Poll: Staring into the Abyss

[Loyal]

It's a feeling I've had at the thought of facing certain doom...or when a crack in reality steals your sense of stablity.. reality. One example would be the jet crash scene from Cast Away. When the FEDEX jet is about to crash into the ocean, Tom Hanks' character is in the restroom when you see the seams of the room flex open and closed, revealing the outside. IE, the box you are trusting to shield you from the reality of being thousands of feet up in such an unnatural place is coming apart.
Similarly, sheltering in a two story Victorian home with polsihed wood floors during the worst hurricane in Galveston history...in US history. The mother grabbed an axe as her children watched her do the most insane act they ever seen her do. The floors that she so carefully polished, she now chopped like firewood, opening a hole where the sea could be seen rushing under the house. Later when upstairs, they used an oil lamp to look down the stairway and just see the black surrface of water....
Or looking at video of old Harry Truman, owner of the Mt St Helens Lodge by Spirit Lake in the shadow of the Mountain the day before it was wiped away by a volcanic eruption. It was so quiet and peaceful, as Harry told the camera that he wasn't leaving. It was such a peaceful scene, that you almost believed that nothing bad could happen on May 18th, 1980.
When I was on my destroyer headed for Pearl Harbor from San Diego, I had the feeling that my island in the unforging ocean was 500 feet long and and 4o feet wide, thousands of miles from any land. I can tell you that I didn't trust the railings too much when I thought about that... Especially at night.

What pegs your fear meter?

 

[Mister Sin]

Something about this shakes me to my core.

 

[Selassie I]

Heights number 1 and Spiders a close 2nd...

Fuck both of them!

I've forced myself to face both of them dead in the eye on multiple occasions. The fear doesn't go away though. It's hard wired into me somehow.

 

[RhodyRams]

Losing to the Jets

 

[Memento]

Heights. I’m absolutely terrified of heights. But for the purposes of this poll, I voted for the U.S.S. WestbVirginia. Just something about being trapped underwater with no hope. That’s why I’ll never get on a sub; the thought of waiting to die and underwater just scares the shit out of me.

 

[Dodgersrf]

As a father, it would have to be Galveston.

The intense drive to protect your children, is the most paramount feeling in existence.
Being helpless, and to have that ripped away from you, has to be the most painful feeling there is.

 

[Loyal]

As a father, it would have to be Galveston.

The intense drive to protect your children, is the most paramount feeling in existence.
Being helpless, and to have that ripped away from you, has to be the most painful feeling there is.

What I didn't tell you is that she had 3 children and before going to the top floor for safety, the ocean rose 5 ft in an instant. Many kids died right then...

 

[Loyal]

Heights. I’m absolutely terrified of heights. But for the purposes of this poll, I voted for the U.S.S. WestbVirginia. Just something about being trapped underwater with no hope. That’s why I’ll never get on a sub; the thought of waiting to die and underwater just scares the shit out of me.

The horror of it...The Marine gyards were posted near the wreck thought they could hear noises. The next morning it was sure because they hear a knocking sound from a forwatd watertight compartment. It drove those Marines guards crazy listening to them. They raised the wreck a few months later and they found several guys with a calender inside marked off 14 days that they survived, waiting for rescue.

They never told the families.

 

[Loyal]

Losing to the Jets

 

[thirteen28]

Heights. I’m absolutely terrified of heights. But for the purposes of this poll, I voted for the U.S.S. WestbVirginia. Just something about being trapped underwater with no hope. That’s why I’ll never get on a sub; the thought of waiting to die and underwater just scares the shit out of me.

Pick your poison:

Kursk submarine disaster - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

USS Thresher (SSN-593) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Memento]

Pick your poison:

Kursk submarine disaster - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

USS Thresher (SSN-593) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Neither. Those poor people. I can't imagine surviving that long underwater, knowing that no rescue is coming.

 

[Loyal]

Pick your poison:

Kursk submarine disaster - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

USS Thresher (SSN-593) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Sub squids are wimps!

 

[badnews]

The scariest thing I can imagine experiencing is going through what the sailors on the USS Indianapolis went through...

In the first minutes of July 30, 1945, two torpedoes fired from Japanese submarine I-58 struck the starboard side of USS Indianapolis (CA 35). One ripped off the ship’s bow, followed by another that hit crew berthing areas and knocked out communications.

In the dead of night, chaos ensued. It took only 12 minutes for the decorated warship that had carried President Roosevelt in the interwar years and earned ten battle stars for its World War II service up to that point to begin a descent to the bottom of the Philippine Sea.

Around 300 crew died in the initial blasts and went down with the ship. Between 800 and 900 men went into the water.

Indianapolis had completed a top-secret delivery of atomic bomb components to Tinian, an island in the Northern Marianas, days earlier. Unbeknownst to crew at the time, this mission would in the weeks to come contribute to the end of the war.

At the time of its sinking, the ship was returning unescorted to the Philippines to prepare for the invasion of mainland Japan and to resume its role as flagship of Admiral Raymond Spruance and the Fifth Fleet. Damage prevented transmission of a distress signal and misunderstood directives led to the Navy not reporting the ship’s failure to arrive.

