I know we have some sailors here and thought they and others may find this of interest.

I spend parts of each year in my 30s and 40s going to Alaska for commercial fishing. Mostly relatively safe, salmon seining on a 58' boat. But, I also made some crab trips to the Bering sea on a 105' powers scow the "Ramblin Rose" I have seen some waves. One guy I fished with lost his brother on a boat that was suspected of encountering a rouge wave near Unimak Pass in the Aleutian Islands. A guy I new from Sand Point AK a small town in the Aleutians, told me he was the last surviving male of his high school class. He became a welder

There used to be a lot of disbelief of the idea of monster "Rouge waves"

That skepticism changed on New Year’s Day in 1995, when a rogue wave struck the Draupner oil installation in the Norwegian North Sea. Equipped with a downward-pointing laser, the platform recorded a 26-meter (85ft) wave spiking out of a sea filled with 11.8-meter waves — a nautical Bigfoot caught in a high-resolution snapshot.

Any way it its an interesting article on such waves and predicting them.

Quanta Magazine

This is thought by many to have been the cause of the loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior in 1975. It was clear that the bow plunged downward first, nearly in an instant, and that the boat broke in two with the stern ending up upside down at the bottom of the lake. The theory goes that it was hit by a rogue wave from behind, which lifted the vessel end for end, driving the bow into the water, causing the split, and flipping the rear half over. That's one suggested theory anyway.[Disclaimer: I have no maritime experience and am merely reporting what I've read. Inaccuracies are possible.]

Regards,
Andy

Too many accounts of rogue waves to dismiss them. Looks like an interesting article. Thanks!

I saw a rogue wave push cars into the hotels on the beach in Daytona in the early 1990s. It was about 3-4 feet high, stretched for at least a mile in each direction.


Unless it was aliens...

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Don't know if it was rogue or not , but it was huge . I was on the USS Midway CV41 , off the straits of Singapore . We weren't allowed on the flight deck , waves were breaking over the bow , 80-90 feet off the water line . Needless to say there were a lot of seasick people on that ship . We even had pilots blowing chunks !

Oh yeah, there are way too many documented instances of rogue waves to deny their existence. If you watch the series, "Deadliest Catch", there have been several filmed incidents with rogue waves, including one that rolled the boat on it's side and darned near overturned it. And in 2005 in the Gulf of Mexico during Hurricane Rita several jackup rigs were lost due to them being overtopped and having their legs broken off.

BTW, that boat you worked on, the "Ramblin' Rose", was featured on the Deadliest Catch in seasons 7 & 8.

This Ramblin Rose?

I know. That was well after my time. I was last on her in 1984, when I was 43. Decided I was to old for that game. I have a picture I took from the wheelhouse somewhere of her bow completely buried in a wave. Sometimes during big storms, a few waves would come over the bow and down the deck and slam into the front of the house so hard water would spray out the sides of a dogged tight porthole. I just hung a towel over it so the water just went to the floor. My bunk was on the opposite wall.

Yes, thats her

One of the most amazing things. During a big storm, water cold enough the spray freezes in the rigging, the wind is screaming in the rigging, blowing about 100mph, 35' wave after wave, tops of waves ripped off by the wind and hurling thru the air
and the whole time these little sea birds are tucked in beside the boat, wings beating away and when the wave face came they flew right smack into it and as you came up over the top and tipped back down they came flying right out of the back side of the wave. Water, air, water, air, they never quit, Toughest little mothers I ever saw. I am beat to **** just being on the boat, inside and dry running it 2 on 6 off and those guys are living in THAT

Well after having crossed the Intl date line 3 times aboard troop ships and spending a half century deep sea fishing and 25 years cruising the Caribbean and Mediterranean and I feel blessed that I never had the pleasure of seeing a rogue wave. I've been in very rough seas few times but nothing to compare with one of those bad boys.

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Real men love cats!

The Ramblin Rose had 2 3408 Cats for power and 2 straight 6 Cats Gen sets for running circ pumps, hydraulics and refrigeration, plus a little 4 banger John Deere Gen set if you were just powering the house and the lights etc. Held about 32,000 gallons of fuel and had a centrifugal fuel cleaner, She ran about 9 Knots

After I was on her while trying to get into Akutan in a storm with a load of over a 100 1000# crab pots on deck she ended up laying over hard on one side, the skipper was quick enough to power it back up (turn into it and firewall the throttles) before the next wave finished her off. Then they went out on deck and suitcased 25 of the pots. Suitcasing means dumping them with the lines and buoys inside them un recoverable. Better to dump 25K worth of gear than lose the boat with you on it. After that they set her up so they could flood the bulbous bow with sea water for more stability,

