The funniest story i heard from a captain was an elderly lady who marvelled at how amazing the ship was but had 1 complaint that she put forward to the captain. She said she wasnt happy about the airconditioning fans on the promeneade. The captain a bit confused asked her to show him what she was referring to. She took him to the promeneade pointed up at the lifeboat propellers and said "Look there. Those never seem to work."
One funny thing I noticed from the US Navy. While doing research on the USS Alabama, I found a LOT of documents in the National Archives. One document I found was a form to be filled out after an air attack. Basically how many planes, where from, how many shot down, how much ammo spent... etc. It's actually the form that identified kamikaze when they started being used. At the top of the page, in BIG, BOLD letters was the following warning... "DO NOT FILL OUT THIS FORM UNTIL AFTER AIR ATTACK HAS ENDED!!" I like to think that was the result of some random, overachiever Ensign walking around on deck during the attack asking the gun crews questions while they're shooting with the form on a clipboard.
I could give you hundreds of humorous stories form ships, but I'll give you a secondhand one for starters. MY ex worked for American Hawaii cruises back in the 1980s in the Steward's department. One day while the ship was cruising around the Big Island and she was out on deck having a cigarette, a passenger asked her what time the volcano went off. She immediately answered "Two O'Clock," and the passenger responded, "Oh good, I have time to get my nails done first.
I loved how the music cut out every time Lightollers war crimes were brought up. For anyone wondering, he was accused of massacring survivors of the SM UB-110 while in command of HMS Garry in 1918. There would probably be enough benefit of the doubt to give him… if Lightoller didn’t admit to doing it in his memoirs.
Won't paste the whole thing here and shit up the comments, but excerpts of both Lightoller's and the UBoat captain Fürbringer's accounts are on Lightoller's Wikipedia under the WWI tab.
My Navy frigate (early 1980s - Knox Class) tended to have the bow, with it's large rubber sonar dome, do a weird shaking and shimmying as it dropped into a trough. The sudden rising and dropping was dangerous when I was trying to go from one deck to another via the angled ladder. If I step out at the top as the bow drops, I am left hanging in the air! If at the bottom as it drops, I could loosely grip the railing and be sliding UP! If it is rising as I am at the bottom, increased gravity means I am planted at the bottom and cannot go up! We learned to deal with this. 😊
@@lancerevell5979 That just reminds me of Patrick O'Brian's descriptions of Stephen Maturin attempting to board HMS Sophie, before the crew knew to offer him a bosun's chair when he wanted to board. Timing is everything.
I recall one funny story about the queen Mary and it was recalled by a historian on the abc tv series “the liners “, he said that the radio operator rushed to the bridge telling the captain that German radio has announced that we have just been sunk and seven thousand people have drowned , to which the captain replied don’t tell the crew as it would make them upset
Capt Smith: Runs his ships at full speed regardless of conditions. Has accident. Ship sinks. Capt Rostrum: Runs his ships at full speed regardless of conditions. Gets wet. Retires Legend.
I think that was the ship getting back at him for running her so hard. “Oh that’s a very nice looking uniform” *splash*. I think the worst part would’ve been the fact that it probably had a lot of wool. I don’t know if you have a lot of wool clothing, but when wool gets wet, it’s 1. Very heavy, and 2. It stinks!
The editing on this episode is absurd and genuinely funny. I can tell there was a lot of fun in making this one. I do have a war story from my grandpa which I've always found amusing. He was an electrician aboard the fuel ship USS Tappahannock in Vietnam. Their captain devised a scheme to get the ship's crew a pay bonus for entering combat. So they send an alert to the crew that they're going into an active combat zone for an emergency resupply. They meet with the friendly warship, transfer over a single case of beer, and leave. Hazard pay for everyone! Grain of salt, what with it being from a grandparent decades after the fact, but I always found it funny
@@kats9755 he had a few stories like that that were pretty amusing. It actually makes me really grateful that he served in a role that never entered genuine combat. I'm pretty certain that the overall story is true, but details had changed time to time so I wanted to cover my ass in the odd event one of his shipmates found my comment
I still think one of the funniest ocean liner stories is when the Germans put all this effort into dolling up the Cap Trafalgar to look like RMS Carmania for commerce raiding, only for the first ship it runs into to be the real RMS Carmania, which also now has guns.
They then proceeded to shoot each other apart. It was the battle that convinced both admiralties that ocean liners made poor military craft. It took awhile, but then they realized that oh yeah, they could use these massive ships to carry people!
As much as I love the 4K CGI footage of the ships in recent videos, I prefer the editing of the RMS Mauretania speeding around like a skidoo. Hope to see more footage like that in future videos!
“I don’t know where that idea comes from” lol when I watched this on Patreon, you achieved the goal of making people laugh. And that bit where the funnel was cut off. Mission accomplished Captain Brady
Mike, you and your team outdid yourselves on this video. Your humor is delightful but whoever edited the zoomin' Rostran Express, the yodeling beer diver, the funnel-removal horror, and the Great Eastern + a really bad recorder "My Heart Will Go On" deserves a fkn Nobel prize or something, I am SOBBING. 😂😂😂😂😂
Much as I agree with this comment, I must note that a recorder can sound so very, very much worse than that. The one in the video barely squeaked/squealed at all - it took me a few moments to realise that it WAS a recorder. (Source: a year of recorder lessons when I was in infant school. If you have never heard thirty-odd six-year-olds playing recorders roughly simultaneously, consider yourself lucky.)
I've not been one of those asking for a change from the doom and gloom that many of your videos center around, but this was a truly delightful switch up. My favorite tales had to be the garden story and diving for the beer case. Just harmless good fun. The garden one in particular reminds me of my grandfather telling tourists to look for a "current bush" when campers would ask him where they could plug in their TVs and phones.
That painting of the passengers in The Great Eastern as it's rolling.... Reminds me of my Navy frigate's crews mess during lunch or dinner while cruising in rough seas. Looked like a Three Stooges movie. 😅
Gonna correct you on the SS America/Australis/Italis/American Star, because the reality is even funnier. She was due to be scrapped, and money had even already changed hands, but at the last moment, someone came up with the mad idea to turn her into a five-star floating hotel in Thailand. They felt this would work, because the hull was still pretty good. So the ship had to be towed from Greece, where she was laid up, to Thailand, but because the Egyptian government wouldn't allow her through the Suez, they had to go the long way around. But around the Canary Islands, the tug-ship combination hit bad weather, the tow cable broke, and the now American Star was beached on Fuerteventura. At first, an attempt was made to refloat the vessel, but within no time at all, she broke in half and was a complete write-off. The final remains of her hull only collapsed below the waves relatively recently, and she was a bit of an eyecatcher for 20 years or so.
I worked on the Carnival Miracle in 2014 as the sound tech. Got three for ya... Staff and officers were allowed to eat in the guest areas. In Skagway, Alaska, I went up to the sandwich area on the Lido deck to get some breakfast before getting off. Next to me was a short Italian guy surrounded by a couple of other Italian guys, all dressed well. He confidently placed his order through a heavy Italian accent. When he got his food, he thanked the man behind the counter and walked away. The man then behind the counter looked at me and asked, "who WAS that guy?" I politely said, "That was the Captain." We had the main theater shut so we could do some pre-checks before the night's show. No guests area allowed in during that time for safety reasons. Down below me, I saw two women wearing... Well... Not wearing much. I then saw a photographer instructing them what to do next. I walked down and explained that the theater was closed and guests were not permitted at this time. They explained they were doing a "photo shoot." Right... Anyway, the rules still applied. Instead of leaving, they asked if I could stand between them for a picture. In hindsight, this was a bad idea, but I took my nametag off and obliged. Now, Carnival has a VERY strict policy against being "too friendly" with guests. It's strictly prohibited, and generally leads to immediate disembarkation and termination. Regardless, I stood between them, and they proceeded to wrap their arms around me. In probably the most inopportune timing, the head of Security walks into the theater a couple doors away, and looked right at me and crossed his arms; stern look present. After breaking out into a slight sweat, the picture was over. Nothing came of it. Either he was not aware we closed the theater for pre-checks, or didn't recognize me. Either way, I finished my contract away from further photoshoots. The last one involves the very front of the ship: where Jack and Rose embraced. While off limits to guests, this was a smoking area for the crew. This one I was not part of, but was told the story. Crews are a VERY international group. My entire tech team was from Romania except for myself and the lighting tech, and one guy from India. One of the Romanians told me a buddy of his was in the smoking area, and security walked by. He mumbled, "f*** security." Security heard, and was displeased, and took him to the security office for reprimand. When asked what happened, the Romanian said, "I was just asking what security was doing there!" "Che fache," pronounced "che f***" is basically "what are you up to?" "Che fache security... What is security doing here?" The head of security was not satisfied and brought in another Romanian. Without context, the third party confirmed that is a way to ask what security is doing there. He was released freely, with a smirk.
