Wrath of the Sea

Life on a 489-foot container vessel in the Gulf of Mexico.

By Peak Design

the chief mate

It was the interwebs that brought John Dunaway into our lives. He had posted a shot of himself walking into the woods to chop down a Christmas tree, with an Everyday Messenger slung over his shoulder. We saw it and thought “damn, this guy looks like a manly dude.” Then we took a gander at the rest of his Instagram account and realized that holiday axe-wielding was just the tip of the iceberg.

John spends half of his time at home in Southeast Texas hunting, fishing, and hanging out with his family. The other 6 months of the year John spends on the open seas, captaining large sea freighters.

This Spring, John embarked on a voyage from Houston to Puerto Rico and back (and back again, and again) aboard a 489-foot freighter named National Glory. Having never done this sort of thing ourselves (most of us grew up paddling canoes in the Midwest) we couldn’t help but beg for a glimpse of the commercial maritime life.

John Dunaway shooting with SlideLITE and a Sony a7ii.

the mission

John and the rest of National Glory’s 21-man crew were tasked with transporting a full load of cargo from Houston to Puerto Rico, thrice. Three times the crew filled the ship with containers, sailed 5 days to Puerto Rico through the Old Bahama Channel, did a full discharge, and returned to Houston to reload.

For the uninitiated, Puerto Rico is an island. Everything there needs to get there somehow, and sea freight is generally the most cost-effective method to do it. National Glory was carrying all sorts of stuff—bulk steel, dump trucks, bulldozers, Budweiser, the raw syrups used to make Coca Cola—giant metal boxes full of the mundane building blocks (figuratively and sometimes literally) that make the world go round. Heck, for all we know there could have been a container full of Everyday Messengers on there.

Massive cranes stack shipping containers on National Glory's cargo deck.

The Crew

The crews of commercial vessels are split into 3 departments:

deck Department

In charge of navigation, cargo, and stability.

Engine department

In charge of the operation and maintenance of the ships engine and all machinery.

Steward department

In charge of cooking, cleaning, and generally making the ship a livable place.

As Chief Mate in this particular voyage, John was in charge of the deck department. This meant keeping an eye on the maintenance of all deck machinery (winches, lines, wires), making sure all cargo was stable and secure, overseeing loading and unloading, and keeping the entire ship balanced and stable using the water ballast.

A deck crew member guides rope around a winch.

like a snake

Each of National Glory’s ballast tanks holds up to 450 metric tons of water, giving the ship the ability to internally take on a total of 2295 metric tons of water weight. As the ship’s cargo load changes, the crew adjusts the water levels in the ballasts to keep the ship in “positive stability.” Annually these tanks must be inspected for cracks caused by the constant flexing of the ship’s hull.

The ship is always what we call “working.” In other words, bending and flexing. Buoyancy pushes up from the bottom, and the structure of the ship is pushing down unevenly because of how the ship is loaded. Sometimes you can actually see the entire ship bend like a snake.

John and his crew used Field Pouch and Leash to carry around tools and hardware when squeezing into tight places to do repairs.

Entrance hatch to one of the ship's water ballasts.

The wrath of the sea

When John and his crew are not navigating or moving cargo, they’re pretty much doing one thing: battling the wrath of the sea. Salt crystals build up on the ship’s deck which in turn corrode the paint and ultimately the underlying steel. Vegetation grows on the bottom of the ship, as well as any nook or cranny that retains moisture, which is all of them. Paint cracks and chips from sun exposure. Steel structures and machinery wear down and need to be fixed or replaced. Cleaning, fixing, and maintenance never stop, because the wrath of the sea is never ending.

We must always remember that the sea is no respecter of ships or persons. The sea is always ready, at the first sign of failure, to rush in and destroy the very craft it so readily supports upon the surface of the water.

- Felix Riesenberg

steel and saltwater

National Glory is a giant piece of steel. Her 9630 horsepower engine alone weighs 11,652 metric tons. Steel and saltwater aren’t very fond of each other, and as a result John spends a lot of time grinding, welding, and in general making a shitload of sparks.

John repairing a broken metal dolly on the ship's main deck.

On the bridge

Aside from the gritty manual labor, John and the deck department are also responsible for making sure the ship is in the right place at the right time. Thus, John spent 8 hours a day on National Glory’s bridge, mapping the ship’s location, watching for other nearby vessels, and taking celestial readings with a gyro compass to ensure the navigational equipment on the boat are still reading true.

A crew members peers out the window of the bridge at dawn.

The Gear

Steel may be gradually affected by saltwater, but photography gear is deathly allergic to it. John uses a suite of Peak Design gear to keep his camera safe, accessible, and dry on the high seas. His go-to setup is a SlideLITE on his camera body and CaptureLENS for his spare prime. He’ll chuck a Shell over his rig on windy days to protect his camera from spray. He and his crew also use Field Pouch to keep various tools, parts, flashlights, and other small items handy while moving around on or below deck.