Rogue Waves

Just watched a Nat Geo show on rogue waves.They are defined as a wave at least twice the height as the surrounding wave heights. This question is directed towards the Coast Guard / Navy vets. Have any of you ever encountered one ,and if so, what happened ?

I worked with a Merchant Mariner who was onboard an oil platform service ship in the North Sea when they hit a rouge wave head on. It blew out the pilot house windows. He was below just outside the ER when water and crew came washing down the companionway like a movie. The lights went out and the ship laid over on its side. He thought he was dead. The ship slowly righted itself and the crew eventually got enough power restored to limp home.

We were headed for Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians aboard the Polar Star (USCG Icebreaker 399 feet long)....for 5 straight days we had above gale conditions......one day most of the seas were averaging in the 50s with occasional 60s.

One night, a wave broke over the bow, tore off a fire station, bent a lot of rails, damaged the forward crane and made a crewman slip down below and a door plate sliced his bicep nearly in half. The real treat was it broke a bridge window out, 80 feet above the waterline and put an estimated 300 gallons of water in the dropped tile overhead. It shorted out all the main lighting a radar or two and a bunch of other bridge equipment.


Window off to the right was the broken one and covered in plywood and yes that is all ice from freezing spray

Not sure it was a rogue as no one saw it...but it left it's mark and memory on at least me.....because I had to do the stinking damage/injury/UCMJ investigation while enroute to Dutch in those conditions....

Ever try to keep a bunch of manuals and statements on a small desk while the ship was rolling past 45 degrees regularly for days?

Pissed me off...no wonder I remember it so clearly....

wow,two tales from two different sides of the world.

Yikes. That's some scary stuff.

Big waves scare me. Unless I'm surfing. Actually, big waves scare me when I'm surfing as well. ?

I saw a BBC documentary where one ships officer described how furniture was "rolling downhill" as they fell into the trough of a rogue or freak wave, then how it was like hitting a wall when the wave face passed over the ship. This was a large freighter...

Just on our trip from US to Panama we have seen waves nearly twice the height of surrounding ones. It seems to wind waves sync up with the swell occasionally, and then theres always the current with eddys spinning off. I believe Wave forecast state this. Something like "average height of top 2/3 of waves, individual waves can be twice as high" or something like that. It is not always height either, some times the wave period will change dramatically.

On board the Lincoln in 93 seas got bad out and we hit several "sea stumps" would make a loud bang and could feel the ship give a slight shudder. Not sure if those were rogue waves or not but had to big to make an aircraft carrier shudder.

psneeld said:

We were headed for Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians aboard the Polar Star (USCG Icebreaker 399 feet long)....for 5 straight days we had above gale conditions......one day most of the seas were averaging in the 50s with occasional 60s.

One night, a wave broke over the bow, tore off a fire station, bent a lot of rails, damaged the forward crane and made a crewman slip down below and a door plate sliced his bicep nearly in half. The real treat was it broke a bridge window out, 80 feet above the waterline and put an estimated 300 gallons of water in the dropped tile overhead. It shorted out all the main lighting a radar or two and a bunch of other bridge equipment.

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Sounds like the real deal to me, in that solid water carries more punch than spray. Yikes...

We have a member called roguewave. He should know.

rogue waves

very interesting BBC video and scientific explanation

Rough water tragedy whith Baltic sea...


https://youtu.be/68iWvOn8LBY


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Estonia


I respect always the forces of nature at sea...

I read an interview several years ago with a former Captain of the QE2 when she encountered a rogue...just found the article here:

Rogue Wave Smashes The Queen Elizabeth Ii

BruceK said:

We have a member called roguewave. He should know.

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You rang? A little compilation of rogues...

Freaks of the Sea: Top Ten Monster Rogue Waves Revealed

Of course, rogue waves need not be towering to create problems. While bringing my 43 foot sailboat back from the Caribbean, I was hit by a rogue wave.