Story for second part: Once, when the Polish transatlantic liner Batory was experiencing a storm, captain Eustazy Borkowski (called the Sea Shaman) learned that the weather would soon improve and decided to play the following joke on the passengers: Together with the officer, he put on a storm jacket, ordered them to douse themselves with water (to look as if they had just been outside), went down to the passengers and told the priest who was on board that the situation was bad and only God would be able to save the ship. People began to pray, and then, as the captain predicted, the weather began to improve. This captain was known for such jokes and I think it's really funny.
In 2009 the Stena Voyager, which was sailing from Belfast to Stranraer had to come to a stop outside Loch Ryan. This was due to a heavy goods vehicle becoming free from it's shackles and crashing through the stern of the ship where it lodged half in/half out. Because the vessel could now not dock in Stranraer it was decided to return to Belfast. To placate the disappointed travellers the crew decided to make drinks at the bar free for passengers, this may have been a good idea in a different cultural setting. With Scots and Irish folks it meant they had to close the bar after an hour or so because too many people were going to be too drunk to disembark.
Best one I saw was a naval exercise, where 2 destroyers , 2 frigates and one tanker were firing on a target 44 gallon drum with 50 cal. The seas were a wee rough that day and hits were few and far between. When it was the tanker's turn to to fire, the OOW decided to get in real close, too close. The poor old sod ran straight over it, with CO going nuts. The senior officer of the group sent the tanker a signal by light, which was eagerly read by the other ships as well, which went as such: "confirmed kill, you are directed to paint a drum on your bridge wing."
I never thought about little funny or lighthearted moments like these before, but as it happens, life is full of these kind of moments. All of your videos are fascinating, Mr. Mike Brady! Tragic, lighthearted, educational, all of them: keep them coming!
I hadn't even noticed that most of the tales are a bit grim, but now you mention it... Honestly I have no background in sailing, or any of the technology used but your channel is one of my top favourites. Your voice is very calming, the language is refined and the visuals are top notch. It's in my list of must-see documentary channels and I watch every time so... Keep doing what you're doing pal.
Yeahhhh, I love ALL of the content on this channel, but my favorite episodes are like "Worst War Ships in History" and "Terrible Ship Makeovers" even the videos on just the way things work on a ship. I respect the hell out of how well Mike and the team present and educate about the tradgedies, respectfully but still extremely interesting and 'entertaining' content. But I do love the lighter videos the most! 😅 What can I say, I love seeing Mike's passion coupled with his sense of humor!
"For the life of me, I don't know where that idea comes from." 😂😂😂 Best laugh of the day, I'll be rewatching this one just for the comic value! Keep the tragedies coming, that's all I can say, it wouldn't be Oceanliner Designs without them.
I really wish I could have shared one of my stories from when I worked as a deck officer on Holland America Line for this video 😂 I hope you will read it for the future. I was third officer, and all of us deck officers attended a burial at sea service on the aft deck of m.s Statendam (1993), and the captain performed the ceremony with about 30 or 40 people attending but there was loads of other guests watching, and sitting by the pool and having drinks. As the family tipped the urn over the stern, due to the way the wind was blowing and flowing over the ship, The ashes were lifted up into the air, and thrown down all over the hundreds of officers and crew, into people's drinks, mouths, eyes, etc and as you can imagine, pandemonium erupted and the aft deck was hastily evacuated. Myself and my ship mates had to duck into a crew area because we were laughing so hard, I was literally crying with laughter. I really know we shouldn't have but it was just so funny. We then had to go to the bridge to conduct the 10 o'clock bridge meeting, and the captain was SO angry with us..... I thought he was going to explode.... 😂
18:51 This woman with her hands in the air thinking "why did I pay for this" is everything. Like it's midnight and my Mum's just across the hall I can't be laughing this hard, people! 🤣🤣
I think my favorite story of all time is still HAPAG slapping that goofy eagle on Imperator because they were worried about Aquitania being longer, especially since they never even bothered fixing it when it got damaged and just took it off instead, and oh yeah, it wasn't even needed in the first place. Amazing. Excellent video, as usual!
As I recall, even “the Rostrum Express” stopped the Carpathia due to the ice warnings until he got Titanic’s distress call. and the next morning Rostrum was shocked at the ice field he’d sped thru in the dark
25 seconds in and I'm already doing the "desperately trying not to wake people up" wheeze-laugh. Edit: 22 minutes and 45 seconds later, I've got a stitch in my side and a housemate giving me a bleary "wtf is wrong with you" look.
Funniest story I know personally came from Lake Meade in 1999 or 2000. They had a Louisiana paddle wheel boat that would give tours of the lake and let you see Hoover Dam up close (since 9-11 was yet to happen) named “Desert Princess”. Apparently, the captain with a full load of passengers, let a 10 year old kid drive the ship… grabbed the wheel, swung it both ways just to see if he was being punked or not… he wasn’t, but passengers were by this. He helmed the ship for another 20 minutes, slipped it between two sandbars (which are now two hills overlooking the lake, since it’s so far down), and blew the horn while turning around at the top of Hoover Dam. I had no idea that a few people got tipped over the side and wet with my first-err, I mean-when that random kid was given the wheel until getting back to the marina. Overall, interesting day on the lake… especially for the tourist who was leaning out and got a free face wash at the cost of his Walgreens disposable camera. I deny the existence of a picture of me holding the wheel sometimes pops up on my mom’s laptop’s screensaver. It was some random kid, totally not me, I swear!
I got one now that I remember. Two actually. First one's not nearly as funny imo but the second may be up there. The first story was with me. I was a tot at the time but already a big ship geek. I loved everything that moves: trains, ships, cars, planes; you name it, I liked it. Some warship came to my harbor one day for some public tour, and I got to go on. We went up to the bridge, and as we were looking over the bow, little young me thought it was a good idea to push the throttle and see if the engines worked. Turns out they did, because in the next second we all looked back and saw a massive wake kicking up behind us. Needless to say I pulled the throttle back immediately (I was curious but I wasn't stupid) before we could take off, but still a fond memory of mine today. The second story didn't involve me, but rather my younger brother. This one was actually crazy. So he and his class were on a field trip riding the Boston Duck Boats, and long story short he got a chance to take the wheel. From what I heard he damn near crashed the thing: I assume the captain took back command before it was too late. Luckily no one was hurt.
So funny! A great alternative type of package put together. I laughed but mostly i was glued to the screen learning. 10 out of 10 as always! :) Well done :)
The editing in this video is as hilarious as the stories themselves 😂 Can't wait for the next installment, this was a nice reprieve from all the shipwreck tragedies and I'd love to see it become a regular series
"Es ist der Strathnaver, Herr Kaleu!"... I always wondered what ship's silhouette was in your Intros. My English Step-parents married and emigrated to Canada in 1949 aboard Aquitania. I'm sure they mentioned it was Aquitania's second-last trip west. Despite marriage, they were berthed separately due to space and sheer number of war-brides and ex-servicemen. Dad was stowed below with a seven other 'Husbands' in a third-class cabin, while Mom shared a first-class suite with three other 'Wives'. They spent their days strolling the decks and noticing most pre-war furnishings had either not been replaced or were dilapidated, and Mom mentioned the food was good but obviously not first-class dining due to the conditions and situation... Respect to my 'good Friend' Mr. Brady, eh!
Eh, i think the 'only covering tragedy part' is a bit overblown, You also cover a lot of videos about the history of ocean liners and their evolution. Your Evolution of Ocean liners and the German liner videos are among my favourties! I guess if i could offer any suggestion, just cover the stories of success and glamour as well as that of the tragedy and loss in equal measure. There are plenty of Ocean Liners with incredible stories of their own that went on to have illustrious and successful careers. Personally i just love the history and backstory of the Ocean Liners you cover, its almost like describing this great 'personality', a tale of a Great figure, made in the image of splendor and glamour...the fastest and grandest of her time... and so on, describing all the trials and tribulations of her life until her ultimate demise...It Reads like a Great Epic story, and i really admire that about your narrative storytelling. So honestly, keep doing what you love! Ocean liners aren't just meant to be a symbol of tragedy, they are symbols of engineering and technological might and splendor, carrying people all around the world in unparalleled luxury and comfort, quite literally bringing the world closer together... And Personally i'm still waiting for your Queen Mary documentary! She is still my personal favourite and has an incredible peacetime and wartime career with so many fascinating twists and turns. So looking forward to when you'll be covering that! Perhaps the next part of your Ocean liner Evolution series covering the 20's and 30's? Can't wait for that one!
