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When I was up that way near the arctic circle in November 1976, I tell people the story about the time we were in a particularly strong gale, and they didn’t let anyone go on deck except the men tasked with ensuring the tiedown chains on the planes (usually 24 of them in weather like that) were secure and tight.

Me and two other guys decided to venture out in the catwalk that ran the perimeter of the deck near our shop, and we were in a spot that they couldn’t see us from the island due to the shape of the deck (we were just forward of the deck angle on the starboard side)

Well, we opened the hatch and crept out into the catwalk to survey the scene.

About 90 feet below our feet looking through the grating was the ocean.

It was a bright, sunny day, and all around us, the ocean, usually a dark blue bordering on black, was an odd color of green. There was white froth everywhere being streaked across water, and water was being swept away into the wind at the tops of the huge waves.

It was very impressive.

Several hundred yards off our starboard beam was a Knox class frigate, and we stared open-mouthed at it. (at least I was open-mouthed!)

As she plowed forward, her bow would bury into that frothy green water, and a wave would travel up the deck until it hit the superstructure, when the bow would rise up, come completely clear of the water, and then plunge down again.

As the bow plunged into the water, the stern came out of the water, and you could see the single screw turning like mad.

All the while the frigate was pitching up and down, the ship was rolling from side to side, and also yawing back and forth.

It seemed to be moving in every single possible direction. That was the first time I had seen a vessel of that size behaving that way, and that was when the thought entered my mind “How in the hell do they eat, sleep, or even function on that thing?”

Then, we crept a little forward, nut-to-butt (keeping our heads down so as to avoid being seen) so we could see the bow wave of our ship.

To our astonishment, the entire bow came out of the water, tons of water cascading back into the ocean as the carrier’s bow very slowly rose, and as it reached the maximum height, seemed to pause in the air. Then, ponderously, it began to fall back to the ocean, picking up speed, and when it hit the water, the impact sent huge waves running off in every direction. Years later, I saw a photo that brought it to mind...a man, looking out the door of a lighthouse in the North Sea somewhere, and a giant wave splashed all around him. When I saw that picture, it immediately reminded me of the bow of that carrier hitting the water as it came back down.

Then, after it hit the water, it kept going into the water, and didn’t seem like it was going to stop, and I felt the water we could see through the catwalk was rushing up at me and would sweep me away.

I wasn’t the only one of us who had that moment of panic, because as I instictively turned to scramble back through the hatch, I collided with the backs of my two shipmates who were clambering in a panic to get back inside as well!

Of course, we weren’t in any danger of that, but...it was so massive a show of hydraulic power that none of us really knew WHAT was going to happen, but...WE didn’t know that!