ships in my time in Greenland. So it's not just ice breakers that have lights
Japanese trained rourinely at night combat all through 30s in northern pacific hellhole waters wild waters. They even got harsh lessons of statibility of vessels. You train like in wartime.
One of your best videos. Thank you. My one comment is that I think your thoughts on open life boats and life rafts would be very much different if you ever had to use one. Life rafts are cheap, difficult to handle, and a poor alternative, to which the staff and crew are typically relegated. It is one area where one can see the class system still in place on modern cruise ships. Personally, I think they should go the way of Edwardian collapsible-life rafts, i .e., into the history books. They do have their beneficial uses, which you highlight nicely. I just do not feel they should be used as a front-line rescue tool of choice for anyone and certainly not for any particular class, but rather as a backup.
One thing I would add… a far more common danger on modern ships is fire. I highly recommend that anyone, passenger or crew, when they first board and find their stateroom, seek out the closest fire fighting utilities so that know where they are kept. You will not be able to locate them once smoke is billowing in the passageway. I also recommending counting the number of steps from your room to the closest exit to the deck, because again you may not even be able to see the door when the passageway is full of smoke.
Mike, there is so much more in regard to fire that it could make for a totally separate safety video. Just a thought.
Hi love the content
We were entering Sydney Harbour at night a few years ago when we lost all steering, as we weaved around trying to steer using two screws a large cruise ship behind us lit us up with their searchlight, it was actually quite intimidating.
40:15 This is what you're all here for.
Yep, always need to a friendly "hello" from our friend Mike Brady!😂
As a pilot, I learned that accidents, incidents and disasters seldom happen because of one wrong thing. It takes a cluster.
Similarly, with Titanic, if they had heeded iceberg warnings, or radios were better used and distress rockets were the correct colour and keys to the binocular safe were available and if she was going more slowly and, and, and.
Like I say, a cluster.
I hope the rehashing of old videos means you’re working on a big project!
Nice video! Thanks for producing this great content! Also, in addition to radar, modern vessels can utilize FLIR (Forward Looking InfraRed) cameras to visually see into the darkness without a spotlight and spot a variety of obstacles and issues. Definitely doesn't replace radar but seems to be a great supplement to it.
The ship that hit the Bridge in Baltimore supposedly used its anchors as a last resort when it lost power and control but couldn't stop in time.
Hello Mike Brady!
Let's gove a round of applause to our friend Mike Brady that regularly uploads quality videos like this on a daily basis
Intro is badass
dark little factoid: the first radar demonstrator was already close to 8 years old when titanic sank... and it wouldnt have helped anyways because icebeargs are nearly invisible on navigations radar. you can see them on weather radar thou.
Ships navigation probably has SOME new tech, such as Lidar, though even this would be challenging is certain situations, where rough seas would cause false transmisions or detection. More traditional radar would likely require very challenging tuning as well. Inter-ship signsling could resolve issues, with tech such as ADS or ADS-B, or Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS), also referred to as Airborne Collision Avoidance System (ACAS), is a system that utilizes secondary surveillance radar (SSR). These would require substantial investment and international cooperation, never an easy thing.
Ah yes, my friend Mike Brady 😃
I feel much safer at sea having watched this safety video by our friend Mike Brady.
a "moonless" night has nothing to do with the moon being hidden by the earth's shadow: it means that the moon isn't up at night, because it's in the wrong location.
99.9% of the time, the moon isn't shaded by the earth. the exceptions are lunar eclipses, which happen during full moons.
Your section of the emergency equipment available, it's use and function, plus how safe they are/they make you, should be available for all cruise ship passengers to watch! Maybe even mandatory viewing BEFORE that first cocktail gets served... ? 😊
Its well thought out. It's as detailed as it needs to be. And your delivery style is sure to have passenger complete watching the segment.
Overall an excellent video. Details about a few things I wasnt aware of. Such as Titanic's actual stopping distance.
I knew it was part of her sea trials (like with all ships) yet i can't recall ever hearing the recorded stopping distance. Nor her turning radius...!
Thank you for enlightening me of that one oiece if information.
Thanks!
my god, mike brady's done it again
Search lights can cover 360 degrees. Plus they could use search lights that don't use visible light.
My father had 20/10 vision until the day he died. I remember being up in the mountains and he could see small details from hundreds of yards or even a few miles that I would miss even after he told me where to look. There is no substitute for excellent vision/night vision. By the way using a spotlight in fog doesn't work well as the fog scatters the light making it useless.
I wonder why a red spotlight might not have been possible to both preserve night vision and provide distance illumination. My only guess is that that colored light is so weak that a spotlight wouldn't really be possible.
