I spent 4 years on the Eisenhower. We had several sailors go over the side, and every night for 2 months some jackass threw a chem-light overboard making effectively a man overboard drill. We never turned back to pick anyone up.

If flight ops are occurring there is a guard helo airborne, and either way there is at least one escort. The carrier is the least efficient way to recover a person in the water. Helicopters and smaller ships are much better suited.

What we did do was stop the shafts with steam, so the propellers weren’t spinning anymore, so if whoever fell over was under the ship there was a chance they wouldn’t get hit by a prop. Close the ahead throttle, open the astern throttle enough to get the shaft to stop, then slowly close it to prevent it from spinning in reverse.

Just closing the ahead throttle the props will continue to spin from the water passing through causing them to windmill. As the ship slows there is less windmill action, so less steam is needed to counteract it. There is really an art to it.

Once the ship was clear we would resume a low bell until the person was recovered or it was determined there was no one to recover. Sitting stopped was a bit of a pain in the ass. The shafts / turbines / reduction gear could not sit still for more than 3 minutes when hot. So every 3 min the throttles had to be opened just enough to spin them slightly.

This is much harder than it sounds. Once stopped they don’t want to spin, and you aren’t supposed to exceed more than a few RPM. More than a couple throttlemen were relieved for greatly exceeding this.

As for the other part of the question, it’s not hard to stop a carrier, it’s just a question of how long it takes and how much stress you want to put on the crew and ship.

Dial up a Back Emergency bell and it’s going to stop, but you are probably going to going to give a couple reactor operators heart attacks. It’s one of the few times power is likely to hit 100%. It gets real busy real quick.

I’ve been asked the same questions a couple times so I’m adding some details.

The men overboard:

We lost one overboard off the coast of Virginia in December when a plane on deck turned and blew him off the deck. He was rescued by a helicopter and flown to a shore hospital but died a few days later. That water is very cold.

The next went in after a night of drinking in Jebel Ali. His body was pulled out roughly 36 hours later. That one was bad – we don’t check on and off the ship, so there was no accurate muster list to determine who was missing. We were at muster stations forever, with the freaking out increasing over time.

The 3rd was a suicide. he was on suicide watch and evaded his minder, ran upstairs from medical and jumped off the sponson. Body was recovered weeks later.

The 4th was a suicide attempt, at least on the books. Guy was told he was being written up, when dismissed he walked to the fantail, waved to the lookout and jumped. Helo picked him up almost immediately. He was escorted to the bridge to see the captain, who ordered him flown off and court-martialed.

The chemlight bandit:

The working theory was that it was a disgruntled night shift worker. He was never caught, but everyone on board was interviewed multiple times by NIS/NCIS.

We went to extreme measures to stop it. All the chemlights were inventoried and issued. Marines were stationed on the sponsons at night. All the de-watering ports were tack welded shut and painted with UV dye. You had to show your hands under a UV light to eat.

You can certainly stop the carrier, but it isn’t the way you recover a crewman overboard. On the bridge being notified of the problem, the Officer of the Deck immediately has the Navigator mark the ship’s position and an announcement is made to the ship “Man Overboard, Man Overboard…noting the side of the ship that it occurred.

Crew on deck then throw life preservers overboard if they see the person to help mark the spot, and then if the person is in sight, executes an Anderson turn turning into the side of the casualty for 250 degrees keeping the individual in sight and then backing down to stop the ship when the person is 15 degrees from the bow.

If the person isn’t in sight, a Williamson turn is executed by turning away from the person 60 degrees and then shifting the rudder and returning to the reciprocal of the initial course. This should put the ship on a track directly back to the point of the incident.

Meanwhile, the motor whale boat and the recovery crew are manned up and launched when nearing the point of the incident. If a helicopter is airborne, it is directed to search and recover the person. If not, a ready alert helicopter is launched to begin the search and recovery (SAR) operation.

Immediately after the Man Overboard announcement is made, a muster of the entire ship’s company and air wing is held, and ideally within 1 minute, the result is forwarded to the Captain noting the individual who is absent and overboard.