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.
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.
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!
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.
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 😆
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.
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!"
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.
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.
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.
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.
@@marcelolinhares8233 I agree, it's less about the whole crew and more about an incompetent clown prioritizing showing off to a woman than doing what he's paid for.
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 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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
1:58 one of the best opening battle sequences in the past 25 years of filmmaking: Master and Commander Far Side of the World, starring Russel Crowe and Paul Bettany. It’s Maritime dawn. Barely a ray of rising sun in the east. Ships Junior Officers stand watch on the quarter deck. A struggling Midshipman thinks he sees a vessel but waffles about giving orders. An Officer who is junior to him ultimately announces “Be to quarters!” The entire vessel explodes in activity to the rolling snare drum as beaten by a Royal Marine. We see the Captain, still below, donning his sash, sword and hat. He appears on deck. Questions his Officers. Looks through a telescope and sees-what? A shadow? A distant squall? He peers through the spyglass again. We see what a lay person would probably misconstrue as distant lightening. It is not. Our Captain knows it. “DOWN! EVERYBODY DOWN! As he bodyslams one of his teenage crew to the deck. It’s the muzzle flash of a French man o war. Before we can process what we are seeing the bow of the ship is blown to smithereens and chunks of ships timbers skew men where they stand. This battle is on! Eyesight. Indeed . It was practically a white color profession in the Age of Sail.
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!
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.
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.
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! 😂
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.
Incense, holy oils, gotta get the machine spirit in the mood. It ain't the size of the ship in the ocean, it's the machine spirit's emotion of devotion
Great video! The insights into how ships navigate and avoid disasters are fascinating and well-explained. Really enjoyed learning about these essential strategies. Nice work!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
That was an interesting presentation on a shipping disaster that should have never happened. I recall the Chernobyl disaster as if it happened yesterday and yet I had never heard of the Admiral Nakhimov until today. As you stated in your video this disaster went all but unreported in Western Europe.
Very nice video! Although you didn't get the lights completely right. The top light has a forward arch of 225 degrees, so you would see red plus white when it goes from right to left from your position. Only when the ship is shorter then 50 meters, otherwise it would have 2 white top lights, one high in the middle or back and one lower then the other one on the front/bow. When you are outside the 225 degrees arch of the the top light(s) you'd be in the stern area of the target ship, where another white light is with an arch of 135 degrees. And then there are loads of other light combinations for fishing vessels (several options), restricted maneuverable (several options), towing/tugs, mine sweepers, dredgers, pilots, etc. And then there are area specific lights, like the blue light when carrying hazardous materials when entering / leaving Rotterdam harbor. It is possible to see the direction a ship is going by looking at the lights you can see, but also how far away the top lights are from each other for example. About the eyesight at night, we had to wait 10min on the bridge, which was completely dark during the night, before we were allowed to take duties. At first you see nothing and bump into everything. After 10min you can see so much around you, on the bridge but also 12 nautical miles away. Whenever we needed a light to look into the charts for example, we only use very dim red lights so our eyes wont adjust too much to it and we keep most of our dark vision.
Back in Titanic, lifeboats were not viewed as lifesavers, but to transport passengers from a distressed ship to a nearby rescue ship. This is why they didn't think they need to have enough lifeboats for everyone aboard
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.
I was a Navy lookout. The Navy, unlike cruise ships, runs topside black-out and we got the same night vision training. When you're 100's, or even thousands of miles from the nearest city the sky becomes incredibly beautiful! I remember transiting the heavily trafficked Strait of Gibraltar in the daytime. The conditions for “looming” were right ( cold air over our ship and hot air over the horizon}. I spotted dozens of contacts over the horizon and beyond the range of our radar. The officer on the bridge Was astonished that we could receive visual before radar. Eventually he told me to keep these contacts to myself, it was just too much work keeping track of all of them, lol. Because of the ubiquity of artificial light, especially the new ultra high Blue content LEDs, very few people have ever experienced their own innate night vision. Very Sad.
Have you considered a video about the history of ship radio communications? Or am I just super-nerding because I'm into amateur radio? Thanks for being our friend!
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....
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.
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.
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.
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.
Correct me if I'm wrong but this is a collection of several previously released videos into one? I could have sworn I've seen these shot for shot before.