A little while ago I read through the memoirs of a Swedish adventurer who had done a little bit of everything over the years, including spending his early twenties essentially hitchhiking across the world as a sailor. Here's a couple of the funniest stories he wrote about; - Getting threatend at gunpoint by a very angry border guard after jumping ashore too early while docking in East Germany. - Volunteering to fix an important light (can't quite remember which one) on the ship's mast in the middle of a storm while crossing the Atlantic, concluding that maybe it wasn't the best idea in the world at the moment he almost fell overboard. - Accidentally preventing a theif from stealing the crew's valuables by looking up at the right time while holding an unloaded revolver belonging to the ship's captain, which spooked the thief enough to flee the scene. - Diving in a harbour alongside a South Korean sailor while onboard a vessel which had sailed into North Korea on a diplomatic mission, spooking the North Korean soldiers into thinking enemy frogmen had entered the harbour. - Getting chased by sharks while going for a relaxing swim. - Attempting to sail from Hong Kong to Europe onboard an old sailing vessel, which led to him (kinda) getting involved in a Triad (Chinese organised crime syndicates) smuggling operation. The memoirs in question is "Sjöman Legionär Legosoldat" by Roland Strandberg. If you can read Swedish, I highly recommend it, great fun and filled with fantastic stories.
The funniest maritime story involving one vessel that makes me laugh is the old Sydney ferry SS Curl Curl from the late-1920s. What did she do that's hilarious? Couldn't stop getting herself into a mishap. Here's a list: -29th April 1929: Ran down the passenger launch Nimrod. No serious injures and both vessels weren't significantly damaged -30th April 1930: Collision with K-class ferry SS Kiandra, with the wooden ferry's crew performing urgent actions to aviod sinking. Several injured. -February 1932: Crashed into the Manly wharf and rammed the footpath and Manly pool. A rope which tangled around her forward propeller had to be untangled. -31st March 1936: Ran aground at Bradley's Head with the 7:10am Circular Quay-Manly service with 50 passengers due to fog. Passengers were transferred to the launch Nevade while the ferry was pulled out by the tugboats St Aristel and Lindfield, with Curl Curl out of action due to damage to the rudder and propeller. Returned to service 9th April. -16th November 1936: Suffered blistered paint after towing a police launch clear of the burning Binngarra-class MV Bellubera (I don't count this as an incident as she was doing something useful here). -10th November 1938: Crashed into the Manly wharf, again. -23rd September 1943: Collision with an unrecorded launch. -12th February 1953: Crashed into the Manly wharf, again. This time causing significant damage to herself, the wharf and destroying the tourism offices. -9th February 1954: Collision with Lady-class (III) MV Lady Scott.
@@wickedcabinboy In the interest of fairness, her older sister SS Dee Why also got herself into a few scrapes, having four in her service life: -25th November 1931: Collision with K-class ferry SS Kirrule. It was found her skipper was at fault and his certificate was suspended. -1st October 1943: Collision with unrecorded American Liberty Ship. -25th December 1946: Ran aground at Obelisk Bay after getting lost in fog. She remained stuck for 8 hours until three unrecorded tugboats pulled her free, which her passengers being lifted off. Her rudder was missing, propeller was damaged and frame was bent, a damage bill of AU£6,500 (AU$544,837.90 in today's money) -29th March 1957: Collision with tugboat Himma and ran aground at Kirribilli.
Captain Rostron getting drenched and the poor hapless sailor going all out to rescue a case of beer, only to end up getting the tongue lashing of his life... in my humble opinion, those are the most hilarious stories of this video. The anecdote about the vegetable garden between the funnels and the line "get me off this damn tub!" coupled with the idea of mutinying passengers are rather humorous honorable mentions for me. lol
We absolutely need more of this storys. When you are looking allways to the sinking of ships, these storys are so wholesome. We want to see the tragic moments of naval history, but we also want to hear about the funny moments. Ok... *I* want to hear about. Don't know, how other people see this topic.
That one second of Sabaton made me wheeze out a “ha!” Into my very quiet bedroom and it made my cat fly off the bed with a very grumpy “what the hell is wrong with you??” look, gonna get bit for that later, but worth it. My ears are trained to pick up the slightest hint of my favourite bands/songs. 🤘Also *crickets* from the Victorians was definitely my favourite part, and then the painting. 🫣😂😂😂😂
The Mauretania zipping around and the horn honking caught me a bit off guard. I laughed so hard that I think I startled my 4 year old daughter, who is sitting next to me while I watch this. This was great fun! I like these videos where Mike is a little more laid back and just telling us all some great stories. The serious history videos are good too, and this was a nice way to mix it up. Well done, Oceanliner Designs crew! ❤
Funniest story I've been a part of (of which there are many), was when I was serving on a supply ship in the north sea. We had tied up in Aberdeen, with our identical sister ship tied "second off" ourselves. As we were going to be alongside for a few days some of the crew went ashore for a few wets (drinks) whilst the rest of us cracked on with the business of the ship. After about 6 hours we received an urgent call from the charterer, informing us we had to load a cargo of brine and sail urgently to a rig. Unfortunately our tanks were still half full of used drilling mud, and it would take 24hrs+ to offload it and get the tanks cleaned up to brine standard. Our sister, however, already had clean tanks. After some back and forth, it was decided that we'd swap with our sister so she would be alongside and we'd go second off, they'd load cargo and sail the following morning. We didn't bother recalling the crew that were still ashore, as we had enough onboard to swtich places - Something that's important to remember for later... We switched places, and our sister began to work through cargo ops etc. At about 9pm the crew started to return onboard, all making it safely back to their cabins with the exception of our norwegian bosun. We tried to call him numerous times and couldn't get hold of him for love nor money. I called the agent who, rolling their eyes down the phone, said they'd call some friends at the local police station to see if he'd found himself spending a night at her magistys pleasure. Nope, no sign there either. Becoming concerned at this point that he might have fallen in on his way over a bridge or something, I was about to call the DPA and report the situation when the duty OOW burst through my cabin door, out of breath, telling me that I needed to go to our sister ship as quickly as possible as something "has happened". After running across to our sister, I found "my" bosun about to fight their bosun on their back deck, in a VERY drunk state. After dragging him back to the ship and apologising profusely to the other ships captain and crew, and allowing the bosun to sober up overnight, I sat him down before our sister sailed and asked him what happened. Turns out he'd come back absolutely hammered, managed to blag his way back into the harbour and walked back to the ship... He didn't bother to read the dayboard at the bottom of the gangway with the ships name on and had staggered back to his cabin and climbed into his bunk... To find another man in what he thought was his bunk - which was the other ships bosun! The idiot hadn't realised that we'd switched places while he was ashore and had tried to go to sleep in the other guys bunk. We called him by the other bosun's name for the rest of the trip.
This would make for a great livestream topic! You know, just hanging out, sharing funny and interesting ship stories and just sort of having a bit of fun. Could be good to have every once in a while on the channel.
I haven't seen the whole video but I love seeing you smile. I love the serious history topics because they are interesting. We never get to see you smile and be funny. Do it more often. Also I love how you always wear a suit and have such nicely groomed hair. You are so cute. I also love your British accent. It's soothing. I wish I could reach through the screen and give you a big hug. You really are a very cute thing.
Rambling is my favorite kind of historical discussion. Usually the best stuff you don't hear about is heard in the ramblings. Like the interviews with the participants of the events of Nov 22 1963. It's the small stuff that reveals the most interesting things.
My father served on the USS Fulton back in the early 80s. He told me a story of the ship being drydocked to receive an inspection, during which some new equipment was brought on board as well. Apparently, the arrangement involved some heavy machinery which would have been asymmetrically positioned, so water was pumped into the ballast tanks on one side of the ship, with Lord knows who calculating how much to take on. Lo and behold, when the dock was fully flooded again, it turned out that they'd overcorrected as the ship immediately heeled 14° over and sent my father crashing down out of his bunk.
An additional fun note: I noticed this upload yesterday, and decided to watch it over breakfast the next day. Overnight, a friend pings me on Discord with this video, not knowing that I'm already quite familiar with the channel just as she is. You're doing great, Mike!
16:07 I died at the speedboat sound effect and the horns! Imagine if the Rostron Express somehow managed to strike an iceberg. It would be the irony of the century.
I have a story from one of Denmarks ro/ro Ferrys. This ferrys name is MF Mary and she sails between Hvalpsund and Sundøre. One time there was a truck on board. And the driver of said truck had not remembered to put the parking brake on. So when Mary started moving the truck moved to. And it ended up hanging over the side of the boat. Another story i have is back in 1960´s. Back when DSB was controlling most of the ferry transport. This story is about a small Chainferry named Egernsund. And one day they took the slogan ''Allways room for one more'' a little to litteral. And they managed to squeese 2 busses on the ferry. And then there was not room for anymore. The busses rear end hung far over the end of the Chainferry. Also favorite moment right here: 16:07
Please make a video on the M/S Estonia!!! Also, I have a funny ship story. My grandma once worked on a cargo ship named Kemira. It was carrying sulfuric acid at the time that this story took place. A man working on the ship bragged that he could swim in the acid and not even get hurt. A while later there was a small leak and some acid got on to the deck. The man slipped and fell in to the puddle of acid. He started screaming and jumped in to the icy sea. He wasn´t seriously injured but he did get humbled.
