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Submechanophobia, the fear of man-made things, submerged.


Vy'drach

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Basically, it's the fear of shipwrecks and anything else man made under the water. Now I don't exactly have that per se, as I have no fear of shipwrecks themselves at all, and it doesn't have to be man-made, but I do get super heebie-jeebies from large things just under the water's surface. Be it shipwreck, shark, whale, what have you. Creeps me right the fuck out, especially if it's really light in really dark water.

 

Examples of what I mean:

 

l603Pmw.jpg

 

8540026569_1dd0bc2034_b.jpg

 

And, the worst offender, for me:

 

Frosty-Shipwreck-800x481.jpg

 

And, from what I've heard and gathered, it's a rather common phobia and I take it it's an instinct of this:

 

09H5lYr.jpg

 

The instinctual response to large, aquatic predators attacking/lurking nearby.

 

Anyone else have this phobia?

 

Also, Stranded Deep is terrible for this:

 

http://cloud-2.steamusercontent.com/ugc/544142572200860897/BBC1D9C14FD712F3833023DF3FA87A7F730BBC5E/

 

http://cloud-4.steamusercontent.com/ugc/710780552635813974/C56B4746B1806C7B8405D6A2C00C29F340018E71/

 

http://cloud-4.steamusercontent.com/ugc/710780552635813376/C7FCCC36062779EA108ED297045DE0DC55E57D46/

 

http://cloud-2.steamusercontent.com/ugc/710780552635813546/118EDB0B32710C5C7CDE3218A0FEBA32815C141E/

 

http://cloud-4.steamusercontent.com/ugc/710780552635813687/AB5316FC37E768C99C72CF74E979E07C37A40C49/

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I never knew that there was a name for this, and I'm glad that you've posted it.  Ship graveyards are some of the creepiest things out there in my book; there's just something extremely disconcerting about seeing them submerged, figuratively lifeless.  Just thinking about being in the water next to those things, especially that last one, fills me with dread.  The large predator explanation is an interesting one and perhaps does shed some light on the phobia though!

 

Fully submerged is absolutely freaky, but even partly submerged craft have an eerie feel to them.  The below images are from a boat graveyard in Staten Island, for example.  The rusted metal look is worse than the aged wood one IMO.

 

18ovukfx1mr8sjpg.jpg

 

18ovujidhiyzrjpg.jpg

 

siboatgraveyard_v1_460x285.jpg

 

http://nypost.com/2014/09/18/rest-in-pieces-staten-islands-eerie-ship-graveyard/#1

 

---

 

Basically anything metallic and underwater is fair game though.

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R3dFiVe is really, really bad for this phobia.

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I don't understand this at all. What's spooky about rust?

Though I'm sad to see that old steamboat. She should be steaming up the Mississippi not sitting forgotten and rusting in New York City. The so-called "steamboats" on the Mississippi now are all diesel-powered.

BTW, I HATE Fake Steamers. If you're going to build a locomotive or ship as a tourist attraction, there are plenty of nice diesel designs to choose from. Don't build it like a steamer unless you put fucking steam engines in it.

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Dunno about the people creeped out by shipwrecks themselves and all, but for me it has to be a large object just below the surface of the water. Might not actually be submechanophobia for me exactly, but a combination of it and megathalassophobia, which is the fear of large things in the ocean. But for me it's just the creepiness of looking down into the water and seeing a large, pale object just below the surface.

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I don't have it, but I can understand this phobia. A large ship partially submerged sorta looks like a hippo or crocodile waiting for the perfect time to strike. On the subjects of phobias I do have Xanthophobia(fear of the color yellow), seeing a completely yellow wall does things to me...

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I don't have it, but I can understand this phobia. A large ship partially submerged sorta looks like a hippo or crocodile waiting for the perfect time to strike. On the subjects of phobias I do have Xanthophobia(fear of the color yellow), seeing a completely yellow wall does things to me...

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yellow_Wallpaper

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If you get this, have I a video for you!

 

 

Propeller inspection on a Polar Star Icebreaker

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If you get this, have I a video for you!

 

-snip-

 

Propeller inspection on a Polar Star Icebreaker

 

thefr.gif

 

Nope.  Kudos to those guys; I couldn't dream of doing that.

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I don't have it, but I can understand this phobia. A large ship partially submerged sorta looks like a hippo or crocodile waiting for the perfect time to strike. On the subjects of phobias I do have Xanthophobia(fear of the color yellow), seeing a completely yellow wall does things to me...

 

oh dude I'm glad this is A Thing, I used to have a recurring nightmare about a pale yellow house. Nothing ever happened in the dreams but everything felt horrifyingly Wrong. I don't know if the dreams ruined the colour or the colour gave me the dreams but there's something about yellow (specifically that pale yellow - the old school room yellow, the yellow of abandoned nursery toys, the yellow in a farmhouse window at the crack of dawn) that I find extremely unsettling. Reading The Yellow Wallpaper in high school didn't help.

 

It also doesn't help that I seem to have a mild case of synesthesia in which colour is wildly important to the way my brain operates so fuck yellow in particular

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Nope.  Kudos to those guys; I couldn't dream of doing that.

4 words: Lock Out/Tag Out.

It means put a tag on it that says "Yo, don't turn this shit on because I'm working where it can kill me" and backing that up by physically locking the on/off switch with a lock that only the guy working on it has a key to and it is on his person while he is working. If more than one person is working on it, each person has a lock. I'm sure the engine starter and probably the engine itself are locked and if it's electric drive, the power coupling to the motor is locked disconnected.

If proper lock out/tag out procedures were followed (and seeing as it is the US Coast guard, THEY WERE) there is no way in hell that boat will start with those guys down there near the prop. Everything's locked and the keys to the locks are down there with the divers.

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4 words: Lock Out/Tag Out.

It means put a tag on it that says "Yo, don't turn this shit on because I'm working where it can kill me" and backing that up by physically locking the on/off switch with a lock that only the guy working on it has a key to. If more than one person is working on it, each person has a lock.

 

I think Crazy may be more afraid of the look of the ship itself rather than the possibility of being minced up.

 

I could be wrong, however.

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I think Crazy may be more afraid of the look of the ship itself rather than the possibility of being minced up.

 

I could be wrong, however.

 

It's a bit of both to tell you the truth.  Knowing that the propeller has no chance of activating unintentionally does alleviate that concern, although again there's that nagging feeling of alarm in regards to being next to that thing in the water.  It's not even an uneasiness about boats, but it just so happens that boats are most commonly metallic, large, and submerged.  Perhaps it's a fear of the unknown element of the ocean, and coupled with the aforementioned phobia in the OP it makes for one helluva combo.   

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Lock Out/Tag Out is a common safety practice in maintenance and repair fields. You'll find it done pretty much anywhere people have to work with deadly equipment. Need to work on a 50Kv switch box? Need to change bearings on a long conveyor belt? Need to clean-out the crankcase in a giant ship engine? Lock and tag that shit.

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Lock Out/Tag Out is a common safety practice in maintenance and repair fields. You'll find it done pretty much anywhere people have to work with deadly equipment. Need to work on a 50Kv switch box? Need to change bearings on a long conveyor belt? Need to clean-out the crankcase in a giant ship engine? Lock and tag that shit.

 

I dunno how common it is in retail, but I know at Office Depot, since they have massive trash compactors at some locations, that Lock Out/Tag Out is company policy. We don't have them at my store, but I know it exists because lol training videos.

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Hmm... I didn't know that this was a thing... To be honest I think the pics look pretty cool! But then again, I hate boats, and would never be caught dead on one xD

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