In 1984 2 A boats the Americus and Altair, out of Anacortes WA (where I started out from) rolled over in the Bering sea near each other. and all 14 hand lost their lives
Commercial fishing is one of the most dangerous occupations in the United States (1). During 1992--2008, an annual average of 58 reported deaths occurred (128 deaths per 100,000 workers) ((1.3 per 1000)) (1), compared with an average of 5,894 deaths (four per 100,000 workers) among all U.S. workers. During the 1990s, safety interventions addressing specific hazards identified in Alaska resulted in a significant decline in the state's commercial fishing fatality rate (2). During 2007--2010, CDC expanded surveillance of commercial fishing fatalities to the rest of the country's fishing areas.

Figures compiled by the Alaska Crab Coalition, a trade group, show that the fatality rate among Bering Sea crab fishermen is seven times that of U.S. fishermen

It used to be about 235 boats and 2500 men a year went out, Boats were lost every year, guys went over board (a death sentence in hard weather) crushed by the pots etc. I think in 1984 the Bering sea took 44 lives

Want an interesting read?
Spike Walkers "Working on the Edge"

I will say this, the easiest day I ever had on a crab boat was way harder than the worst day I ever had in the oil fields.

Just another day at the office!

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This is me with my in-laws standing next to a replica of the James Caird, outside Punta Arenas, Chile. That was the boat Ernest Shakleton, Frank Worsley and 4 others sailed in from Elephant Island at the tip of the Antarctic Penninsula, to South Georgia Island. They saw one Rogue wave they estimated at 90-100 ft which broke over the top of them. Many in the 40-50 foot range. Others have crossed the lowest continent, climbed across South Georgia, but no one has yet attempted a similar crossing. I doubt they ever will.

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Front sight and squeeze

All the Coasties I met in AK were great people. They were out last life line.
They said that they were treated was better in AK than Florida. Where it was mostly all about drugs.

That boat up on the crest best get his nose pointed one way or the other, that is a real pour way to take a wave that big. But, sticking your bow into one isn't that much fun either

What most of the world would call a hurricane force winds is called just barely fishable in the crab fleet.

The story of Shakleton, his crew, their survival on the ice and then his amazing trip in a life boat over 800 miles across the Antarctic ocean , finding the back side of that island by dead reckoning and then crossing it to save his crew is totally amazing and a super human feat. Just climbing across South Georgia, with some rope and hardly any gear was a super human feat. Men with all the gear in they wanted who have crossed it, bow down to what he did.

His ad for a crew

Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success.

Ships of wood, Men of steel.

Not that big but there was one I remember that came ashore in 1991 Daytona Beach and all the cars parked in front of the boardwalk a salt water bath.

Here you go
Another day at the office

The dance floor

Don't fail us now

It’s no Bering Sea boat, but it made quite an impression on this teen...




The guys who work in the snot day-in and day-out are made of sterner stuff than I.

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My son sailed Lasers around the turn of the century. Biggest seas ware at the Youth World Championships held at the Buffalo Canoe Club on the Canadian side of Lake Ontario back in 2002. First day was great and all of our kids got top 10 finishes, Then the wind started blowing from the west and stacked up the seas at the east end of the lake. We were up the next day and were told the seas were forecast at 4's. We thought rough but doable. Turns out they were talking in meters Long story short, the Croatians took over from there.
The Laser is a wonderful little boat, the best thing Bruce Kirby ever did. I still have my son's boat, it was a 1996 hull built for the Atlanta Olympics. I keep threatening to put a 4.7 rig on it and take my 65 yr old lard butt out sailing. I could probably hold down a Radial but I KNOW I'd get whacked with the full rig. I've seen several clips of the hydro foiling Lasers and it really looks looks a hoot!!

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Forum consigliere

I was a recreational boater for nearly 40 years and a professional Captain {100 ton USCG Masters License} for the last 15 of those. My thankfully one and only Rogue Wave experience came when I was skippering a 54', 75 Ton Sport Fisher out of San Diego. We were on a 3 day trip with 6 guests and two crew and myself chasing Tuna, primarily Albacore but Yellowfin and Bluefin were always welcome as well.

We were about 120 miles southwest of San Diego and 50 miles offshore in rough but fishable conditions, 4 - 6' southwest swell with a couple of feet of wind chop on top of that with winds at 12 - 15 and building out of the northwest {which should have been my first clue}. I had just pulled up close abeam of a large kelp patty hoping that throwing some fresh bait would bring up the larger tuna lurking beneath.