My late father was a supernumerary (trainee) engineer with P&O. He sailed on the Empire Fowey and the Bendigo. The Empire Fowey was a troopship. It had been the German liner Potsdam. The bannisters of the main staircase had carved swastikas on them. Anyhow, I digress. They offered to give some of the soldiers a tour of the machinery spaces. However, their sergeants made the soldiers do it in full kit. Rifles, greatcoats, packs. The engineers conducted on them tour, but took great delight in pausing the NCOs in some of the hottest areas to explain in very great detail how everything worked.
As someone who has a playlist of your disaster videos I curate myself and was just binging it again like an hour ago… still a nice change of pace. Also your intro killed me 🤣
My dad was once on the Kruzenshtern. On the first evening, the captain was giving an address with a long speech in the dining hall to celebrate the departure. Everybody on board kept it respectably quiet, but my dad and his buddies, at the very back of the dining hall, decided to celebrate somewhat prematurely. He took a bottle of champagne and, covering the bottleneck with a towel and slowly, very carefully tried to open it. Of course, it opened with a classic loud pop, ringing through the entire hall. Silence fell over the room and everyone, including the captain, immediately turned to my dad, him comically holding the bottle. Then the captain said: "Go on, pass it forwards!"
I guess you have to do what you need to if a case of beer flies out the porthole . I think your channel is awesome Mike. Yes some tragedies are sad but that's life . I would describe your channel as informative and entertaining 👍
It wasn't on an oceanliner, it was on a dinghy, but we had a number of sailboats supposedly sailing in a flotilla. My boat lost the rudder axle and got equipped with an oar for steerage instead. As you can imagine, the oar did nothing to help and so, it would just tack back and forth at random, with the rest of the fleet trying to follow without much success. After a bit of that, the organizers had enough of us and that and decided to tow all of the dinghies in a tree formation (central tow line and each boat connecting to it with a secondary line). The problem with this arrangement is that you have the center board even slightly in the water and it catches the central tow line, you will be swimming. After a bit of towing, I fell asleep and woke up to the following scene - We're all stopped, one boat is capsized, most of its crew trying to flip it back except for one guy who was chasing a watermelon. Suffice to say that his effort did not impress his instructor, so as a punishment, he had to take the watermelon with him wherever he went. after a day or two of that, the watermelon fell and cracked and so he put a bandage on it to try and keep it together. The watermelon leaked and so the whole thing looked like a guy carrying a watermelon with an active, bleeding flesh wound he tries to stop with some bandages...
That cut during your drink got me laughing before the video even properly started, which told me everything I needed to know about how I'd feel about it. But even in a shipwreck, there are some humorous moments to be had: Charles and Annie Stengel traveled as first class passengers aboard the _Titanic's_ maiden voyage, and when the time came to evacuate, Charles saw his wife off in Lifeboat 5. Fortunately, Mr. Stengel would not be aboard for much longer, as he was permitted to board Emergency Lifeboat 1 shortly afterwards. For those unfamiliar with the boat deck's design, the two emergency lifeboats were typically swung out over the side for situations such as a man overboard, and were separated from the edge of the deck by a waist-high bulwark which would have to be climbed over for boarding. Unfortunately for Stengel, his build did not make this easy for him, and once he struggled onto the bulwark, he rolled over into the lifeboat, prompting First Officer Murdoch to exclaim with a hearty laugh, "That is the funniest sight I have seen tonight!" Murdoch's reaction helped reassure Stengel that perhaps the situation was not so serious after all….
The funniest story i heard from a captain was an elderly lady who marvelled at how amazing the ship was but had 1 complaint that she put forward to the captain. She said she wasnt happy about the airconditioning fans on the promeneade. The captain a bit confused asked her to show him what she was referring to. She took him to the promeneade pointed up at the lifeboat propellers and said "Look there. Those never seem to work."
who in their right mind would even think of a design for a fan on a lifeboat
This came just right out of the blue! 🤣
THAT IS KILLER!
"Of course they're not going to work ma'am, they're supposed to be in the water when they're running."
: )
This is a great change from the screams and sinkings 🤣🤣🤣 fair seas and following winds.
Whatever cuz... the tragedy was the draw card.....
Following seas.
@@elzach0 Felt kinda like when I am in a group of IT guys that are telling work jokes
It's fair winds and following seas, just fyi.
@@elzach0 Aw honey.
One funny thing I noticed from the US Navy. While doing research on the USS Alabama, I found a LOT of documents in the National Archives. One document I found was a form to be filled out after an air attack. Basically how many planes, where from, how many shot down, how much ammo spent... etc. It's actually the form that identified kamikaze when they started being used.
At the top of the page, in BIG, BOLD letters was the following warning...
"DO NOT FILL OUT THIS FORM UNTIL AFTER AIR ATTACK HAS ENDED!!"
I like to think that was the result of some random, overachiever Ensign walking around on deck during the attack asking the gun crews questions while they're shooting with the form on a clipboard.
I could give you hundreds of humorous stories form ships, but I'll give you a secondhand one for starters.
MY ex worked for American Hawaii cruises back in the 1980s in the Steward's department. One day while the ship was cruising around the Big Island and she was out on deck having a cigarette, a passenger asked her what time the volcano went off.
She immediately answered "Two O'Clock," and the passenger responded, "Oh good, I have time to get my nails done first.
I loved how the music cut out every time Lightollers war crimes were brought up.
For anyone wondering, he was accused of massacring survivors of the SM UB-110 while in command of HMS Garry in 1918. There would probably be enough benefit of the doubt to give him… if Lightoller didn’t admit to doing it in his memoirs.
Oh wow. I was wondering what the nature of the crime's were. Thanks for the info 😉👍. 🤘😎🖖🇨🇦
Won't paste the whole thing here and shit up the comments, but excerpts of both Lightoller's and the UBoat captain Fürbringer's accounts are on Lightoller's Wikipedia under the WWI tab.
@@stinkymart3173 It is also covered in one of his videos about recovered subs.
He let people die for being in posession of a pe*is, even though the lifeboats were half empty. I am not surprised.
Lightoller clearly a product of british propaganda
From too damn sad to too damn funny
The shot of the "Rostrum Express" with the car horn was my favorite bit
Mauretania truly did have a soul. Imagine being pranked by your own ship
My Navy frigate (early 1980s - Knox Class) tended to have the bow, with it's large rubber sonar dome, do a weird shaking and shimmying as it dropped into a trough. The sudden rising and dropping was dangerous when I was trying to go from one deck to another via the angled ladder. If I step out at the top as the bow drops, I am left hanging in the air! If at the bottom as it drops, I could loosely grip the railing and be sliding UP! If it is rising as I am at the bottom, increased gravity means I am planted at the bottom and cannot go up! We learned to deal with this. 😊
Mauritania said, " Got you b***h!" 😅😅😅
@@lancerevell5979 That just reminds me of Patrick O'Brian's descriptions of Stephen Maturin attempting to board HMS Sophie, before the crew knew to offer him a bosun's chair when he wanted to board. Timing is everything.
I recall one funny story about the queen Mary and it was recalled by a historian on the abc tv series “the liners “, he said that the radio operator rushed to the bridge telling the captain that German radio has announced that we have just been sunk and seven thousand people have drowned , to which the captain replied don’t tell the crew as it would make them upset
"Cool, now we are real ghost ship with ghost crew"
I think I've heard that story before actually. Kinda funny ngl
Love that captain's reply. British deadpan humour at its very finest!
I would have to say, that the "Garden between the funnels" was probably the most hilarious. So innocent and wholesome.
I am pretty sure that something like that was attempted for real at least once.
Since it got memed by the crew, I can imagine a conversation like "I'm just going to take a walk in the garden"
Capt Smith: Runs his ships at full speed regardless of conditions. Has accident. Ship sinks.
Capt Rostrum: Runs his ships at full speed regardless of conditions. Gets wet. Retires Legend.
I think that was the ship getting back at him for running her so hard. “Oh that’s a very nice looking uniform” *splash*.
I think the worst part would’ve been the fact that it probably had a lot of wool. I don’t know if you have a lot of wool clothing, but when wool gets wet, it’s 1. Very heavy, and 2. It stinks!