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.
re headlights: I've seen spotlights in use on the Hudson River (Champlain Canal, by Saratoga NHP, a very dark area) in New York State, USA. The clearances at bends are tight and the maintenance boats (with barge) sometimes travel at night. The crews seem to use them to positively identify the banks and to check for any obstacles (snags, trees, etc.) that may cause an issue. That's a pretty unusual situation though.
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.
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
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 can't stop looking at that dot above his mouth
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.
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!
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.
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 😆
At some point, it'd be cool to see a Normandie stand alone video. I think its such an amazing ship!
😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢
Thanks!
Last time I came this early, SS Eastland was still standing upright.
😢
I miss her so much
This is a euphemism right?
😂☠️
Too soon
It's our friend, Mike Brady!
From OceanLiner Designs!
😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢
Our friend indeed.
"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.
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!
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.
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
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.
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
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.
Because of a joker using a Cap uniform.
@@marcelolinhares8233 I agree, it's less about the whole crew and more about an incompetent clown prioritizing showing off to a woman than doing what he's paid for.
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 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.
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!
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.
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.
Love the channel Mike keep up the good work
He is keeping up the good work, here's the latest.
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.
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
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 hope the next video is really good, since it clearly is taking a lot of effort!
I'm excited for it!
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.
1:58 one of the best opening battle sequences in the past 25 years of filmmaking: Master and Commander Far Side of the World, starring Russel Crowe and Paul Bettany. It’s Maritime dawn. Barely a ray of rising sun in the east. Ships Junior Officers stand watch on the quarter deck. A struggling Midshipman thinks he sees a vessel but waffles about giving orders. An Officer who is junior to him ultimately announces “Be to quarters!” The entire vessel explodes in activity to the rolling snare drum as beaten by a Royal Marine. We see the Captain, still below, donning his sash, sword and hat. He appears on deck. Questions his Officers. Looks through a telescope and sees-what? A shadow? A distant squall? He peers through the spyglass again. We see what a lay person would probably misconstrue as distant lightening. It is not. Our Captain knows it. “DOWN! EVERYBODY DOWN! As he bodyslams one of his teenage crew to the deck. It’s the muzzle flash of a French man o war. Before we can process what we are seeing the bow of the ship is blown to smithereens and chunks of ships timbers skew men where they stand. This battle is on!
Eyesight. Indeed . It was practically a white color profession in the Age of Sail.
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!
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
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.
Let's gove a round of applause to our friend Mike Brady that regularly uploads quality videos like this on a daily basis
With good crew and everything working.
I am seaman retired.
And luck too.
I love this channel, as well as the moderator. Fantastic content and well delivered.
Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being.
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.
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!
😂
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.
Joe Franta’s channel actually has a great video on the free fall lifeboat. Shows the launching of it along with a tour inside.
I thought the best way to avoid disasters at sea is to pray to the ship's machine spirit? 😅
Incense, holy oils, gotta get the machine spirit in the mood. It ain't the size of the ship in the ocean, it's the machine spirit's emotion of devotion
Great video! The insights into how ships navigate and avoid disasters are fascinating and well-explained. Really enjoyed learning about these essential strategies. Nice work!
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.
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 hope the rehashing of old videos means you’re working on a big project!
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.
It was an unusually dark night, so they decided it was best to go full steam ahead... Brilliant!
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.
On the ship i worked at we had a inflatable raft that could fit about 300 people. With food and water, no lifejacket.
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.
Blinded by the light, Revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night
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
Thank you mike brady
I feel much safer at sea having watched this safety video by our friend Mike Brady.
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.
Flawless. Thank you!
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.
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.
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.
That was an interesting presentation on a shipping disaster that should have never happened. I recall the Chernobyl disaster as if it happened yesterday and yet I had never heard of the Admiral Nakhimov until today. As you stated in your video this disaster went all but unreported in Western Europe.
my god, mike brady's done it again
Very nice video! Although you didn't get the lights completely right.