We were nearly dead in the water as I had pulled the boat out of gear and ghosted slowly alongside the paddy so as not to spook anything beneath. We were more or less beam on to the swell and my deck hands began tossing nets of anchovies over the side. The captain's chair up on the fly bridge puts me 15'+ above the water.

I glanced to the west just in time to see a wall of water bearing down on us and I could not see over the top. it was about 25 yards from us ands coming fast. I just had a couple of seconds to grab the mic and yell a warning over the PA for everyone to hang on... and no, I did not think to scream "Rogue Wave" though clearly that was what was roaring down on us.

We rolled through about 30 degrees burying the starboard rail and taking a lot of water into the large cockpit but the scuppers quickly carried it away as we rolled back to port as it passed beneath. I jammed the throttles to the stops and spun the wheel to port to get our nose back to the west lest there be another behind it but fortunately it was just the one "Rogue".

A quick head count ensued and confirmed everyone was still aboard. The only serious damage was to our large {8' long} cockpit freezer which was torn from its mounts by the roll. When that happened the ground wire pulled out and our 15 KW genset continued to pump AC to the the ungrounded chassis of the freezer which was now laying across the back of the cockpit.

When my deckhand went to attempt to push it back in place the shock decked him, I'm guessing his rubber boots probably saved his butt. I hit the emergency shut off and then we all stood around uncomfortably looking at each other wondering if it really was shut down and wondering who was to be the fool to confirm it was really off. Yep, dat would be me. It was off and other than wrestling it back onto its mounts and rewiring the plug we had no further issues.

We did manage to limit out on the Albacore with quite a few other tuna and few yellowtails and all of our guests went home with full ice chests of fresh filets. The tips were better than average as in addition to the fine catch we all got to go home with a pretty good sea story/fishtale.

I’ll never complain about the price of sea food again. Color me a yellow bellied coward.
Tom Black

There is a saying in the crab fleet. Your not buy crab,, your buying men's lives.

Was on the USS Exford (a little over 500' long) when a rogue wave hit us about 50 miles east of Cape Hatteras. We went over 52 degrees and it took a loooong while to come back, but she did. Dumped me out of the top bunk onto the porthole and broke off a 12" sea valve, along with other damage and shifted cargo. Left turn into Newport News dry dock. This was about 1965 and was very real.

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Foster Positivity.

We were off the coast of Japan on the USS Franklin D Roosevelt CVA 42 and they had reported waves coming over the flight deck. But that changed when the guys in the Catapault shack reported that the walkway was gone.
Is it damaged came the reply?. No gone. 60 feet were ripped off as it had never been there. Frank

I will never look at Alaskan king crab the same way I used to see it.

Compared to the power of wind and ocean, I think nuclear weapons are just toys for kids to play with.

Mother nature has some serious fury.

Taken over the entire cloud shield of an "average" hurricane, the energy released daily in the form of rain and wind is the equivalent of about 13,000 megatons -- almost equal to the destructive potential of all the weapons in the Cold War missile silos in the United States and the former Soviet Union. That's a million Hiroshima bombs exploded at a rate of more than 10 a second -- 20 Little Boys for each of the 50,000 (estimated) cities on the planet.

Of course lucky for us that energy is spread out over a huge area compared to the blast radius of a nuke. When 6 of you are on a 100+ft piece of steel bobbing around like a leaf in a boiling tea kettle you do get a clue. When the whole boat goes Bong and vibrates like a pipe struck by a sledge hammer you will pray for the welds and when you see a swimming pool of water that was ripped from the top of a wave fly through the air you will be "amazed" A friend of mine sent me this picture of a mid water dragger he was on in the Bering sea, wheel house windows all blown out, covered with mattresses held on by rope, the "house" portion of the boat shoved back 18" out of location held on by broken steel. Electronics, radar, radios, GPS antennas and their wiring gone or worthless because the displays had been soaked in salt water. He is a tough guy and he told me it scared him so bad he didn't need to use the bathroom for 2 days afterwards. LOL The steel awning above his head is normally about 30ft or so above the water line. Look at how it was bent back snapping off multiple welds


Valcanos
Mount St Helens was a actually a rather small volcanic explosion when viewed with Huaynaputina, Krakatoa, in fact it doesn't even make the top 10. The explosion of the Yellowstone Caldera 640.000 years ago dwarfed those by about 100 times. Its current magma ball could easily fill the Grand Canyon and that gentlemen is one big hole.

