Flooding
Sometime in the early 90s the Aircraft Carrier USS Eisenhower was sailing north of the Arctic circle, it was extremely stormy out as the bow of the carrier would disappear under green water for seconds at a time. It was the first and only time I ever saw them secure the galleys for hot food because of weather conditions. We even sent our escort, the USS Arleigh Burke to go to the leeward side of Scotland in order to avoid most of the storm. Around 0200 the 1MC comes alive with ringing bells and the words flooding flooding flooding flooding in a forward paint locker. Now what's unique about that is the paint locker is about 50 ft above the waterline. And it does not have a fire main or water line going through that compartment. So being on the at-sea fire party, we ran from the stern of the ship where our berthing was to the paint locker. When we arrived we opened the paint locker and yes there was water inside from a 3-in crack in the bow of the ship. So being Damage Controlmen and Hull Technicians , we repaired the crack the best we could. Several months later after we returned to Norfolk I got curious as to what caused those cracks in the hull. And the official explanation from the United States Navy was that the Eisenhower was going too fast and dense seas therefore when she went under the water with the bow It caused the crack. As someone once said you could either accept their reality or choose one of your own. Cuz it's still impossible to crack solid 2-in steel with water. I believe we may have had an iceberg or maybe a submerged Russian submarine I don't know. All I can tell you is one of the most curious things I've ever seen in my Navy career.