The editing on this episode is absurd and genuinely funny. I can tell there was a lot of fun in making this one.
I do have a war story from my grandpa which I've always found amusing. He was an electrician aboard the fuel ship USS Tappahannock in Vietnam. Their captain devised a scheme to get the ship's crew a pay bonus for entering combat.
So they send an alert to the crew that they're going into an active combat zone for an emergency resupply. They meet with the friendly warship, transfer over a single case of beer, and leave. Hazard pay for everyone!
Grain of salt, what with it being from a grandparent decades after the fact, but I always found it funny
This is hilarious 😂 True or not, that's a damn good story, lmao.
@@kats9755 he had a few stories like that that were pretty amusing. It actually makes me really grateful that he served in a role that never entered genuine combat. I'm pretty certain that the overall story is true, but details had changed time to time so I wanted to cover my ass in the odd event one of his shipmates found my comment
@@DanTheManCalterthings like that do genuinely happen in wartime. The official record is usually done up a bit though so no one gets in trouble.
I still think one of the funniest ocean liner stories is when the Germans put all this effort into dolling up the Cap Trafalgar to look like RMS Carmania for commerce raiding, only for the first ship it runs into to be the real RMS Carmania, which also now has guns.
They then proceeded to shoot each other apart. It was the battle that convinced both admiralties that ocean liners made poor military craft. It took awhile, but then they realized that oh yeah, they could use these massive ships to carry people!
Mike should partner with Drachinifel to do this one! :D
Yesss! 😂
That was an absolute sh*tshow and I loved it. 🤣🤣
I remember that. It was the first ship they came upon, which probably led to a interesting radio conversation
As much as I love the 4K CGI footage of the ships in recent videos, I prefer the editing of the RMS Mauretania speeding around like a skidoo. Hope to see more footage like that in future videos!
I second this HEARTILY
There needs to be 4k CGI footage of the Mauretania doing this with Captain Rostron at the helm, sunglasses and all exclaiming "I don't give a ship" 😂😂
@@JPSRCE1987 Rostron was a dang legend ✌️
“I don’t know where that idea comes from” lol when I watched this on Patreon, you achieved the goal of making people laugh. And that bit where the funnel was cut off. Mission accomplished Captain Brady
The editing for the mauretania and lusitania section is hilarious😂😂😂
Yup. I had to pause at the speedboat joke, and that's rare ^^
Aussie comedy. Thanks to all for your hard work shared with us.
Perfect editing for sure!
6:52 I've never heard of the PASSENGERS mutinying, that absolutely killed me 😂
@kats9755 Yep, when the passengers on your CRUISE SHIP mutiny, it’s probably a good idea to reconsider your business model! 🤣🤣🤣
Were they subdued and did they all walk the plank?
I loved the sound effects incorporated with the "Rostron Express". 🤣🤣🤣
Mike, you and your team outdid yourselves on this video. Your humor is delightful but whoever edited the zoomin' Rostran Express, the yodeling beer diver, the funnel-removal horror, and the Great Eastern + a really bad recorder "My Heart Will Go On" deserves a fkn Nobel prize or something, I am SOBBING. 😂😂😂😂😂
Much as I agree with this comment, I must note that a recorder can sound so very, very much worse than that. The one in the video barely squeaked/squealed at all - it took me a few moments to realise that it WAS a recorder. (Source: a year of recorder lessons when I was in infant school. If you have never heard thirty-odd six-year-olds playing recorders roughly simultaneously, consider yourself lucky.)
I've not been one of those asking for a change from the doom and gloom that many of your videos center around, but this was a truly delightful switch up. My favorite tales had to be the garden story and diving for the beer case. Just harmless good fun. The garden one in particular reminds me of my grandfather telling tourists to look for a "current bush" when campers would ask him where they could plug in their TVs and phones.
He should have been more specific. Blackcurrant or redcurrant?!
"When things go well and the ship's not sinking, there's often some really funny things that happen." Now *there's* comedy gold.
“PEOPLE LOOK LIKE THEY ARE NOT HAVING A GOOD TIME!” Talk about an understatement. LOVE IT!
THE ROSTREN EXPRESS HAD ME DEAD 💀
Mauritania scooting across the ocean had me in tears 🤣🤣
Rostron's liner as a speedboat made me laugh so much. So unexpected. Love it!
Why do you think Mauritania has the distinction of holding on the Blue Riband the longest?
@@kristoffermangila Technically longest in active service. Otherwise longest all-time goes to Big U. :D
That painting of the passengers in The Great Eastern as it's rolling.... Reminds me of my Navy frigate's crews mess during lunch or dinner while cruising in rough seas. Looked like a Three Stooges movie. 😅
Gonna correct you on the SS America/Australis/Italis/American Star, because the reality is even funnier. She was due to be scrapped, and money had even already changed hands, but at the last moment, someone came up with the mad idea to turn her into a five-star floating hotel in Thailand. They felt this would work, because the hull was still pretty good. So the ship had to be towed from Greece, where she was laid up, to Thailand, but because the Egyptian government wouldn't allow her through the Suez, they had to go the long way around. But around the Canary Islands, the tug-ship combination hit bad weather, the tow cable broke, and the now American Star was beached on Fuerteventura. At first, an attempt was made to refloat the vessel, but within no time at all, she broke in half and was a complete write-off. The final remains of her hull only collapsed below the waves relatively recently, and she was a bit of an eyecatcher for 20 years or so.
He actually went into that the last time he referenced the ship's story, but probably didn't want to go over the full thing again.
She was technically scrapped, it was just the ocean that did it.
@@n8pls543 true but he shouldn't have said she was acrapped, could have just said it's another story and maybe linked it
@@SovietDictator Details, Details
The intro alone made this video amazing i appreciate Mike’s sense of humor.
The Rostrum story’s editing literally had me howling with laughter, imagining this ship speeding along like a street racer with cops on their ass.
The engineer diving after the beer is now my personal hero
"When things aren't sinking, funny things happen."
Who knew? It's news to me
But, the sinking IS the funny part
@@Welv1987 Woah. That's deep man.
Just like the funny sinking ship in question.
I worked on the Carnival Miracle in 2014 as the sound tech. Got three for ya...
Staff and officers were allowed to eat in the guest areas. In Skagway, Alaska, I went up to the sandwich area on the Lido deck to get some breakfast before getting off. Next to me was a short Italian guy surrounded by a couple of other Italian guys, all dressed well. He confidently placed his order through a heavy Italian accent. When he got his food, he thanked the man behind the counter and walked away. The man then behind the counter looked at me and asked, "who WAS that guy?" I politely said, "That was the Captain."
We had the main theater shut so we could do some pre-checks before the night's show. No guests area allowed in during that time for safety reasons. Down below me, I saw two women wearing... Well... Not wearing much. I then saw a photographer instructing them what to do next. I walked down and explained that the theater was closed and guests were not permitted at this time. They explained they were doing a "photo shoot." Right... Anyway, the rules still applied. Instead of leaving, they asked if I could stand between them for a picture. In hindsight, this was a bad idea, but I took my nametag off and obliged. Now, Carnival has a VERY strict policy against being "too friendly" with guests. It's strictly prohibited, and generally leads to immediate disembarkation and termination. Regardless, I stood between them, and they proceeded to wrap their arms around me. In probably the most inopportune timing, the head of Security walks into the theater a couple doors away, and looked right at me and crossed his arms; stern look present. After breaking out into a slight sweat, the picture was over. Nothing came of it. Either he was not aware we closed the theater for pre-checks, or didn't recognize me. Either way, I finished my contract away from further photoshoots.
The last one involves the very front of the ship: where Jack and Rose embraced. While off limits to guests, this was a smoking area for the crew. This one I was not part of, but was told the story. Crews are a VERY international group. My entire tech team was from Romania except for myself and the lighting tech, and one guy from India. One of the Romanians told me a buddy of his was in the smoking area, and security walked by. He mumbled, "f*** security." Security heard, and was displeased, and took him to the security office for reprimand. When asked what happened, the Romanian said, "I was just asking what security was doing there!" "Che fache," pronounced "che f***" is basically "what are you up to?" "Che fache security... What is security doing here?" The head of security was not satisfied and brought in another Romanian. Without context, the third party confirmed that is a way to ask what security is doing there. He was released freely, with a smirk.
I'll have to remember that last one the next time I hear a stern 'mom voice' snap 'Language!"
"Romanian!"
@@cherokee43v6 Haha! Be careful!
Story for second part:
Once, when the Polish transatlantic liner Batory was experiencing a storm, captain Eustazy Borkowski (called the Sea Shaman) learned that the weather would soon improve and decided to play the following joke on the passengers:
Together with the officer, he put on a storm jacket, ordered them to douse themselves with water (to look as if they had just been outside), went down to the passengers and told the priest who was on board that the situation was bad and only God would be able to save the ship. People began to pray, and then, as the captain predicted, the weather began to improve.
