Haiti quake aftershocks give U.S. sailors bumpy ride

ABOARD THE USS CARTER HALL, Haiti (Reuters) - If you think that earthquakes can't be felt at sea, U.S. sailors will tell you their ships have had a bumpy ride off Haiti as aftershocks jolted the country following the January 12 quake.

"It feels like the ship's actually running aground," said U.S. Navy Commander George Doyon, master of the USS Carter Hall, an amphibious ship that was one of the first to land U.S. Marines and earth-moving equipment last month to stricken towns and villages west of the shattered capital Port-au-Prince.

"The ship bounces," Doyon told Reuters, describing the feeling, at sea, of the dozens of aftershocks that have shaken Haiti over the last six weeks. He said the vibration from the quakes "resonates exponentially from the bottom".

This week, twin aftershocks early on Tuesday, one of 4.7 magnitude, brought nervous residents and foreign hotel guests out of their beds in Port-au-Prince. Early on Monday, another 4.7 magnitude quake had shaken the city.

(Reporting by Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Paul Simao)