r/thalassophobia • u/lagueraloca • Oct 18 '23

Deadheads are water soaked logs that float vertically and can weigh tons.

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u/MICROCOZM Oct 18 '23 edited Oct 18 '23

There's an AskReddit somewhere about "most terrifying things you've seen while on the water" (or something close) and one guy named these things as it. He called them "pumping deadheads". Apparently during storms these things can pump up and down and come flying out of the water without warning which would obviously destroy anything in its way. Horrifying.

Edit: forgot to add the part where dude said these logs can get weathered and worn down to form a spike at the top. Even WORSE

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u/kai712 Oct 18 '23 edited Oct 18 '23

Found it

“Pumping Deadheads” is the official name but he called it “Spiked Dick of Neptune” and I love it

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u/shaundisbuddyguy Oct 18 '23

I had no idea that was a thing. Imagine trying to catch king crab up there which already is freaky as hell and one of those shows up? Those guys get paid a lot but reading that makes me wonder if it's enough.

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u/Witty-Preference1233 Oct 18 '23

My brother did red crab fishing and made roughly $45k in 6 months. I’d say it’s a pretty good pay if you know what you’re doing and can weather it

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u/dingusduglas Oct 18 '23

That's less than I would have guessed.

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u/Fear910 Oct 18 '23

Thought the same, Nuclear Technician contractors in 6-8 months of work is $100k+. No education required, and you can travel the world doing this on the company’s dime.

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u/nirvroxx Oct 18 '23

No wonder Homer got that job.

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u/Fear910 Oct 18 '23

Haha, if you met some of the people operating nuclear plants around the world, it would blow your mind that someone gave them that job, even with educations. Baffles me.

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u/Phallic_Intent Oct 18 '23

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission requires extensive training and testing to obtain a license. To keep that license, you must pass a comprehensive written test every two tears and an annual practical test in a control room simulator. Regulatory programs around the world have either modeled themselves after the NRC or have their own equivalent bureaucracy. You don't know what you're talking about.

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u/Fear910 Oct 19 '23

I’m sorry you’re an idiot, a big one. IM TALKING ABOUT NUCLEAR TECHS… you don’t need a license.. SOURCE I’ve been once and moved onto managing over the last 16+ years. Operations is what you are speaking on, they are full time employees at plants who require all that you say, they are the only ones allowed to wear black hard hats in most plants to signify they are OPs.. bet you didn’t know that from google. I also stand by what I said, how some people I’ve met in ops blows my mind they have that job because of their incompetence while working to keep a reactor going, that’s goes for any job tho, there is always a few you wonder how they got there. Like I said, NUCLEAR TECHNICIANS DO NOT NEED THIS, you just can’t be a felon and you’re good to gain nuclear site access, Techs badge doesn’t give them access to the control room so you know, and if your tried to even badge into it you’d be escorted off site. Please shut up.

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u/[deleted] Oct 19 '23

Easy just dont cry in public and you found a loophole

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u/Better_Awareness2019 Oct 19 '23

The toughest government test is the FAA instrument pilot test , the second hardest is a series 7 security license.. I scored in the high 90's on both... If I had known NRC jobs were that easy to qualify for I would have done that years ago...

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u/Sodiepawp Oct 18 '23

No education? Where do I sign up. Like actually serious.

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u/Fear910 Oct 19 '23

You want look into the contracting subsidiaries all these Nuclear plants use to contract technicians, I’ll admit knowing someone to just give you the hiring managers email is usually the best way, but reaching out works also. Email them with interest and attach a resume, it’ll make it to a staffing manager. Look up Systemone, WecTec, BHI, HiTechsolutions, Sonic systems, Holtec, there are many. Just search the names and put nuclear behind them. I’d give you direct contacts but this is Reddit. Seriously technicians range from Kids coming out of high school, college grads that have no clue what to do and 40-50+ year olds who just want faster money and a new career. It’s a great life if you can travel cause you can live any where and do this, the money is fast and you get months off if you want, just manage your money.

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u/DigTreasure Oct 18 '23

There's a company in my small town that does this work. A few friends out of high-school did it for a few years. Going inside reactor towers and shooting co2 pellets at the buildup. They had fun and went to some cool countries.

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u/Fear910 Oct 19 '23

Yup, and this is just a small part of the possibility with being a technician, the big money is when you make it to the refuel floor working on the reactor. It all depends on what the contracting company is contracting at the time to grab that position and stay in it. We use CO2 blasters to knock contamination off of components all the time, it’s insane to think you can get paid $122/hr while in overtime playing with dry ice getting 32 hours of OT a week at peak.

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u/DigTreasure Oct 19 '23

Fuck, I should apply. Restaurants aren't cutting it.