Mount St Helen had about the same power as 500 of the bombs used in Hiroshima.

One of the scariest nights of my life January 27, 1996
One dark night on the Bering sea I was doing my 2 hour stint of jogging into a storm, blowing hard 25-30 ft waves. The radar showed 2 big rain squalls ahead of me and I though I was lucky when they passed on either side of me. Then the sea changed. Instead of just one 30 ft wave after another they were coming at different angles, some at least 40ft, turn the boat left to meet one power it up to climb the face then as the boat broke over the top the props would clear the water and you had to throttle down the cats to slide down the back. turn the boat to meet the angle of the next wave and power it up to climb the face of it, Look out to see the jumble of water in front of you that was coming next, then over the top you go throttles back and the world disappearing till your bow buried itself as you hit the bottom of the trough and you slammed them forward again to power the bow up so you climbed the next wave. I remember the guy I was BS on the radio once going dam that was a big wave with appropriate curse words. LOL My right forearm ached from running the throttles and yes, I was scared for a while then that wears off and then dealt with it as there was not one thing I could do about it but just keep running the boat till the next guy took his turn and I go go down to my bunk and try and stay in it. One boat less than 100 miles from us, the Pacesetter, disappeared that night with 7 good men.
Go here and click on a year to see how Alaska fishing takes its toll for the year
Alaska Recent Maritime Losses 1972-2015 – Alaska Shipwrecks

We were steaming in the Gulf of Mexico one right and were hit by a Rogue Wave. It was around 0200 and I woke being thrown out of my rack and it felt as if the ship rolled at least 40 degrees.

Spoke with a buddy who was on the Bridge Watch when it hit and he said it came out of nowhere.

As usual I learn something on this forum. I have always suspected that at least some of these waves were caused by geologic activity, even if not formally declared a Tsunami. But Tsunami waves are of a completely different type.

Very interesting thread and I LOVE the sea stories.

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Possum—The other white meat!

This morning I ran across a reference to an oilfield disaster that was started due to a rogue wave back in 1982. I'm talking about the Odeco Ocean Ranger disaster, which happened off the Atlantic coast in the Grand Banks area. They were drilling there when a bad winter storm and had done an emergency disconnect from the well and were in a mode to ride out the storm when a rogue wave came along and knocked out a porthole in the ballast control room, which was some real bad juju, to say the least. Since the normal storm waves were 50-65 ft, that meant that salt water was continually coming into the ballast control room, which was 28 feet above the waterline and as you know, salt water doesn't mix with electric and electronic equipment worth a darn and the controls started randomly opening and closing valves in the pontoons. Around midnight or so, Maydays were received from the rig and it capsized around 3:00 AM. There were ships that went to them when they heard the Mayday calls, but were unable to help due to the severe weather.

All 84 people on the rig were lost, all due to a rogue wave and poor design of the rig. Another factor in the death toll was the lack of any survival suits onboard in the middle of winter in the North Atlantic.

I was on a drilling rig in the Badlands of North Dakota when that happened. We had a moment of silence for them on our rig. May our fellow roughnecks rest in peace

This is thought by many to have been the cause of the loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior in 1975. It was clear that the bow plunged downward first, nearly in an instant, and that the boat broke in two with the stern ending up upside down at the bottom of the lake. The theory goes that it was hit by a rogue wave from behind, which lifted the vessel end for end, driving the bow into the water, causing the split, and flipping the rear half over. That's one suggested theory anyway.[Disclaimer: I have no maritime experience and am merely reporting what I've read. Inaccuracies are possible.]

Regards,
Andy

I had heard this before but there has been lots of speculation on it so who really knows. Anyway That song about it by Gordon Lightfoot has always been a favorite of mine.

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I Cor. 10:13 "1611KJV"

For some perspecrtive, here's a gal, yep a gal, tow surfing a 75' wave. Tow surfing is when whipped into a forming wave behind a jet ski, than let go of the rope and have at it.

Brings that Yaeger quote to mind. Something like, "Well, yeah, but the monkey don't know it might blow up...."

Her bell. . . . .

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Possum—The other white meat!

When we were kids in the 60's my bro and I were playing in the surf at Isle of Palms. We body-surfed and cavorted around and at one point I'm standing in waist deep water facing the beach, while my bro is standing in front of me facing the ocean. Suddenly he got a look of abject terror and his eyes got as big as saucers. I turned around to see what he was looking at just in time to see a HUMONGOUS wave towering over me. I had no time at all to react, so it hit me flat and bowled me over backwards and I hit my head on the bottom, then my knees then my head, then my knees then my head and my knees. I was lucky I wasn't really hurt and as I got to my feet in the shallows my bro was laughing at me. He had time to duck under the wave. He said that all he could see of me was arms and legs going every which way like a Warner Bros. cartoon. Since I wasn't hurt I had to admit that it was really funny. I wish I could have seen it from that angle.


