Hog
The seas have been like this for days.
Plunge
The storm is curving around, chasing us in a giant arc.
Roll
The best place to be is amidships, in the crew's mess.
Sag
The mess deck is too crowded, so a second poker
game is started in the main berthing compartment.
Climb
The high-stakes game in the after torpedo
room folded up due to the discomfort.
Right
The swells seem to be getting larger, ever so slightly.
Hog
Our length, and our speed, match the period
of the swells with unfortunate precision.
Plunge
The rolls are always to the same side, sometimes up to 35 degrees.
Roll
The dishes won't stay on the table, even
with the raised trim around the table edge.
Sag
When we climb a swell, the sonar dome under our bow sometimes
comes out of the water. So we turned off the sonar.
Climb
The sonarmen just do paperwork. And they perform
some preventive maintenance on the sonar gear.
Right
The loose parts and tools tend to fall down behind
things, making it worse instead of better.
Hog
Each plunge into a trough risks raising our
propellers into the air, over-revving them.
Plunge
The engine governors become unreliable as the
motors overspeed, backfeeding voltage to the generators.
Roll
So we connect the propulsion motors to the battery,
which can cope with the power surges.
Sag
And we have two engine-generators keeping the battery charged up.
Climb
Green water is washing over the deck, and over the
bridge, so we keep the upper hatch shut.
Right
The main air induction valve, three feet across, is only eight
eet above the water line, so we have to keep it shut.
Hog
So we use the snorkel induction valve, which
allows only enough air for two engines.
Plunge
We keep the snorkel mast lowered, with its
induction valve only 22 feet above the water line.
Roll
Waves are washing over the top of the snorkel
mast at that modest height.
Sag
We turned off the mechanism that shuts the
twenty-inch valve, and we just let the water run down the mast.
Climb
The sea water follows the air piping down to
the engine room bilges, which we pump frequently.
Right
We are now all experts at getting a boat stowed for sea.
Hog
When the bow plunges into a trough, the torpedoman
forward weighs less than an astronaut on the moon.
Plunge
And when the climb starts up the next swell, he weighs
as much as the fat lady at the sleazy bar along the waterfront.
Roll
The ones of us who tend to seasickness have tied
themselves to their racks long ago.
Sag
The rest of us tend to congregate in the crew's mess, for company.
Climb
Everything is difficult to accomplish when it is this rough.
Right
A ship sags when its bow and its stern are supported by separate
swells, and the trough provides little lift amidships.
Hog
It hogs when the bow and the stern are over troughs,
and a swell is lifting the middle.