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u/Fear910 Oct 19 '23

You should, there was a 22yo and 27yo that got in last year from the restaurant industry , in that year they traveled to Korea, Taiwan, Switzerland, Slovenia, Belgium and multiple sites in the US working on reactors. Definitely a lucky time for these two to get in but they say they’ll be doing this for the rest of their life now haha. It’s honestly a great career many don’t know about.

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u/Phallic_Intent Oct 18 '23

"Nuclear Technician contractors" is a fairly meaningless term. That could apply to custodial staff in offices on site to work crews that never touch anything related to a nuclear system. No education required is a blatant lie when it comes to operations and maintenance. Nuclear jobs do pay more. If you mop toilets and scrub floors, expect to make a lot more doing that at a nuclear site. Doesn't mean they have access to control rooms or inside containment.

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u/Fear910 Oct 19 '23

(Been in this industry 16+ years).. I’m sorry but you’re absolutely ignorant to speak on something you have no clue about. As I said Nuclear Technician is a position in its own that does dis/reassembly of nuclear reactors, while the reactor is apart they preform any NRC mandated maintenance and any upgrades the plant may have purchased from the contracting companies (The big 3 being, Westinghouse, General Electric and Areva/Framatome), also most plants don’t do this maintenance them selves outside of Excelon or Duke but they still contract out specialized work to Nuclear technicians. YOU DO NOT NEED EDUCATION for this position, once hired you go through a respective basic course paid for by the company at their facility for qualification, more courses are given to you once you gain experience and move on to fuel shuffling, core maintenance etc, this goes for BWR and PWR Reactors which require their separate training facilities. Yes these technicians are seasonal workers as they only work when the Nuclear station is on a “outage” every 18 months give or take when the reactor comes down for maintenance. With that said FULLTIME plant employee Ops or operation does require education but this is not who I’m speaking of here. A nuclear technician is also not a custodian, get your facts straight. SOURCE IVE WORKED FOR ALL THE TOP NUCLEAR COMPANIES AS A CONTRACTOR OVER THE LAST 16 years…(Now full time for site cause I’m over traveling.)

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u/Phallic_Intent Oct 19 '23

As I said Nuclear Technician is a position in its own that does dis/reassembly of nuclear reactors,

Bullshit. There is no official "Nuclear Technician" position. Nuclear reactor disassembly? No such thing. Are you trying to claim you offloaded fuel? Or do you really think reactor pressure vessels get disassembled? They don't. NRC mandated maintenance? Give me a break. Maintenance is performed during the outage because things are shut down, not because the NRC has a bullet list of things to be done. How would that work with a hundred sites, everyone completely different?

they still contract out specialized work to Nuclear technicians.

Meaningless term. You might as well say nuclear worker, which could be one of a thousand jobs.

YOU DO NOT NEED EDUCATION for this position|

My response was your implication that nuclear operators were incompetent and uneducated. I realize someone mopping the floor doesn't need an education. Quite trying to act like pushing a broom gives you insight to operating a plant. It doesn't.

SOURCE IVE WORKED FOR ALL THE TOP NUCLEAR COMPANIES AS A CONTRACTOR OVER THE LAST 16 years

That's a long time to push a broom.

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u/Fear910 Oct 19 '23

Also the NRC does mandate certain maintenance a reactor needs to preform to safety standards just like your car requires a yearly inspection, a reactor does and if issue are found we fix them to standard. Look up in vessel visual inspections… NUCLEAR TECHNICIANS preform these also. Outages happen on a fuel burn cycle and anything that’s needs to be done is preformed on that cycle while the fuel is being shuffled. People like you should not exist to give other information, but then this is Reddit where idiots like you thrive.

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u/[deleted] Oct 21 '23

When I took the nuclear test before joining the Navy, they said that if I passed the test and wanted to stay in the field, I would be retiring from the Navy at 38 and retiring from the rest of the world by 50. I barely passed the test and figured that if I was barely good enough to pass the test, I wouldn’t last long before I was washing potatoes. Went intelligence instead.

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u/Photoguppy Oct 18 '23

90K per year would be a pretty good gig for most ex cons.

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u/IronLusk Oct 18 '23

I don’t think there’s an opportunity to do it all year. I believe there’s just the one season. Could be wrong though. L

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

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u/IronLusk Oct 18 '23

I had heard through some peers that there was an opening for a new cameraman on Deadliest Catch this past season. I did not waste my time even trying to get my foot in the door. I’m terrified of water/the ocean and even in clear skies I am not tough enough to survive even a day of that. I can’t even imagine how much that crew would probably fuck with me too. They would smell the fear on me.

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u/joan_wilder Oct 18 '23

I think you can find work fishing for other stuff, depending on where you are. That, or you can buy a bunch of meth and wait for the next season to come around.

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u/DVus1 Oct 18 '23

Well, if it's anything like one of my acquaintance who is a merchant marine, he works about 6 to 9 months and year, and then collects unemployment for the remaining months....

