Nick, I doubt if this has caused any confusion, but I've always been thinking of a helicopter floating, not one on a ship. I guess it's because the post is titled, "Ditching". It shouldn't matter, though, because all we require is something external to the helicopter that moves the fuselage.
As far as who I believe, I trust in the experience of people like yourself, but I still like to see reasons rather than just trusting expertise.
In my original post on this thread I said, "Consider a Jet Ranger on floats that rolls left. The rotor disk wants to stay in plane but the swashplate at 3 o'clock (from above) rises. This causes blade pitch increase at 12 o'clock which causes the disk to tilt to a new plane with the tips highest at 9 o'clock and lowest at 3 o'clock."
With all the knowledge and experience in this group, I'm surprised that none of these "experienced helicopter pilots" noticed that the blade pitch actually decreases at 12 o'clock. Thus, the rotor disk flies itself to follow the fuselage's motions.
I didn't put that error in there to prove anything, it was an honest mistake. It turns out to be a good example of why not to blindly trust experience, but rather to demand rational explanation.
I was wrong. I'm sorry if I misled anyone.
Matthew.