I know it was a different event but when I hear those lyrics I always think of the ordeal the men of the US Navy endured then a typhoon hit the Pacic fleet in Dec of 1944:
From: Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet.
To: PACIFIC FLEET and NAVAL SHORE ACTIVITIES, Pacific Ocean Areas.
Subject: Damage in Typhoon, Lessons of.
1. On 18 December 1944, vessels of the Pacific Fleet, operating in support of the invasion of the Philippines in an area about 300 miles east of Luzon, were caught near the center of a typhoon of extreme violence. Three destroyers, the HULL, MONAGHAN, and SPENCE, capsized and went down with practically all hands; serious damage was sustained by the CL MIAMI, the CVLs MONTEREY, COWPENS, and SAN JACINTO, the CVEs CAPE ESPERANCE and ALTAMAHA, and the DDs AYLWIN, DEWEY, and HICKOX. Lesser damage was sustained by at least 19 other vessels, from CAs down to DEs. Fires occurred on three carriers when planes were smashed in their hangars; and some 146 planes on various ships were lost or damaged beyond economical repair by the fires, by being smashed up, or by being swept overboard. About 790 officers and men were lost or killed, and 80 were injured. Several surviving destroyers reported rolling 70 or more; and we can only surmise how close this was to capsizing completely for some of them. It was the greatest loss that we have taken in the Pacific without compensatory return since the First Battle of Savo.
Thank you for your post... what horror.
It's interesting you brought this up--today I was chatting with a D-Day Navy vet (the Canadian Navy) and he had a book signing. It was against the rules :) but he kept a diary all throughout the war and put it all together in a book. It was used by the CBC, PBS, and the BBC for various documentaries on the battle for the North Atlantic.
ANYWAY, the point of this is, he had some pictures of life on the ship--old black and whites.
They were several of the ship being covered in what looked like inches of ice. He was telling me how sometimes, the ice would get thicker on one side and the ship would list "lee" or "starboard" (? I think those are the terms?) and they were afraid that the ship would start to roll over sideways, like a ball rolling down the street.
They had to chip the ice off every day.
At the end of our talk, I shook his hand, thanked him for his service, and he saluted me. :)