This captain was known for such jokes and I think it's really funny.
That's appalling!
In 2009 the Stena Voyager, which was sailing from Belfast to Stranraer had to come to a stop outside Loch Ryan. This was due to a heavy goods vehicle becoming free from it's shackles and crashing through the stern of the ship where it lodged half in/half out. Because the vessel could now not dock in Stranraer it was decided to return to Belfast. To placate the disappointed travellers the crew decided to make drinks at the bar free for passengers, this may have been a good idea in a different cultural setting. With Scots and Irish folks it meant they had to close the bar after an hour or so because too many people were going to be too drunk to disembark.
never tell an Irishman or a Scot "Free Drinks!" that's asking for trouble 😂
Best one I saw was a naval exercise, where 2 destroyers , 2 frigates and one tanker were firing on a target 44 gallon drum with 50 cal. The seas were a wee rough that day and hits were few and far between. When it was the tanker's turn to to fire, the OOW decided to get in real close, too close. The poor old sod ran straight over it, with CO going nuts. The senior officer of the group sent the tanker a signal by light, which was eagerly read by the other ships as well, which went as such: "confirmed kill, you are directed to paint a drum on your bridge wing."
It's a bit like the f35 with a balloon painted on the side!
But hey, if I was that pilot, I'd happily take my hilarious kill marker.
I'm a member of the Italian Navy. And I'm proud to say that I was there... It was a couple years ago. Probably few times I laughed hard as that one
I never thought about little funny or lighthearted moments like these before, but as it happens, life is full of these kind of moments. All of your videos are fascinating, Mr. Mike Brady! Tragic, lighthearted, educational, all of them: keep them coming!
0:17 "I don't know where that comes from" Ah Mike I just love your Australian talent for tack and subtlety.
I hadn't even noticed that most of the tales are a bit grim, but now you mention it...
Honestly I have no background in sailing, or any of the technology used but your channel is one of my top favourites. Your voice is very calming, the language is refined and the visuals are top notch. It's in my list of must-see documentary channels and I watch every time so... Keep doing what you're doing pal.
Yeahhhh, I love ALL of the content on this channel, but my favorite episodes are like "Worst War Ships in History" and "Terrible Ship Makeovers" even the videos on just the way things work on a ship.
I respect the hell out of how well Mike and the team present and educate about the tradgedies, respectfully but still extremely interesting and 'entertaining' content. But I do love the lighter videos the most! 😅
What can I say, I love seeing Mike's passion coupled with his sense of humor!
16:08 Rostron: "I believe in speed. Power. Power and speed solve many things."
So now anytime there's an excerpt of Rostron, it needs to be voiced by Jezza the Orangutan. 😆
Army men: YIS
Captain Rostron has the spirit... of Lightning McQueen!
@@kristoffermangila Rostron: "I am speed."
@@Kaidhicksiiwhat’s more, I think his nickname was “the Electric Spark”
As a Canadian, I understand heroically diving in to save the beer! 🤣🤣. 🖖😎🤘🇨🇦🍻
It's Canadian instinct. Never mind the women and children, save the beer!
It's a good thing the Titanic's crew weren't Canadian, otherwise Cameron would have had one hell of a time making his movie.
@@thing_under_the_stairs 🤣🤣🤣, true eh?! 🤣
@@user-xu2pi6vx7o 🤣🤣. Cameron is Canadian born too! 🤣🤣🤣👍🍻
@@user-xu2pi6vx7o Did you know James Cameron is Canadian?
I like Lightoller's sense of humour.
Me too. That's something I personally would have done.
@@LorenzoFerrari-d5e Give me a few drinks and my old roomies from uni for backup and/or encouragement, and I'd probably do it too!
@@LorenzoFerrari-d5e Seconded. We're all cheeky bastards up in here 🗣🗣🔥🤣
"For the life of me, I don't know where that idea comes from."
😂😂😂 Best laugh of the day, I'll be rewatching this one just for the comic value!
Keep the tragedies coming, that's all I can say, it wouldn't be Oceanliner Designs without them.
I really wish I could have shared one of my stories from when I worked as a deck officer on Holland America Line for this video 😂 I hope you will read it for the future.
I was third officer, and all of us deck officers attended a burial at sea service on the aft deck of m.s Statendam (1993), and the captain performed the ceremony with about 30 or 40 people attending but there was loads of other guests watching, and sitting by the pool and having drinks.
As the family tipped the urn over the stern, due to the way the wind was blowing and flowing over the ship, The ashes were lifted up into the air, and thrown down all over the hundreds of officers and crew, into people's drinks, mouths, eyes, etc and as you can imagine, pandemonium erupted and the aft deck was hastily evacuated. Myself and my ship mates had to duck into a crew area because we were laughing so hard, I was literally crying with laughter. I really know we shouldn't have but it was just so funny.
We then had to go to the bridge to conduct the 10 o'clock bridge meeting, and the captain was SO angry with us..... I thought he was going to explode.... 😂
Wonder if the deceased was a prankster in life.
This is... this is a good illustration on why you find the lee side before you go throwing things overboard.
Hee hee 😂 whenever I think of scattering ashes I imagine it going exactly where they shouldn’t go 😂 this cracked me up 😂
18:51 This woman with her hands in the air thinking "why did I pay for this" is everything. Like it's midnight and my Mum's just across the hall I can't be laughing this hard, people! 🤣🤣
I think my favorite story of all time is still HAPAG slapping that goofy eagle on Imperator because they were worried about Aquitania being longer, especially since they never even bothered fixing it when it got damaged and just took it off instead, and oh yeah, it wasn't even needed in the first place. Amazing. Excellent video, as usual!
The beer dive and sound effect were perfect, thank you 🤣
As I recall, even “the Rostrum Express” stopped the Carpathia due to the ice warnings until he got Titanic’s distress call. and the next morning Rostrum was shocked at the ice field he’d sped thru in the dark
The story of the USS William D. Porter is probably my favourite ship story. Its absolutely insane
25 seconds in and I'm already doing the "desperately trying not to wake people up" wheeze-laugh.
Edit: 22 minutes and 45 seconds later, I've got a stitch in my side and a housemate giving me a bleary "wtf is wrong with you" look.
Funniest story I know personally came from Lake Meade in 1999 or 2000. They had a Louisiana paddle wheel boat that would give tours of the lake and let you see Hoover Dam up close (since 9-11 was yet to happen) named “Desert Princess”. Apparently, the captain with a full load of passengers, let a 10 year old kid drive the ship… grabbed the wheel, swung it both ways just to see if he was being punked or not… he wasn’t, but passengers were by this. He helmed the ship for another 20 minutes, slipped it between two sandbars (which are now two hills overlooking the lake, since it’s so far down), and blew the horn while turning around at the top of Hoover Dam. I had no idea that a few people got tipped over the side and wet with my first-err, I mean-when that random kid was given the wheel until getting back to the marina. Overall, interesting day on the lake… especially for the tourist who was leaning out and got a free face wash at the cost of his Walgreens disposable camera. I deny the existence of a picture of me holding the wheel sometimes pops up on my mom’s laptop’s screensaver. It was some random kid, totally not me, I swear!
So, it was YOU!
I'm just kidding. I've never been to the Hoover Dam.
I got one now that I remember. Two actually. First one's not nearly as funny imo but the second may be up there. The first story was with me. I was a tot at the time but already a big ship geek. I loved everything that moves: trains, ships, cars, planes; you name it, I liked it. Some warship came to my harbor one day for some public tour, and I got to go on. We went up to the bridge, and as we were looking over the bow, little young me thought it was a good idea to push the throttle and see if the engines worked. Turns out they did, because in the next second we all looked back and saw a massive wake kicking up behind us. Needless to say I pulled the throttle back immediately (I was curious but I wasn't stupid) before we could take off, but still a fond memory of mine today.
The second story didn't involve me, but rather my younger brother. This one was actually crazy. So he and his class were on a field trip riding the Boston Duck Boats, and long story short he got a chance to take the wheel. From what I heard he damn near crashed the thing: I assume the captain took back command before it was too late. Luckily no one was hurt.
So funny! A great alternative type of package put together. I laughed but mostly i was glued to the screen learning. 10 out of 10 as always! :) Well done :)
Gotta love how the Australian term for fraud is "hilarious pranks"
The Aussies are simply built different
The editing in this video is as hilarious as the stories themselves 😂 Can't wait for the next installment, this was a nice reprieve from all the shipwreck tragedies and I'd love to see it become a regular series
"Es ist der Strathnaver, Herr Kaleu!"... I always wondered what ship's silhouette was in your Intros.