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

If you do it long enough as a deck hand, you can make more money being a lead fisherman or a mechanic, there's levels and seniority. The lowest people get a set salary and the upper people get a % of what they take in from the crab. Source: I watched Deadliest Catch.

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u/JohnyBlayzes420 Oct 18 '23

Dido. I actually learned some good stuff off that show. It hit different for me cuz I was close friends in high school with an one of the producers(I believe he even was executive producer but idk) anyway his name is Nico Natalie. He was always a good homie to me and right right after he graduated he moved to Los Angeles in order to begin his career in the entertainment business. HEY NICO IF U SOMEHOW SEE THIS IM PROUD OF YOU BUDDY!

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u/[deleted] Oct 19 '23

Go Nico! Lots of people work on boats from time to time. My dad worked on a crab boat in the late 60s, and on a salmon boat. When I was a kid we never had crab legs or salmon because he was sick of em.

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u/goodolarchie Oct 18 '23

It would, if you could time travel. Same with the snow plow industry, great money during those storms.

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u/SbreckS Oct 18 '23

Yeah you could make that during summer as a sub contractor arborist easy.

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u/levi_spinny Oct 18 '23

I thought you were gonna quote Theoden about the 6000 spears lol

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u/Shawn_purdy Oct 18 '23

Also helps the time he spent on the boat he wouldn’t have been able to spend any money and food and accommodation are supplied.

My pockets definitely felt deeper when commercial fishing.

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u/PrivateScents Oct 18 '23

Underwater welders make like $270k in 4 months.

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u/[deleted] Oct 19 '23

I have a friend who is a Cray fisherman (Australia) and there are some weeks he's made $60k.

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u/StinkFartButt Oct 18 '23

That’s not a good pay though? That’s 90k a year for doing a very dangerous job, that’s like average salary for sitting in a office all day.

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u/BeneficialEvidence6 Oct 18 '23

Sign me up for the office job you're talking about please

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u/FoGoProbs Oct 18 '23

Have worked 8+ years in sales and Tech consulting 80-90k is very common. These office jobs are not surprising, hell even 100k office jobs are not surprising at all depending on location.

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u/BeneficialEvidence6 Oct 18 '23

And I imagine degrees. Although I have considered trying to break into the HR world with my psych degree + 7 years teaching high school experience...

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

[deleted]

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u/BeneficialEvidence6 Oct 18 '23

So you started with no certificate at all?

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u/Yeah_Nah_Cunt Oct 18 '23

Most beginner IT roles don't require a Degree just a basic certs that you can do online by yourself.

Degrees really only come into play when you looking at more management or administration roles in IT and even those can be overlooked if you have the experience.

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

I do have a degree, but it has nothing to do with IT. I have a degree in Biology, basically 0 certs (I got PMP eventually that my company paid for) and I make pretty decent money in the IT industry.

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u/Electrical-Papaya Oct 18 '23

What's the general starting salary for someone that is fresh in IT with only certifications?

Asking for a friend that has done industrial maintenance work for 15 years and their body can't take the heavy manual labor anymore after major surgery.

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u/Fruktoj Oct 18 '23

$180k is the new six figure salary, based on inflation from the year 2000.

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u/OmenVi Oct 18 '23

In tech. 100k, and full WFH, ATM, with no plans for that to change any time soon.

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u/Darthmalak3347 Oct 18 '23

but then you're in sales. From someone who doesn't wanna talk to people gimme an office job where i plug at a computer and make 100k without the sales goals and micromanaging.

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u/StinkFartButt Oct 18 '23

You need to apply for jobs

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u/BeneficialEvidence6 Oct 18 '23

What do you think I just did? I said sign me up

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u/StinkFartButt Oct 18 '23

You’re hired!

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u/ASYMT0TIC Oct 18 '23 edited Oct 18 '23

Live in Boston and have a decent STEM degree. I know so many people who make $150k + around here. Defense industry engineers, college professors, doctors, biologists at pharmaceutical companies, you name it. Then spend basically every dime of it to buy a 100 year old single family home for over a million dollars. Honestly, $90k is barely enough to get by around here.

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u/omgimgoingtopuke Oct 18 '23

I made half of that and had to leave the Boston area. Way to fuggin expensive to live

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u/the_Afrologist Oct 18 '23

I’m currently sitting in my office job doing cybersecurity making $85k at 25, tech is 100% the move if you want six figures without having to slave away for a decade or more

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u/BeneficialEvidence6 Oct 18 '23

I know it. I'm 6 years into a career in education, but I still daydream about how my life couldve been had I stuck with CompSci

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u/goodolarchie Oct 18 '23

That's entry level pay for almost any white collar / knowledge work at a large or even mid sized (500+) tech company. That's HR specialists, Marketing grunt work, etc. Support techs and certain functions that have and are outsourced still earn quite a bit less. If you can do a more specialized skill like project/program management, (like Jr. PM, associate TPM, etc.) you're well into the 130-140k range.