Long Description
Shortly after completing a top-secret delivery of atomic bomb components to Tinian, the USS Indianapolis was struck by torpedo and sank 75 years ago today.
Surviving Sailors and Marines were adrift for four days before the pilot of a U.S. Navy Lockheed PV-1 twin-engine patrol bomber located them. It was by pure chance that, on the afternoon of August 2, that the bomber spotted an oil slick while adjusting an antenna.

A massive air and surface rescue operation ensued that night and through the following day. Out of 1,195 crew, 316 survived the ordeal; four additional Sailors died shortly after rescue.

The survivors faced incomprehensible misery. Some found themselves scattered miles apart in seven different groups. Some were fortunate to have gone in the water near rafts and floating rations. Others, including the largest group of around 400 men, had nothing but life vests and floater nets. Men suffered from exposure, dehydration, attacks by hallucinating shipmates, exhaustion, hypothermia, and sharks.

Hallucinations were contagious as many dived underwater thinking that they were entering their ship to drink ice cold milk, only to guzzle sea water and initiate a horrible death. Others swam off alone to reach hotels or imaginary islands. Crew supported each other as best they could, some at the expense of their own lives. The captain of the ship’s Marine detachment swam himself to death circling his group to keep them together. The crew’s beloved chaplain succumbed to exhaustion after providing days of last rites to dying shipmates. Rescue crews had to fire at sharks feeding on the dead with rifles in order to recover bodies for identification and a proper burial at sea.

That description above doesn't really do it justice.
There is a brilliant book on the topic called "In Harm's Way" by Doug Stanton. If you are interested in WW2 history or survival or even just enjoy reading about people having a much worse day(s) than you probably ever will, then I highly recommend this book. My wife and daughter could care less about WW2 and both got hooked listening to the audio version on our last big road trip.

 

[Mojo Ram]

Claustrophobic if i'm horizontal in tight spaces(think Bishop in Aliens or when that chick gets stuck in The Decent). It starts at the shoulders and can quickly go full on panic attack.

 

[thirteen28]

Sub squids are wimps!

Don't be jealous, skimmer!

Neither. Those poor people. I can't imagine surviving that long underwater, knowing that no rescue is coming.

In fairness, death came quick to the guys in the Thresher, but those last few minutes knowing your were about to go below crush depth and have your sub implode around you were pretty grim.

 

[CGI_Ram]

The scariest thing I can imagine experiencing is going through what the sailors on the USS Indianapolis went through...



That description above doesn't really do it justice.
There is a brilliant book on the topic called "In Harm's Way" by Doug Stanton. If you are interested in WW2 history or survival or even just enjoy reading about people having a much worse day(s) than you probably ever will, then I highly recommend this book. My wife and daughter could care less about WW2 and both got hooked listening to the audio version on our last big road trip.

Thanks for sharing that. Without words when I think of this horror.

 

[Loyal]

After the Jets going 0-16 and firing the coaching staff, Trevor Lawrence decides to stay in college another year.

 

[badnews]

Thanks for sharing that. Without words when I think of this horror.

I should mention that for as tragic and horrific their ordeal was, the courage, devotion and selflessness shown by so many young men in the water ultimately makes this story one that is as inspirational as it is terrible and makes me feel proud to be a human being. An impressive feat these days.

Link: In Harm's Way by Doug Stanton
The audio book is hard to beat if you spend much time in your vehicle.

 

[dieterbrock]

I should mention that for as tragic and horrific their ordeal was, the courage, devotion and selflessness shown by so many young men in the water ultimately makes this story one that is as inspirational as it is terrible and makes me feel proud to be a human being. An impressive feat these days.

Link: In Harm's Way by Doug Stanton
The audio book is hard to beat if you spend much time in your vehicle.

View attachment 42016

“Eleven hundred men went into the water, 316 men came out and the sharks took the rest.”
- Sam Quint

Just ordered the book from Amazon. GREAT CALL, thank you!!!!

Spoiler: Quint's Full Speech

"Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into her side, Chief. We was comin’ back from the island of Tinian to Leyte. We’d just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in 12 minutes.

Didn’t see the first shark for about a half-hour. Tiger. 13-footer. You know how you know that in the water, Chief? You can tell by lookin’ from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn’t know, was that our bomb mission was so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn’t even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin’ by, so we formed ourselves into tight groups. It was sorta like you see in the calendars, you know the infantry squares in the old calendars like the Battle of Waterloo and the idea was the shark come to the nearest man, that man he starts poundin’ and hollerin’ and sometimes that shark he go away… but sometimes he wouldn’t go away.

Sometimes that shark looks right at ya. Right into your eyes. And the thing about a shark is he’s got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll’s eyes. When he comes at ya, he doesn’t even seem to be livin’… ’til he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then… ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin’. The ocean turns red, and despite all your poundin’ and your hollerin’ those sharks come in and… they rip you to pieces.

You know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I don’t know how many sharks there were, maybe a thousand. I do know how many men, they averaged six an hour. Thursday mornin’, Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Boson’s mate. I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. He bobbed up, down in the water, he was like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he’d been bitten in half below the waist.

At noon on the fifth day, a Lockheed Ventura swung in low and he spotted us, a young pilot, lot younger than Mr. Hooper here, anyway he spotted us and a few hours later a big ol’ fat PBY come down and started to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened. Waitin’ for my turn. I’ll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went into the water. 316 men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945.

Anyway, we delivered the bomb.”

 

[dieterbrock]

Nothings scares me more than snakes, this situation? I suppose the heart attack would get me before the snakes did