I get so tense when I hear this song but I refuse to turn it off out of respect for the men lost. And same - we wore Mustang suits and were told if we fell overboard, the temps were such that they only had a few minutes to try to save us from the water and wouldn’t be successful. I have a picture I took as the storm was hitting us. There is a wall of water beside the boat so high you can’t see the sky. The worst part was going over the top of the waves and swells when the ship plunged down.
Oh my. Sounds exactly like my Alaska experience. You’d look up and see one swell appearing to touch another. No sky. The spray freezing midair and dropping like pellets. Chipping ice from the bow with hatchets. I was only 20 and by myself a long way from home.
Captain used to let me in the wheelhouse to listen to Browns games on radio Nome.