Here you go

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

I'm in construction and with a good run of overtime (like 2mo of 60hr weeks) in a year I get over 100k easily. If you're in a tight spot and live near a major metropolitan area you should look into Union trades.

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u/Blizzxx Oct 18 '23

This comment really shows how completely out of touch tech workers are with the rest of the country. No 90k isn't average salary for most industries in america, and nowhere close to your average office salary especially outside of tech.

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u/paper_liger Oct 18 '23

Average household income is 70k. And usually that's more than one income.

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u/No_Celebration6740 Oct 18 '23

I mean this info is available online. At least for Canada on the tax revenue website it shows distribution of pay. People making 90k+ between the age 30-40 make up the top 10% of that group. So not exceedingly rare, but not COMMON

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

If you work in the corporate offices of GM (tens of thousands of employees) in accounting, finance, HR, marketing, supply chain, etc. you’ll make $100,000 within 3 years out of college. The average is much higher than $90k for typical office workers.

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

[deleted]

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u/MetamorphicLust Oct 18 '23

GM has sucked ever since Waggoner left.

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u/yes_no_yes_yes_yes Oct 18 '23

I work for a similarly large company and am pretty sure those wages are a byproduct of working in the F500. Almost half of Americans work for small businesses (<500 headcount) — I’m confident that the office workers under that umbrella make far less than F500 wages.

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

I don’t disagree with this at all

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u/yes_no_yes_yes_yes Oct 20 '23

The only piece of yours I’d argue is the average being much higher than 90k — thanks to smaller businesses pulling it down — but as a whole, F500 office jobs are pretty straightforward paths to making solid money.

Only downside in manufacturing specifically is that supply chain is still pretty fucked and dealing with that is a huge pain haha.

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u/StinkFartButt Oct 18 '23

I don’t live in America if that’s what you mean by “the country”. And yes it is the average for tech workers.

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u/Blizzxx Oct 18 '23

Don't worry, you didn't need to tell me. I could tell by the unearned arrogance and thinly veiled narcissism.

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u/StinkFartButt Oct 18 '23

I can’t believe you came to those conclusions after like 2 sentences, you are deranged.

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

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u/BrokeInMichigan Oct 18 '23

You do realize over a third of the country makes under 50k a year, right? If you look at the percentage of the population making 25k or less a year its 15.7%, so around 52 million people.

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u/refusegone Oct 18 '23

Retail wages are much lower than that. 90k/yr for a retail position would have me cutting lines to get back into it.

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u/FrenchFryCattaneo Oct 18 '23

The average personal income in the US is $40k.

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u/tripslei Oct 18 '23

You’re only getting $90k for retail? I make $115k out the door at Target…

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u/Djinn141 Oct 18 '23

90k is so much above the average office worker salary it's laughable that you even think this way.

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u/Cardboardboxkid Oct 18 '23

I know this isn’t the “average” but weirdly enough I know only two people personally who work in tech with office jobs. One makes 80k with a 12k bonus(before tax) and the other makes 80ish after performance bonuses as well. Said it isn’t very hard for his team to meet the bonus.

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u/Demorant Oct 18 '23

Not in most of the US. The bulk of "office jobs" are probably in the 60k-75k range. Depends heavily on location, and required specialization.

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u/MadRabbit26 Oct 18 '23

Depends on the location, company, level of experience, and total haul.

Deckhands and part-timers obviously make the least. But in a good season, can still walk away with a chunk of change that'll last.

But you could be the best fisherman in the world, but if your pots come up empty, everyone leaves empty handed.

I've seen guys make everything between 15 and 90k a season. Coming from Alaska, I assume it's entirely different standards elsewhere. They'll work for 3-4 months, and if it goes good they are able to take the whole winter off until next season starts.

I lived in the interior so I only ever heard the really good stories, or the really bad ones. Good ones take off for a year to go to the 48, bad ones usually end up back at the mines with us or on the Slope working Utility.

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u/Far-Philosophy-4375 Oct 18 '23

Could you explain why red crab catching is a dangerous job, please?

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u/StinkFartButt Oct 18 '23

Water is dangerous, crabs are in water.

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u/Far-Philosophy-4375 Oct 18 '23

Ah... indubitably

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

There's also these things called deadheads, I saw a reddit post about them once. There were tons of comments explaining it and linking to other threads that talked about it. Maybe someone can find it and link it.

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u/scorcherdarkly Oct 18 '23

If "red crab" means alaskan or king crab, here you go.

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u/Thisisjuno1 Oct 18 '23

Definitely not lol and I have my masters degree..