The top light has a forward arch of 225 degrees, so you would see red plus white when it goes from right to left from your position. Only when the ship is shorter then 50 meters, otherwise it would have 2 white top lights, one high in the middle or back and one lower then the other one on the front/bow. When you are outside the 225 degrees arch of the the top light(s) you'd be in the stern area of the target ship, where another white light is with an arch of 135 degrees. And then there are loads of other light combinations for fishing vessels (several options), restricted maneuverable (several options), towing/tugs, mine sweepers, dredgers, pilots, etc. And then there are area specific lights, like the blue light when carrying hazardous materials when entering / leaving Rotterdam harbor.
It is possible to see the direction a ship is going by looking at the lights you can see, but also how far away the top lights are from each other for example.
About the eyesight at night, we had to wait 10min on the bridge, which was completely dark during the night, before we were allowed to take duties. At first you see nothing and bump into everything. After 10min you can see so much around you, on the bridge but also 12 nautical miles away. Whenever we needed a light to look into the charts for example, we only use very dim red lights so our eyes wont adjust too much to it and we keep most of our dark vision.
Back in Titanic, lifeboats were not viewed as lifesavers, but to transport passengers from a distressed ship to a nearby rescue ship. This is why they didn't think they need to have enough lifeboats for everyone aboard
Another excellent video
The Titanic, Andrea Doria, Edmund Fitzgerald, Samina, El Faro, and Bayesian Super Yacht.....😢🙏
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 was a Navy lookout. The Navy, unlike cruise ships, runs topside black-out and we got the same night vision training. When you're 100's, or even thousands of miles from the nearest city the sky becomes incredibly beautiful! I remember transiting the heavily trafficked Strait of Gibraltar in the daytime. The conditions for “looming” were right ( cold air over our ship and hot air over the horizon}. I spotted dozens of contacts over the horizon and beyond the range of our radar. The officer on the bridge Was astonished that we could receive visual before radar. Eventually he told me to keep these contacts to myself, it was just too much work keeping track of all of them, lol.
Because of the ubiquity of artificial light, especially the new ultra high Blue content LEDs, very few people have ever experienced their own innate night vision. Very Sad.
Have you considered a video about the history of ship radio communications? Or am I just super-nerding because I'm into amateur radio? Thanks for being our friend!
I recall Lesson 1 on this very matter. "See the yellow bits on this chart? Well, they're land. Avoid those."
Search lights can cover 360 degrees. Plus they could use search lights that don't use visible light.
Hello Mike Brady!
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....
Oh look it's our friend Mike Brady from Oceanliner Designs, giving us new content to watch during lunch break. Truly neat.
Love my friend Mike Brady
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.
Hi love the content
Last time I was this early, SS Great Eastern was the new largest ship in the world
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.
Ah yes, my friend Mike Brady 😃
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.
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.
Why is the ship that got stuck in the Suez called Evergiven if Evergreen is written on it?
Evergreen is the name of the shipping line.
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.
Correct me if I'm wrong but this is a collection of several previously released videos into one?
I could have sworn I've seen these shot for shot before.
Yes it is. And that's not the first time he has done that.
Having completed many cruises, the only time I've ever seen spotlights used was in the Atlantic looking out for ice
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've just noticed that RUclips unsubscribed me from most of my favorite maritime channels. Annoying and suspicious. And a reason to subscribe again.
Rule number one for small boat survival, I was once told, is ‘give way to tonnage.’
re headlights: I've seen spotlights in use on the Hudson River (Champlain Canal, by Saratoga NHP, a very dark area) in New York State, USA. The clearances at bends are tight and the maintenance boats (with barge) sometimes travel at night. The crews seem to use them to positively identify the banks and to check for any obstacles (snags, trees, etc.) that may cause an issue. That's a pretty unusual situation though.
IT'S OUR FRIEND, MIKE BRADY, FROM OCEANLINER DESIGNS!!!!!!
Intro is badass
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.
“How do you stop a ship the size of the Ever Given?”
I mean, historically, parking a bit of Egypt in front of it has proven very effective.
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
Great 😃👍 video 😊😊😊 from Malaysia 🇲🇾🇲🇾🇲🇾🇲🇾🇲🇾
Many lessons were learned from the Titanic disaster and several safety laws were passed to make sure there wouldn't be another Titanic disaster
Mike, just hear to say you are the boat goat. That is all. Good day everyone