This is from a documentary called "Oceans" by a French film company. This is the French naval frigate Latouche-Tréville (D646) making slow, very slow, headway in a big Atlantic swell.
The globular dome under the bow is a sonar dome; it is usually pressurized with freshwater (it can be conceptualized as being a big rubber balloon). "Banging" into the sea too hard with big drops can apparently overpressurize and "pop" it.
In a small boat, the heaving and lifting of the stern would threaten to throw a prop off; but apparently, the heavy large ship prop shafts prevent that sort of "overspeeding" for this frigate.
Look how wet the frigate's forward decks are in this sort of sea; it seems to me it would be hard to actually take meaningful military action from the forward decks. This is true despite the face that she has a sort of "clipper" bow, which flares out as it rises from the water---so the deeper she presses into the sea, the greater the buoyancy reserve the bow has (more resistance to sinking deeper)...Makes you wonder how a wave piercer bow would do as soon as the swells got as big as this; I would assume they'd sweep the entire length of the ship...
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SFOGuy*promote
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radxThe Jenga tournament had to be suspended, I suppose.
PaybackWhat are they running from?
Sniper007says...Reminds me to never ride in a ship without hydrofoils.
Kallesays...That music argh brrr bleeeh...
Would have been awesome with the real sound...
FlowersInHisHairFUCK YES
SFOGuyI suspect they are just trying to home, probably out of the Bay of Biscay, so they can stop vomiting their baguettes and fois grois...
More seriously; think about the advantages a submarine has over a surface ship, even one that might have a helicopter aboard (but can't safely launch or recovery it in this weather) in either running away, or trying to kill the surface ship. Even if the surface ship has a towed array (yank, tug, snap, one might think)---getting weapons on target as opposed to being the target seems like it would quite a challenge.
What are they running from?
SFOGuylol. I agree
That music argh brrr bleeeh...
Would have been awesome with the real sound...
SFOGuyPart of the problem with hydrofoils is exactly what you're seeing---once the waves reach the point where the bottom of the vessel is slapping the water each time the waves crest underneath it, a lot of stress and acceleration becomes inevitable---and you're not foiling anymore.
That's why, for the most part, hydrofoils end up being restricted to operations where the bodies of water they are operating on are partly in the lee of something else or sheltered (Lake Como; the Hong Kong/Macau run; Norwegian fiord patrol craft; Baltic sea, etc...) in my recollection...
Reminds me to never ride in a ship without hydrofoils.
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