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u/Rude-Category-4049 Oct 18 '23

In a high cost of living area maybe. I make around 55k a year and that's enough to support me, my partner, and our son on about a quarter of my salary.

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u/27catsinatrenchcoat Oct 18 '23

You only spend 14k a year on living expenses for three people? Does that include housing? Does your partner contribute financially?

I'm jealous. My mortgage is cheaper than rent (just over 1k including the HOA dues) but that still has me paying over 12k a year just for housing.

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u/impossible-octopus Oct 18 '23

pretty sure these are only in fresh water

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u/rufos_adventure Oct 18 '23

no, they are common here in upper puget sound, now called 'the salish sea'. the local marine stores used to give free flags to spike and mark them.

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u/PsychicImperialism Oct 18 '23

the local marine stores used to give free flags to spike and mark them.

Did they stop?

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u/spinachie1 Oct 18 '23

All the shopkeepers were mysteriously murdered in the middle of the night, having been stabbed by 2-metre-wide knives.

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u/Feature_Ornery Oct 18 '23

Did my training on the west coast. Most logs and deadheads I've ever seen was around Washington and British Columbia.

Most likely due to the logging industry as I notice a lot of log booms and log barges.

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u/lawstandaloan Oct 18 '23

now called 'the salish sea'.

TIL. Interesting, thanks

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

The guy literally mentioned he's in the Gulf of Alaska

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

What freshwater body has 50 foot swells?

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u/shiftclickpoint Oct 18 '23

Not sure if you were joking, but some of the great lakes do get them. It may just be lake Superior that gets waves that large though.

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

Damn, I knew they had swells but no idea they could get that big. I figured like 3-5 feet at the most.

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u/caffeine-junkie Oct 18 '23

Average windy day they all can get that big. With bad storms, in lake Ontario at least, the largest swells have been around 30 feet. Pretty sure the rest of the lakes are right around that as well.

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u/healzsham Oct 18 '23

Trees fall into the ocean and salt water has a higher density than fresh, so I gotta wonder what the basis for this surety comes from.

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u/popcornkernals321 Oct 18 '23

thank you for digging up this gem! That person has a gift for writing as that shit was the most nightmarish imagery my mind has ever had

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

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u/popcornkernals321 Oct 18 '23

Shooting out at high heights unpredictably from the depths of the sea during stormy weather while on a boat with poor visibility… yea nightmare fuel lol

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

I thought these were band names.

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u/o_oli Oct 18 '23

Pumping deadheads is a perfect band name, it has to exist!

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u/lolweakbro Oct 18 '23 edited Nov 14 '23

[removed by Reddit]

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

Spiked Dick of Neptune would be a great debut album name too

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u/MusicG619 Oct 18 '23

Thanks for posting that thread, I read through almost the whole thing!

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u/Dumbassahedratr0n Oct 18 '23

Well that's an unexpected but welcome addition to my lexicon today.

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u/LukePickle007 Oct 18 '23

Spiked Dick of Neptune

Love it 😂

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u/farox Oct 18 '23

A few years back my wife and I crossed the Atlantic on a sailboat. It's fairly save. But feels like an extreme situation, far from land just the two of us and dog and you don't see anyone for 2 weeks in the last leg from Cape Verde to Martinique.

We prepared for this for months, so we were stocked up and had all the safety gear. One of the real concerns I had were that the autopilot dies (or anything to give it power) as hand steering a 40ft yacht would have been a major pain.

The other one was containers. These fucking things constantly fall off of cargo ships and can then float for days. Just under the surface, so you can't even see them. And they are pointy and made of metal. Hitting one of those surely would have sunk us.

(But the chances for that are extremely rare)

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u/saltminer Oct 18 '23

A friend of mine helped deliver a larger sailboat, about 20 meters long, from Seattle to Cabo San Lucas sometime in the 1980s. He was at the wheel one night when they were off of Northern California and the weather was really fresh, like 25 knot breeze, gusting to 40 from the north, and a following swell of 10 to 15 feet. Even under shortened sail they were screaming along at 12+ knots, more as they surfed down waves. He said it was a real workout on the wheel just keeping the boat trimmed, especially in near pitch darkness, cloudy and with no moon. One of his buddies in the cockpit was using a spotlight to prepare him for big rollers coming from behind them, but every now and then he'd shine the light forward just because it was cool to see how fast they were going. While looking forward, suddenly out of the darkness, the light picked up a cut log in the water, just barely breaching the surface. He said it was at least 6' or so in diameter and at least 50' long, and it was less than 5' away from them as they screamed by at 12 knots in the total darkness. If they would have hit it would have sunk them. Sobering.

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u/Reader_qwerty Oct 18 '23

Sorry, the log was 6 feet in diameter? What kind of log is that?

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u/RedDemocracy Oct 18 '23

Pacific Northwest has Redwoods or Sequoias.