Distance matters. Upclose, you're not wrong. The farther you get out, red light dissipates.
I’ve seen tug/tow boats on the Mississippi and other inland waterways use search lights,particularly in narrow areas or going into river bends.
Mike, talking about disasters, would you consider making a video about the sinking of the HMT Lancastria, its tragedy has been hidden for a while but it is well know from western France, where im from ;) . Take care.
i can confirm, i have used the IJN Akizuki in war thunder and it has a high propensity for exploding. yes, i am a primary source. thank you for reading.
I've seen all these individual videos before, but I still watched this whole thing 😁Actually I'm not even sure why I've watched every one of your videos and became a channel member, I have submechanophobia and I'm absolutely terrified of large ships, what am I doing here, LOL
Seems the suez lights would have been beneficial as the source was below the rail and would have preserved night vision if it were aimed straight ahead and not towards the surface of the water.
Watching your channel is like diving into a world of fun adventures and incredible events. Keep surprising and inspiring us with your bright talent and creativity!🐛💕🤸
I think the biggest safety flaw of modern cruiseships: They aren't required to have a double hull - and their hull thickness is tiny in comparison to their overall size and weight.
Sooner or later - one of these mega-cruisers will sink. It's just a matter of time....
My first video was about why ships don't have spotlights. And now I'm addicted to this for sleeping like cocaines while awake. Thanks, my friend. Mike Brady, I hear your name is.
Mike, just hear to say you are the boat goat. That is all. Good day everyone
I've just noticed that RUclips unsubscribed me from most of my favorite maritime channels. Annoying and suspicious. And a reason to subscribe again.
Oh hey
Look
Its our friend, Mike Brady
IT'S OUR FRIEND, MIKE BRADY, FROM OCEANLINER DESIGNS!!!!!!
Imperial Japanese Navy vetted all of their concscripts for night seeing. The best did that, and nothing else on ships. Nighttime lookouts. They had excellent observartion binoculars, BUT at dead of night, or showers, they could see better with naked eye than 8x50 observartion binoculars. No other nation scientifically selectected its night lookouts. Mk1 eyeball my shit. Japanese had atleast Mk2. Time and time again, withouth fail IJN ships did see visually enemy thousands of yards or minutes before them could see Japanese. Only centimetric SG radar constantly beat IJN lookouts, when operators and officers get used to it.
Thanks for pronouncing buoys correctly!
Great 😃👍 video 😊😊😊 from Malaysia 🇲🇾🇲🇾🇲🇾🇲🇾🇲🇾
Having completed many cruises, the only time I've ever seen spotlights used was in the Atlantic looking out for ice
We have ARPA, and ECTIS. When we are steaming in the dark there are three in the bridge(captain, mate and AB Unlimited as lookout and navigator. Daylight two officers.
member the time they didnt pry open the locker to get the binoculars and the ship hit a snowball and sank or something.......should bring an owl on board they can see at night.....if it suddenly flies away you know youre about to crash lol
LOOOL
Australian football fields are usually close to 160 metres long. The iconic MCG is 161 metres long and that is the gold standard as far as I am concerned. So, when you use the phrase "as long as three football fields" you actually mean "Three soccer fields". Im disappointed you didny use the well used "Olympic Swimming Pool" measurement but that is usually for comparimg volumes of water. As if anyone knows howucj water an Olympic Swimming pool holds....
`3:50 What if such searchlights were active for 8 seconds, then off for a minute? Would that have less negative impact?
The most important thing on a ship is the crew and passenger list, even until comparatively recently inadequate passenger lists in particular have exacerbated tragedies.
Have you considered watching the Finest Hours & then creating a video discussing the actual events that led to the film?
I’ve been thinking about something after watching the Bruce I reputation video. Considering how it was basically expected that a gentleman, in that era, had a “responsibility” to go down with the ship rather than take a spot on a lifeboat when women and children remained behind - what of the crew and officers? Obviously some were assigned to man lifeboats. But was there basically an understanding that if a ship foundered, they were almost expected (in that era) to go down too? Or at least “every man for himself”? Was there any kind of escape plan for the employees of cruise liners?
Here's a good one: where are the headlights on a battleship located?
In the head! 😅
Can you make a video about the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff? Since she was sunk by a submarine with great loss of life, just like the Lucitania.
The Titanic, Andrea Doria, Edmund Fitzgerald, and Samina....😢🙏
On the ship i worked at we had a inflatable raft that could fit about 300 people. With food and water, no lifejacket.
Good Audio/Book. Gale Force. by Owen Laukkanen. It's about the recovery of a cargo ship.