My wife was in the Navy aboard a tender. Mid 80's. North Atlantic, in heavy seas. Tenders repair other ships, and as such carry sheet steel for hull and bulkhead repairs. Generally it is stowed in passageways (hallways, to landlubbers!), secured to the bulkheads (walls). People walk up and down these passageways on a regular basis. During one roll of the ship, some securing straps gave way, and the sheet steel tipped over onto some personnel. Fortunately, the passageway was somewhat narrower than the steel, so the people didn't get completely squashed. There were some bumps and bruises, however, and not a few had to go to their berthing area to change clothes. 6 or 8 pieces of 1/2" steel will do that to you. It was determined (I think), that necessary safety inspections had not been completed on some of the securing devices; just a cursory examination, and not per the specifications. The unexpected can happen, but attention to detail and awareness of surroundings can mitigate most of the mishaps. zuhnc
. Happy to be retired, I'm used to working on the lathe now, but it took 2 years, and I still have not done any work over 1000 RPM