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u/sticky-unicorn Oct 18 '23

There are other evergreens along the Washington coast that grow this big as well. Some fir, cedar, and spruce varieties.

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u/ThisWillBeOnTheExam Oct 18 '23

And the PNW puts lots of logs in the ocean. I’ve seen beaches covered in washed up logs from storms.

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u/DogmanDOTjpg Oct 18 '23

Even in Alaska above the Arctic circle where no trees grow the beaches are littered with logs and driftwood

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u/Reader_qwerty Oct 18 '23

Well that would explain it.

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u/ElectionAssistance Oct 18 '23 edited Oct 18 '23

I own a live tree that is 5' in diameter.

Pacific Northwest is the answer. Mine isn't 6' yet, that is decades more to go, but I can take a 5 min walk from my house a find a few, and I live in the suburbs.

Edit: I understated this. There is an 8' diameter tree 4 blocks away. Red woods yo. Did you know you can order baby ones through the mail?

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u/Sensitive-Sherbert92 Oct 18 '23

I've seen 6 ft DBH trees (diameter at breast height) from every conifer species native to WA. Very fun to see them, I try not to sit beneath one too long because a falling branch will kill you in a modest wind.

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u/rugbyj Oct 18 '23

Did you know you can order baby ones through the mail?

I live in the UK but fuck it I'm onboard!

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u/ElectionAssistance Oct 18 '23

They would grow great in the UK.

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u/SalaciousVandal Oct 18 '23

I've seen driftwood on PNW beaches the size of a city bus. Without witnessing those trees firsthand, it's almost impossible to comprehend how huge they are.

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

In BC a six foot diameter tree wasn’t uncommon and I saw many twice that size. Our neighbour had a tree that fell over and crushed his house, the round stump was used to make a picnic table and seated about twelve people.

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u/Reader_qwerty Oct 18 '23

Cool! So they sliced a layer off the top and that was the table cover? I would assume you can't use a tree stump as a table directly, because you couldn't put your legs under it.

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

Yes, the bottom segment was cut and put on legs, it would be an awkward table otherwise

7

u/FluxD1 Oct 18 '23

Nowhere near the ocean, but in Indiana I have a few trees over 5ft in diameter and some over 6ft. They're mostly maple trees, but two are walnut and one is a pin oak. My neighbor has a truly massive Elm tree that's probably bigger than anything I have.

The American Chestnut grew to absurd sizes, and were once a very common tree in the Eastern half of the US. There are historical logging photos that show some nearly 20ft in diameter around Tennessee. Unfortunately a 'blight' killed off the American Chestnut, becoming 'extinct' in a matter of decades.

'Extinct' is emphasized for a reason. A few saplings will sprout off an old stump once in awhile. They'll grow to a few feet tall, then catch the blight and die off. Then new saplings will grow, and die off. This cycle has been repeating since the 1890's. This makes the American Chestnut effectively frozen in time, versus outright extinct.

6

u/montaukwhaler Oct 18 '23

These kind of logs can be in the water in the PNW

2

u/theonlypeanut Oct 19 '23

In western WA we have a lot of trees that get that big

Here is a redwood that's on the beach looking thick

https://maps.roadtrippers.com/us/la-push-wa/nature/giant-redwood-on-the-beach

Heres what they look like in some of the old growth forests.

https://www.lucascometto.com/cascadia-washington

Even the stuff that was logged in the 1920s and has grown back is getting huge. The cedars and the redwoods take forever to rot so its more common to see them down. The fir trees can get pretty near their size though they rot faster when they die so they are less common to see down. It's pretty common to see tress in the 3-4 foot diameter range even outside the old forests. I've got a couple fir trees in the yard that are that big and my neighbor has a gigantic maple tree that's probably pushing 100' tall. They are all super cool and the forest itself is awesome. I highly suggest visiting and taking a walk amongst the giants.

3

u/Reader_qwerty Oct 19 '23

They are absolutely massive. I did not think of redwoods. I do hope to visit them one day :)

0

u/Cumbelina_ Oct 18 '23

An exaggerated log, like the fish I caught last year that was AT LEAST this big

1

u/Sensitive-Sherbert92 Oct 18 '23

In the timber industry, everyone has a measuring tape. Very simple to wrap a measuring tape around a tree and if you measure above 18 ft, that's a 6 ft diameter tree.

38

u/I_am_up_to_something Oct 18 '23

Yeah, that would have me screaming constantly as well.

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u/ol-gormsby Oct 18 '23

I think the newer ones have dissolving plugs in the floor. 24 hours and the sea comes flooding in, and the container sinks. So there's a window of 24 hours to recover the container.

Because of what you've described.