My English Step-parents married and emigrated to Canada in 1949 aboard Aquitania. I'm sure they mentioned it was Aquitania's second-last trip west. Despite marriage, they were berthed separately due to space and sheer number of war-brides and ex-servicemen. Dad was stowed below with a seven other 'Husbands' in a third-class cabin, while Mom shared a first-class suite with three other 'Wives'. They spent their days strolling the decks and noticing most pre-war furnishings had either not been replaced or were dilapidated, and Mom mentioned the food was good but obviously not first-class dining due to the conditions and situation...
Respect to my 'good Friend' Mr. Brady, eh!
In regards to the food situation, the UK wasn't able to end wartime rationing until sometime in the early 1950s, IIRC.
Another Canadian here, eh 😆🇨🇦
"Cut the forward funnel off and let's ship her off. No one will care."-goofy designer
LOL
The thumbnail was everything
True😂
Eh, i think the 'only covering tragedy part' is a bit overblown, You also cover a lot of videos about the history of ocean liners and their evolution. Your Evolution of Ocean liners and the German liner videos are among my favourties!
I guess if i could offer any suggestion, just cover the stories of success and glamour as well as that of the tragedy and loss in equal measure. There are plenty of Ocean Liners with incredible stories of their own that went on to have illustrious and successful careers.
Personally i just love the history and backstory of the Ocean Liners you cover, its almost like describing this great 'personality', a tale of a Great figure, made in the image of splendor and glamour...the fastest and grandest of her time... and so on, describing all the trials and tribulations of her life until her ultimate demise...It Reads like a Great Epic story, and i really admire that about your narrative storytelling.
So honestly, keep doing what you love!
Ocean liners aren't just meant to be a symbol of tragedy, they are symbols of engineering and technological might and splendor, carrying people all around the world in unparalleled luxury and comfort, quite literally bringing the world closer together...
And Personally i'm still waiting for your Queen Mary documentary! She is still my personal favourite and has an incredible peacetime and wartime career with so many fascinating twists and turns.
So looking forward to when you'll be covering that! Perhaps the next part of your Ocean liner Evolution series covering the 20's and 30's? Can't wait for that one!
A little while ago I read through the memoirs of a Swedish adventurer who had done a little bit of everything over the years, including spending his early twenties essentially hitchhiking across the world as a sailor. Here's a couple of the funniest stories he wrote about;
- Getting threatend at gunpoint by a very angry border guard after jumping ashore too early while docking in East Germany.
- Volunteering to fix an important light (can't quite remember which one) on the ship's mast in the middle of a storm while crossing the Atlantic, concluding that maybe it wasn't the best idea in the world at the moment he almost fell overboard.
- Accidentally preventing a theif from stealing the crew's valuables by looking up at the right time while holding an unloaded revolver belonging to the ship's captain, which spooked the thief enough to flee the scene.
- Diving in a harbour alongside a South Korean sailor while onboard a vessel which had sailed into North Korea on a diplomatic mission, spooking the North Korean soldiers into thinking enemy frogmen had entered the harbour.
- Getting chased by sharks while going for a relaxing swim.
- Attempting to sail from Hong Kong to Europe onboard an old sailing vessel, which led to him (kinda) getting involved in a Triad (Chinese organised crime syndicates) smuggling operation.
The memoirs in question is "Sjöman Legionär Legosoldat" by Roland Strandberg. If you can read Swedish, I highly recommend it, great fun and filled with fantastic stories.
The speeding ship with the horn broke me, good stuff mate!
The funniest maritime story involving one vessel that makes me laugh is the old Sydney ferry SS Curl Curl from the late-1920s. What did she do that's hilarious? Couldn't stop getting herself into a mishap. Here's a list:
-29th April 1929: Ran down the passenger launch Nimrod. No serious injures and both vessels weren't significantly damaged
-30th April 1930: Collision with K-class ferry SS Kiandra, with the wooden ferry's crew performing urgent actions to aviod sinking. Several injured.
-February 1932: Crashed into the Manly wharf and rammed the footpath and Manly pool. A rope which tangled around her forward propeller had to be untangled.
-31st March 1936: Ran aground at Bradley's Head with the 7:10am Circular Quay-Manly service with 50 passengers due to fog. Passengers were transferred to the launch Nevade while the ferry was pulled out by the tugboats St Aristel and Lindfield, with Curl Curl out of action due to damage to the rudder and propeller. Returned to service 9th April.
-16th November 1936: Suffered blistered paint after towing a police launch clear of the burning Binngarra-class MV Bellubera (I don't count this as an incident as she was doing something useful here).
-10th November 1938: Crashed into the Manly wharf, again.
-23rd September 1943: Collision with an unrecorded launch.
-12th February 1953: Crashed into the Manly wharf, again. This time causing significant damage to herself, the wharf and destroying the tourism offices.
-9th February 1954: Collision with Lady-class (III) MV Lady Scott.
Wait..... Ran down the passenger launch named.... WHAT!?
@@AutismTakesOn It's a word with many meanings. And it still makes me laugh.
The poor wharf. It must have been shivering with dread every time the SS Curl Curl got within a mile.
@newobanproductions999 - Poor seamanship on the part of the crew. Not the ship's fault.
@@wickedcabinboy In the interest of fairness, her older sister SS Dee Why also got herself into a few scrapes, having four in her service life:
-25th November 1931: Collision with K-class ferry SS Kirrule. It was found her skipper was at fault and his certificate was suspended.
-1st October 1943: Collision with unrecorded American Liberty Ship.
-25th December 1946: Ran aground at Obelisk Bay after getting lost in fog. She remained stuck for 8 hours until three unrecorded tugboats pulled her free, which her passengers being lifted off. Her rudder was missing, propeller was damaged and frame was bent, a damage bill of AU£6,500 (AU$544,837.90 in today's money)
-29th March 1957: Collision with tugboat Himma and ran aground at Kirribilli.
The sip of a drink followed by a myriad of disasters sent me. 😂
The long coffee sip was spot on comedy 😂
haha thank you!
Please, DO MORE OF THIS!!!!!!!
Captain Rostron getting drenched and the poor hapless sailor going all out to rescue a case of beer, only to end up getting the tongue lashing of his life... in my humble opinion, those are the most hilarious stories of this video. The anecdote about the vegetable garden between the funnels and the line "get me off this damn tub!" coupled with the idea of mutinying passengers are rather humorous honorable mentions for me. lol
We absolutely need more of this storys. When you are looking allways to the sinking of ships, these storys are so wholesome. We want to see the tragic moments of naval history, but we also want to hear about the funny moments. Ok...
*I* want to hear about. Don't know, how other people see this topic.
That one second of Sabaton made me wheeze out a “ha!” Into my very quiet bedroom and it made my cat fly off the bed with a very grumpy “what the hell is wrong with you??” look, gonna get bit for that later, but worth it. My ears are trained to pick up the slightest hint of my favourite bands/songs. 🤘Also *crickets* from the Victorians was definitely my favourite part, and then the painting. 🫣😂😂😂😂
Waaaait, where was that sabaton second?
0:23/0:24 starts around that time, hard to be exact. It's very fast. ijustplaythatsongtoomuchokay?
😄
The Mauretania zipping around and the horn honking caught me a bit off guard. I laughed so hard that I think I startled my 4 year old daughter, who is sitting next to me while I watch this.
This was great fun! I like these videos where Mike is a little more laid back and just telling us all some great stories. The serious history videos are good too, and this was a nice way to mix it up.
Well done, Oceanliner Designs crew! ❤
Funniest story I've been a part of (of which there are many), was when I was serving on a supply ship in the north sea. We had tied up in Aberdeen, with our identical sister ship tied "second off" ourselves. As we were going to be alongside for a few days some of the crew went ashore for a few wets (drinks) whilst the rest of us cracked on with the business of the ship. After about 6 hours we received an urgent call from the charterer, informing us we had to load a cargo of brine and sail urgently to a rig. Unfortunately our tanks were still half full of used drilling mud, and it would take 24hrs+ to offload it and get the tanks cleaned up to brine standard. Our sister, however, already had clean tanks.
After some back and forth, it was decided that we'd swap with our sister so she would be alongside and we'd go second off, they'd load cargo and sail the following morning. We didn't bother recalling the crew that were still ashore, as we had enough onboard to swtich places - Something that's important to remember for later...
We switched places, and our sister began to work through cargo ops etc.
At about 9pm the crew started to return onboard, all making it safely back to their cabins with the exception of our norwegian bosun.
We tried to call him numerous times and couldn't get hold of him for love nor money. I called the agent who, rolling their eyes down the phone, said they'd call some friends at the local police station to see if he'd found himself spending a night at her magistys pleasure. Nope, no sign there either.