We were sailing in 10 to 13 knot winds on the beam. It was a beautiful day and all the waves were coming slightly forward of the beam. After two or three hours we opened up the Bimini window and opened the companionway to allow fresh air into the boats interior. Just then a wave hit us directly from our front. While the typical waves that day were 1 to 2 feet this wave was closer to seven or 8 feet. It buried our bow and the water came shooting through the open Bimini and down the companionway. Luckily all we suffered was a bit of salt water in the boat which the pumps quickly took care of.

Gordon

Lobstah said:

I read an interview several years ago with a former Captain of the QE2 when she encountered a rogue...just found the article here:

Rogue Wave Smashes The Queen Elizabeth Ii

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Here's a quote from the link above; "[FONT=Arial,helvetica]The presence of extreme waves was also recorded by Canadian weather buoys moored in the area, and the maximum measured height from buoy 44141 was 30 m (98 feet.)"


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Lobstah said:

I read an interview several years ago with a former Captain of the QE2 when she encountered a rogue...just found the article here:

Rogue Wave Smashes The Queen Elizabeth Ii

Click to expand...

During WWII either the QEI or WMI was carrying 15-20,000 soldiers to Europe when it hit a storm. The reports were of 100 foot waves. At one point the bow of the ship was on one 100 foot wave and the stern was on another 100 foot wave. They were afraid the ship would break in two. She did not thank goodness.

Later,
Dan

roguewave said:

You rang? A little compilation of rogues...

Freaks of the Sea: Top Ten Monster Rogue Waves Revealed

Click to expand...

The photo of the ship in the Biscay Bay under Rogue Waves Caught on Film was the image I thought off when I saw this discussion pop up. The wave is simply a wall of water. VERY scary. I think of that photo every time I think of rogue waves.

I ran across a website with photos taken in maybe the 60's, 70's and 80's by a guy in the merchant marine.

One set of photos was of his ship in a storm where they got hit by a rogue wave. The ship was a tanker of some kind with the superstructure at the rear of the ship. I forgot the height but way up there a wave blew in some glass windows and if I remember right a hatch. These were on the forward facing parts of the ship but at the stern. The rooms that lost the windows had a foot or so of water sloshing around. These rooms were well above the water line. The ship had quite a bit of structural damage on deck as well.

Later,
Dan

Quite interesting, recreation of a rogue in a lab.

This Video of a Lab Simulated Rogue Wave Will Make Your Palms Sweat – gCaptain

Its interesting to compare rougue waves to tsunami waves which are small height waves ,but can be several miles thick and contain a massive volume of water in them.

Here in Ireland lots of people are swept out to sea walking on the beaches every year because they don't realise that you can have double wave which is standard height , but with double the volume of water that breaks twice as far up the beach; often with tragic results.

Don't walk your dog close to the surf line!

I was on this ship in 1969 when we took a rogue wave at night. I don't remember the sea conditions but rough for a destroyer. Maybe 30', and we were running into the seas at reduced speed, but don't remember exactly how fast. Since it was dark, we had no idea until the bow started going down into the trough before the wave. The top of the wave went over the bridge and the gun director above the bridge. We know because there were two lookouts that took cover behind the director and they witnessed it. So the bow, two forward gun mounts, bridge were all under the wave. As the ship came thru the wave it had a strong continuous shudder. Nobody was lost, some injuries, radar sets on the open bridge and pilothouse were out. Some electrical problems.
A steel door in the spray shield that opened toward the bow was pushed thru the coaming, bent and found on the stern.
Ship was about 375', 3000 tons, 60,000hp.

Experienced the same, in a minor way on the Coot, when facing strong westerly winds countering a strong, countering ebb in Suisun Bay, Carquinez Strait, and San Pablo Bay. Good way to wash off the boat with all doors and windows closed.

SCIENCE!

Ship-sinking monster waves revealed by ESA satellites / Observing the Earth / Our Activities / ESA

http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/PubServices/2005pdfs/Rosenthal.pdf

Oh yes, they are out there, and a lot more than previously thought.

My layman's explanation is...... remember as a kid you were in the bathtub making waves..... and suddenly something larger happened and it splahed all over the bathroom floor and your mother got all mad? That's a rogue wave.