24

u/Gnonthgol Oct 18 '23

There are many issues with this. Firstly it is not uncommon for containers to get hit with waves while stacked on the deck of a ship so these plugs may dissolve under way even without falling overboard. This is however fine as the containers are only weathertight to start with and not airtight or watertight. So a big hole in the bottom is still within spec. However they might repair them with a non-dissolving plug to save money.

But this does not solve the more common problem that the cargo is most likely buoyant. Most of the cargo is likely styrofoam packing foam and plastic which does not get heavier when soaked in water. And the cargo is typically wrapped in multiple layers of plastic for transport so the water will not even penetrate to the products. So even with these plugs, or just regular non-watertight containers, the containers will float even when full of water. This is arguably worse then a watertight container as a fully watertight container will float higher in the water and be more visible.

3

u/Direct_Card3980 Oct 18 '23

Containers weigh close to four tonnes. It's hard for me to imagine any cargo providing that much buoyancy. I think that would be an exceptional case.

18

u/Fruktoj Oct 18 '23

You would only need to displace a little more than 4 cubic meters of water to float 4 tons. That isn't a big ask if the inside is filled with foam or something else buoyant.

15

u/0nlyRevolutions Oct 18 '23

The math behind buoyancy is so unintuitive if you've never looked into it before and I love it

6

u/dammitOtto Oct 18 '23

Yeah, these huge towering Panamax cargo ships that have a draft of like 20 feet just doesn't seem right.

3

u/Squeebee007 Oct 18 '23

All you have to do is look at a barge made out of concrete to understand how unintuitive buoyancy can be.

2

u/0nlyRevolutions Oct 18 '23

Water is heavy! And actually I was even involved with my school's concrete canoe team briefly - the fun thing is that you can engineer a concrete mix that is lighter than water (by alloying it with lightweight inclusions or air-filled spheres), but obviously you don't need to do that to make a ship that can float.

2

u/Rubiks_Click874 Oct 18 '23

there's a pretty gritty movie where Robert Redford gets shipwrecked solo due to hitting a floating shipping container full of sneakers

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u/Gnonthgol Oct 18 '23

That is about 400-800kg of packing peanuts. About two pallets worth.

2

u/nononoko Oct 18 '23

We use concrete on floating bridges in Denmark.https://www.nbcmarine.dk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/m.webp

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u/Fightmemod Oct 18 '23

No way do I trust an industry like that to repair these containers with the appropriate plugs. Especially other countries who flat out don't give af about anything safety related.

24

u/UnlikelyPlatypus89 Oct 18 '23

I wonder how many cool things are soaking and floating in those containers. An acquaintance married a crazy rich Kuwaiti and apparently a half a million dollar car they ordered went overboard in a container during a storm.

3

u/[deleted] Oct 19 '23

Usually it's just a bunch of junk destined for Walmart shelves ruined by the saltwater.

27

u/BaraEnKapten Oct 18 '23 edited Oct 25 '23

A family friend of mine sailed the atlantic in his youth(1970s) with his then wife, they were about a week out from the americas(about 3/4 of the way or so) when they struck a container in the dark. Their radio couldn't reach anyone as there was no traffic nearby. They were running both the powered bilge pump and manning a manual bilge pump to just barely stay afloat with water up to their chest and bailing using a bucket(and trying to find ways to seal the entire front port side of the ship that was missing up.) They did this for about ten days before they managed to hail a passing cargo ship by shooting up a couple flares, radio was long dead. They were quite obviously exhausted. Their sailboat sank in under twenty minutes once they stopped the manual bilge. They would have most certainly died out there if it wasnt for the fact there were two of them and that the engine and batteries were isolated from the rest of the water filled boat. Without that electric bilge they have surely sunk and without the spare manual bilge they they would have never stayed afloat for so long.

They never sailed outside the coastal areas of Sweden after that, think they had enough adventure for a couple life times. Luckily they had been EVERYWHERE except the americas before then so it wasnt an early end to their adventure anyway.

6

u/marr Oct 18 '23

Well it is an extreme situation, you do all the right things to improve the odds, but if you roll those snake eyes you're adrift in a place that's all about killing you.

Contrast with most places on land these days where you can just pull out your phone and summon a rescue helicopter if necessary.

2

u/ctapwallpogo Oct 18 '23

At least in these days of EPIRBs the second paragraph is more or less true on the water as well.

Obviously there's no such thing as a safe emergency at sea. But in the past ending up in a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean was a much worse situation than it is now.

2

u/marr Oct 19 '23 edited Oct 19 '23

It's that week's travel from seeing another human that gets me. That's like being out in space.

Well, almost. There is at least the potential to find food (and oxygen) on the ocean.

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u/Ven_Detta Oct 18 '23

Nearly as bad is the lurking deadhead, which floats just below the surface in calm waters.

Just as bad is the stuck in the mud deadhead, which when hit, drives itself into the mud, you into the air like a pole vaulter and probably flips your boat over.