Becoming concerned at this point that he might have fallen in on his way over a bridge or something, I was about to call the DPA and report the situation when the duty OOW burst through my cabin door, out of breath, telling me that I needed to go to our sister ship as quickly as possible as something "has happened".
After running across to our sister, I found "my" bosun about to fight their bosun on their back deck, in a VERY drunk state. After dragging him back to the ship and apologising profusely to the other ships captain and crew, and allowing the bosun to sober up overnight, I sat him down before our sister sailed and asked him what happened.
Turns out he'd come back absolutely hammered, managed to blag his way back into the harbour and walked back to the ship... He didn't bother to read the dayboard at the bottom of the gangway with the ships name on and had staggered back to his cabin and climbed into his bunk... To find another man in what he thought was his bunk - which was the other ships bosun!
The idiot hadn't realised that we'd switched places while he was ashore and had tried to go to sleep in the other guys bunk.
We called him by the other bosun's name for the rest of the trip.
This would make for a great livestream topic!
You know, just hanging out, sharing funny and interesting ship stories and just sort of having a bit of fun. Could be good to have every once in a while on the channel.
Mike, you should see "The Mouse That Roared." The RMS Queen Elizabeth had a pair of cameo spots in the movie.
We love that movie! My now grown kids constantly reference it.
the horn sound at 16:14 almost killed me, didn't expect that absurd humour on a oceanliner design video 😂
I haven't seen the whole video but I love seeing you smile. I love the serious history topics because they are interesting. We never get to see you smile and be funny. Do it more often. Also I love how you always wear a suit and have such nicely groomed hair. You are so cute. I also love your British accent. It's soothing. I wish I could reach through the screen and give you a big hug. You really are a very cute thing.
Rambling is my favorite kind of historical discussion. Usually the best stuff you don't hear about is heard in the ramblings.
Like the interviews with the participants of the events of Nov 22 1963. It's the small stuff that reveals the most interesting things.
I am a expert on 11/22/63 in addition to Titanic. Hope all is well with you -
James
Titanic Expert
My father served on the USS Fulton back in the early 80s. He told me a story of the ship being drydocked to receive an inspection, during which some new equipment was brought on board as well. Apparently, the arrangement involved some heavy machinery which would have been asymmetrically positioned, so water was pumped into the ballast tanks on one side of the ship, with Lord knows who calculating how much to take on. Lo and behold, when the dock was fully flooded again, it turned out that they'd overcorrected as the ship immediately heeled 14° over and sent my father crashing down out of his bunk.
An additional fun note: I noticed this upload yesterday, and decided to watch it over breakfast the next day. Overnight, a friend pings me on Discord with this video, not knowing that I'm already quite familiar with the channel just as she is.
You're doing great, Mike!
16:07 I died at the speedboat sound effect and the horns!
Imagine if the Rostron Express somehow managed to strike an iceberg. It would be the irony of the century.
Much as we appreciate your serious stuff, you cutting loose in your more lighthearted stuff is also great.
Rostron Express Supremacy
Mauritania be like:gas gas gas I'm gonna step on the gas tonight.💨🚢💨
I have a story from one of Denmarks ro/ro Ferrys. This ferrys name is MF Mary and she sails between Hvalpsund and Sundøre. One time there was a truck on board. And the driver of said truck had not remembered to put the parking brake on. So when Mary started moving the truck moved to. And it ended up hanging over the side of the boat. Another story i have is back in 1960´s. Back when DSB was controlling most of the ferry transport. This story is about a small Chainferry named Egernsund. And one day they took the slogan ''Allways room for one more'' a little to litteral. And they managed to squeese 2 busses on the ferry. And then there was not room for anymore. The busses rear end hung far over the end of the Chainferry.
Also favorite moment right here: 16:07
Please make a video on the M/S Estonia!!!
Also, I have a funny ship story. My grandma once worked on a cargo ship named Kemira. It was carrying sulfuric acid at the time that this story took place. A man working on the ship bragged that he could swim in the acid and not even get hurt. A while later there was a small leak and some acid got on to the deck. The man slipped and fell in to the puddle of acid. He started screaming and jumped in to the icy sea. He wasn´t seriously injured but he did get humbled.
Not only are you a supreme naval expert, you are also a superb telling of stories. Love the friendly delivery and fun!
Rob
Considering how long us sailors have been going to sea and causing shenanigans, there's no shortage of funny stories. Keep em coming, please.
As always … perfect subject, perfectly presented!
Thank you my friend Mike!! From your friend Joanna in Arizona U.S.A!!
My late father was a supernumerary (trainee) engineer with P&O. He sailed on the Empire Fowey and the Bendigo. The Empire Fowey was a troopship. It had been the German liner Potsdam. The bannisters of the main staircase had carved swastikas on them. Anyhow, I digress. They offered to give some of the soldiers a tour of the machinery spaces. However, their sergeants made the soldiers do it in full kit. Rifles, greatcoats, packs. The engineers conducted on them tour, but took great delight in pausing the NCOs in some of the hottest areas to explain in very great detail how everything worked.
It’s nice to see a fun video about ships every once in awhile!
As someone who has a playlist of your disaster videos I curate myself and was just binging it again like an hour ago… still a nice change of pace. Also your intro killed me 🤣
Oh goodness, these sound effects had me rolling like the Queen Mary
you absolutely have to do more of these this is solid gold
My dad was once on the Kruzenshtern. On the first evening, the captain was giving an address with a long speech in the dining hall to celebrate the departure. Everybody on board kept it respectably quiet, but my dad and his buddies, at the very back of the dining hall, decided to celebrate somewhat prematurely. He took a bottle of champagne and, covering the bottleneck with a towel and slowly, very carefully tried to open it. Of course, it opened with a classic loud pop, ringing through the entire hall.
Silence fell over the room and everyone, including the captain, immediately turned to my dad, him comically holding the bottle. Then the captain said: "Go on, pass it forwards!"
I guess you have to do what you need to if a case of beer flies out the porthole . I think your channel is awesome Mike. Yes some tragedies are sad but that's life . I would describe your channel as informative and entertaining 👍
I feel like many of these stories can be summed up by this quote from Hyce:
“So how did it go?”
“POORLY!”
Mate?
You never disappoint.
Fantastic vid Mike!
Thank You!
😎👍❤
It wasn't on an oceanliner, it was on a dinghy, but we had a number of sailboats supposedly sailing in a flotilla. My boat lost the rudder axle and got equipped with an oar for steerage instead. As you can imagine, the oar did nothing to help and so, it would just tack back and forth at random, with the rest of the fleet trying to follow without much success. After a bit of that, the organizers had enough of us and that and decided to tow all of the dinghies in a tree formation (central tow line and each boat connecting to it with a secondary line). The problem with this arrangement is that you have the center board even slightly in the water and it catches the central tow line, you will be swimming.
After a bit of towing, I fell asleep and woke up to the following scene - We're all stopped, one boat is capsized, most of its crew trying to flip it back except for one guy who was chasing a watermelon. Suffice to say that his effort did not impress his instructor, so as a punishment, he had to take the watermelon with him wherever he went. after a day or two of that, the watermelon fell and cracked and so he put a bandage on it to try and keep it together. The watermelon leaked and so the whole thing looked like a guy carrying a watermelon with an active, bleeding flesh wound he tries to stop with some bandages...
Fantastic!!!!
That cut during your drink got me laughing before the video even properly started, which told me everything I needed to know about how I'd feel about it.
But even in a shipwreck, there are some humorous moments to be had: Charles and Annie Stengel traveled as first class passengers aboard the _Titanic's_ maiden voyage, and when the time came to evacuate, Charles saw his wife off in Lifeboat 5. Fortunately, Mr. Stengel would not be aboard for much longer, as he was permitted to board Emergency Lifeboat 1 shortly afterwards.
For those unfamiliar with the boat deck's design, the two emergency lifeboats were typically swung out over the side for situations such as a man overboard, and were separated from the edge of the deck by a waist-high bulwark which would have to be climbed over for boarding. Unfortunately for Stengel, his build did not make this easy for him, and once he struggled onto the bulwark, he rolled over into the lifeboat, prompting First Officer Murdoch to exclaim with a hearty laugh, "That is the funniest sight I have seen tonight!" Murdoch's reaction helped reassure Stengel that perhaps the situation was not so serious after all….
Please do more of those! It's been over a week and my boyfriend and I are still laughing at the Rostron Express and the dolphin dive
Idk how many times I’ve watched it lol
You had me laughing with the Dukes of Hazzard Mauritania speeding across the sea 😂🚢💦
Excellent change of pace Mike, we need to have bit of fun on these ocean liners!
the meme edits are incredibly well placed and chosen, and this format as a whole is such a good idea!
21:56 That yodel sound effect when the guy dives for the beer is so funny. 😂