Table Of Content
- 'Rogue wave' hits Viking cruise ship, killing 1 passenger and injuring 4 others
- What Would Happen if a Rogue Wave Hit a Large Cruise Ship?
- MORE: 'Rogue wave' strikes Antarctic cruise ship, leaves 1 dead and 4 injured
- Passengers on Antarctic cruise ship hit by deadly 'rogue wave' speak out
- thoughts on “What Happens If A Cruise Ship Is Hit By A Rogue Wave?”
- Norwegian cruise ship loses power after it was hit by rogue wave in North Sea
Pay close attention to listening out for any instructions from the captain over the loudspeakers. Passengers may be asked to put on lifevests and possibly make their way to the deck with the lifeboats if abandoning the ship is a possibility. The significant wave height is the average of the largest third of waves over a given period. Rogue waves typically "come unexpectedly from directions other than prevailing wind and waves," according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
'Rogue wave' hits Viking cruise ship, killing 1 passenger and injuring 4 others
The height of some cruise ships does mean they’re more prone to listing, but to actually capsize one would be an exceptionally rare event. The safety of passengers is always the priority of a cruise line, which is why only highly experienced crew are hired who know exactly what to do in any situation, even one as rare as a rogue wave. The third South-Atlantic incident occurred in March 2007 when the MS Prisendam was hit by two 40-feet waves in a row. It happened near Cape Horn and resulted in around 40 injuries to passengers.
What Would Happen if a Rogue Wave Hit a Large Cruise Ship?
Norwegian Cruise Ship Loses Navigation After Wave Smashes Windows - PEOPLE
Norwegian Cruise Ship Loses Navigation After Wave Smashes Windows.
Posted: Fri, 22 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]
You can see a video of the aftermath and an example in our post of how a cruise ship does not tip over. Let’s just say even the aftermath was a scary experience, let alone being hit by the freak wave. Although not technically cruise ships, ocean liners like the Titanic was, are built even more robustly to cope with the roughest seas on transatlantic crossings. In 2007 the Holland America cruise ship MS Prinsendam (now MS Amera) was hit by a rogue wave estimated to be 39ft high. One theory is that rogue waves are created when two different ocean swells combine to create a larger wave. This can happen when two weather systems with different wind speeds and directions interact.
MORE: 'Rogue wave' strikes Antarctic cruise ship, leaves 1 dead and 4 injured
It is currently unclear if the wave that hit the Viking Polaris qualifies as an official rogue wave because there is no accurate data on the wave height or the surrounding sea state. A storm was raging when the wave hit, CNN reported, which could have provided the necessary conditions for a rogue wave to form. A U.S. woman died and four other passengers were injured when a massive wave smashed into an Antarctic cruise ship during a storm as it sailed off the southernmost tip of South America, officials said Friday. The 62-year-old woman was hit by broken glass when the wave broke cabin windows late Tuesday, Argentine authorities said. Of the larger cruise ships, Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth 2 was hit by a 90-foot tall rogue wave in 1995 caused by Hurricane Luis.
Cruise ship hit by rogue wave during storm, loses ability to navigate
Modern cruise ships also have wonderfully advanced steering and propulsion methods that allow them to turn quickly. Providing the crew haven’t all fallen asleep or abandoned their posts, they will usually have time to react to a rogue wave and make sure the ship takes it as safely as possible. They are built to be wide and have a heavy enough ballast on lower decks that they will survive rogue waves. It would also rely on the negligence of the crew to allow the ship to hit perfectly on the side. Rogue waves, or extreme storm waves, are uncommon, unpredictable and "greater than twice the size of surrounding waves," according to the National Ocean Service.
And the thing about rogue waves is that they might be unpredictable and sudden, but you can hardly miss them. The job of the navigation crew is to be on the lookout for hazards such as rogue waves and to react to them. Sometimes, rogue waves can be confused for tsunamis or tidal waves, but in name only. Prior to this, there have been may more rogue waves recorded around the world too, before they were officially designated as such. Because of the ongoing research into the causes of rogue waves, and their formal documentation being relatively recent, it’s hard to say where they occur the most frequently.
There were a handful of injuries to those on board, but nothing believed to be too serious. Captain Lloyd said that the size of cruise ships – especially some of the largest ships – does mean they’re more at risk, especially as they’re generally built for fair-weather conditions and designed to avoid stormy weather. And rogue waves can happen quickly, so the weather can’t always be avoided easily.
Norwegian cruise ship loses power after it was hit by rogue wave in North Sea
Hurtigruten Cruise Ship Awaiting Tow After Hit from Rogue Wave - gCaptain
Hurtigruten Cruise Ship Awaiting Tow After Hit from Rogue Wave.
Posted: Thu, 21 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]
One person died and four others were injured after a "rogue wave" hit the Viking Polaris cruise ship while it was sailing toward Ushuaia, Argentina, on Tuesday night, officials said. The largest rogue wave ever recorded was the Draupner wave, an 84-foot-tall (25.6 meters) wave that was observed near Norway in 1995. However, the most extreme rogue wave ever recorded was the Ucluelet wave, a 58-foot-tall (17.7 m) wave that was detected by an ocean buoy off the coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia in November 2020.
How Many Ships Have Sunk Because of Rogue Waves?
The rogue wave shattered windows on the ship's bridge, which caused water to enter the vessel and resulted in a power outage, Reuters reported. Since the year 2000, they have only been a couple of reports of boats and ships capsizing by rogue waves, and neither were cruise ships. There are many videos online of large waves hitting cruise ships, but they are just that large waves, nothing like being hit by a true rogue wave. All modern instances of cruise ships encountering rogue waves have resulted in damage, but the ship hasn’t sunk. Another of the recent incidents involving a cruise ship being hit by a rogue wave was the case of the Viking Polaris in December 2022. A US woman was killed, and four other guests were injured when a rogue wave struck the ship when it was sailing towards Ushuaia on an Antarctic cruise.
And some rogue waves are extremely powerful and could cause severe enough damage to lead to the sinking of a ship, but again it would be exceptionally rare. If a huge rogue wave was to break on a cruise ship, it could be a very severe incident. In the 21st century, there have been recorded rogue waves in the Gulf of Mexico, the northern Pacific, the Mediterranean near Catalonia, and off the coast of Newfoundland in Canada.
In 2019, a study published in the journal Scientific Reports predicted that rogue waves could become less frequent but more extreme in the future due to the effects of human-caused climate change. Rogue waves are freak waves that are at least twice as high as the surrounding sea state — the average height of the waves for a given area at a given time, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The massive walls of water come from seemingly out of nowhere and without warning. The only ship was in November 2000 when a 56ft research vessel, the R/V Ballena, was struck by a rogue wave near Point Conception off Santa Barbara, California. The larger the cruise ship, the more stable it is in the water and the less chance of it being sunk by a rogue wave.
They are not restricted to the seas and can occur on large open-water bodies such as lakes. A spokesperson for HX, a unit of Norway's Hurtigruten Group, told FOX Business that the ship is sailing to Bremerhaven, Germany, for disembarkation. In another instance, NCL’s Norwegian Dawn was hit by three freak waves off the coast of Georgia in 2005, one of which was around 70 feet tall. Cruise ships are generally built to handle most waves in the ocean – they can routinely sail through feet waves without issues. It will not be too noticeable out at sea because it’s just a raised water level – it doesn’t cause single large waves to form.