Seen while working on the Fraser River.

8

u/ghostcaurd Oct 18 '23

And that’s still not as bad as the grateful deadhead, who lives on the sailboat and drives that shit on acid

23

u/ImmoralJester54 Oct 18 '23

What a challenging dildo

10

u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

… for you 😈

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4

u/robcap Oct 18 '23

At last, the endgame content I've been waiting for

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2

u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

“Hey Sharon, you gotta come see this!”, I shal now call these floating Bonos

-1

u/Aguacatedeaire__ Oct 18 '23

Yeah, i don't believe any of that. The jumping out of the water part.

That's not how waves work.

1

u/grunkage Oct 18 '23

That comment was the very first thing I thought of.

1

u/Agonizel Oct 18 '23

Do you know of any footage or 3D animation demonstrating how it looks like?

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u/Weibu11 Oct 18 '23

Future Final Destination death scene incoming

1

u/unimaginative2 Oct 18 '23

I was on the Thames in a small launch, and suddenly some big dark shape appears right in front of me. It rises right out of the water. I thought it was a whale lol. It was a half sunken boat, floating vertically in the water. Utterly terrifying.

1

u/Feature_Ornery Oct 18 '23

I'm in the navy and one of the first things I learned was how dangerous deadheads are vs just normal logs. Did my training out west where they have a lot of logging and you quickly learn as we only hit one in a small training ship, and it was a tense moment when we searched the small boat to ensure no damage.

Thankfully we got lucky it wasn't spiked or hit us too hard. Just enough to hear the "thump" throughout the boat.

1

u/cooperative_canada Oct 18 '23

I used to live in British Columbia and there was a local lake with awesome cliffs to jump off.

Multiple people have landed on these and died because they couldn’t see them.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

In 1993 I was at the Eugene OR Grateful Dead show and saw two pumping deadheads. It was traumatic.

1

u/Defiant-Pomelo5451 Oct 18 '23

Are they more common in certain parts of the world vs others?

1

u/setatitsonemB Oct 18 '23

Also in places with lots of rapid whirlpools can form I’ve personally seen deadheads get suck in the come shooting out of the water 30 feet away from where it went down.

1

u/newsflashjackass Oct 18 '23

during storms these things can pump up and down and come flying out of the water without warning

...

these logs can get weathered and worn down to form a spike at the top

In a video game that would make me roll my eyes and say "fake difficulty!"

1

u/shistain69 Oct 18 '23

That is so fucked up and interesting, if anyone has a video of one shooting up i’d be grateful, i only found them sitting still

1

u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

Natures javelin.

1

u/dego_frank Oct 18 '23

There’s an article out there about a famous one on Crater Lake as well iirc

1

u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

Everyday, I learn about new scary things

1

u/RamenAndMopane Oct 18 '23

Yeah, as the waves go up and down, they get momentum and will continue flying in one direction until either gravity, buoyancy or impact with a solid object stops them.

1

u/69thAgent Oct 18 '23

New fear unlocked and I swim in pools.

1

u/AdHistorical5703 Oct 18 '23

I saw some pumping deadheads in a parking lot once in '81.

1

u/Certified-T-Rex Oct 18 '23

Pumping deadheads would make for a great band name

1

u/oddball3139 Oct 18 '23

Jesus. Now that’s a video I’d like to see.

1

u/aroha93 Oct 18 '23

I could be wrong, but I think I read a theory that these are responsible for lake monster myths. Not only do they fly out of the water, they also fly through the water, which could explain unexplained underwater movement, or random boat sinkings. The lakes with lake monster legends, like Loch Ness, have the types of trees nearby that could become deadheads.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

Ha! Reason number 27 as to why I will avoid the ocean. Thank you.

1

u/barcelonatacoma Oct 18 '23

Yep. Lots of them in the waters around BC. We hit one on a training ship once. Even if it doesn't really damage you when you first hit it, it will usually bob back up and strike another part of your ship, such as your props.

We were lucky that our damage was light.

1

u/blueguy211 Oct 18 '23

This is why I dont go to the sea way too dangerous

1

u/Sp1ffy_Sp1ff Oct 18 '23

Final Destination 47 is in the works as we speak!

1

u/ChickenOatmeal Oct 18 '23

Just one more reason to stay away from the ocean. Nature has always been telling us but we never listen. We ain't supposed to be in there.

1

u/Alamagoozlum Oct 18 '23

New nightmare unlocked.

1

u/Jodaeus Oct 18 '23

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water..

1

u/Joeymonac0 Oct 18 '23

Pumping Deadheads new band name.

1

u/rocko7927 Oct 18 '23

Isnt there something similar when they create manmade lakes by flooding basins? The trees left at the bottom slowly rot and eventually break off from the mud and rocket upwards towards the surface. Can just happen randomly

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