Oh, I forgot to mention in the book we are reading is 'On the Edge of Survival' of the rescue of the freighter crew in the Aleutians in 30' seas. What caused the rescue helicopter to crash was a rogue wave that slapped them out of the sky. They were above the waves trying to lower a basket and saw this thing coming and tried to gain altitude, but it caught them before they could get above it. Then another copter had to rescue them. Unfortunately some of the ship crew that had been picked up died in the incident. I'm pretty sure that they believe in rogue waves.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

Rogue waves are pretty common when two different swells are running and they collide. Typical in winter a low pressure system off of Alaska is generating a large open ocean swell of 30' - 50' from 310 degrees (been surfing since 12), and another low pressure system further to the west is generating an open ocean swell of 30' to 50' from 295 degrees....at some point, those two swells will mix in the fetch with the occasional perfect timing of one from each direction smacking against each other at the exact moment they are both pitching (reaching maximum height before collapsing), essentaily merging in one ultra large 'rogue' wave. Many are the stories of storm waves killing sailors.
List of rogue waves - Wikipedia

The idea of a rogue wave bringing down a rescue helicopter is nothing new.

http://check-six.com/Coast_Guard/Mon...int-screen.pdf


Alaskan HH-3F Crash


This was the result of a Tsunami wave, not a Rogue wave, but serves to illustrate the incredible power of large waves:

The demise of Scotch Cap Lighthouse

I think that tsunami must have lot more power than a rogue wave, however large. This is because as the linked article in the post above notes, with a tsunami, an earthquake lifts up the entire surface of the sea. Well, I guess it's actually the entire water volume of an area of the sea from the seabed to the surface. Tsunami are not high at all in the open ocean, and are probably largely unnoticed by ships as they pass under them. As they approach the coast, and the seabed grows shallow, however, they get bigger, the surface of then sea rises further, as there is no longer space below to contain the moving volume of water.

I was in Japan for the 2011 earthquake that moved the entire country eight feet. In Tokyo, where I was, there was a whole lotta shakin' going on. But, up the northeast coast, where the tsunami hit, there were places where the coast was flat that the tsunami penetrated six miles inland. Other places, where seaside villages nestled between mountains, the water went way up — as high as 90 ft as I recall — the mountainsides.

Watching the 2011 tsunami hit Japan — it was well into the age of smartphones so there are lots of videos — it just looks like the surface of the sea has risen higher, and a wall of water, the entire ocean, is rushing in. There is no typical, cresting, discernible wave shape to watch.

About twenty thousand people died in the 2011 tsunami in Japan. The January 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami that hit Southeast Asia killed almost 230,000 people.

Collects makes this point, too, in post 26. Stands to reason.

yes, a rogue wavbe is an exceptionally large wave amidst smaller waves...a tsynami is the entire ocean lifting and rising forward...footage of the Japan and Bali tsunamis show just what that means.

Back in the early ‘80s when I was stationed on Oahu, some friends and I were scuba diving near Hanauma Bay but on the southeast side facing the open ocean. Hanauma Bay is the Bay made famous as the home of Elvis Presley’s character in “Blue Hawaii”. We had finished our dive and were just sitting around relaxing on the little lava plateau that was popular with families and kids to just hang out and lay out in the sun like a small beach. It’s not that big, maybe 150’ x 50’ and was fairly crowded. Suddenly a woman screamed “WAVE”! We turned and looked and there was a large wave bearing down on everyone. The tide was low and the water level was about five feet below the level of the plateau. We had probably less than 10 seconds from first seeing the wave to when it hit and it swept across the plateau about chest high. Amazingly no one was drowned or hurt badly, just a lot of bruises and nasty scrapes from the lava rock. It was one of the freakiest things I’ve ever seen. The shelf drops off rapidly with the depth going to over a hundred feet less than a hundred yards from the edge of the plateau, hence the popularity with divers, so it went from a little bump in the water to a 10 foot wave very quickly. I don’t know what caused it or if it even qualifies as a rogue wave, but it was a freak incident for sure.

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USS Brewton FF1086
SWCA#3597

Karma for the book Working the Edge is now ongoing.

Book Karma for the Rogue Waves thread

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Front sight and squeeze

My dad joined the Navy right after WW11 and was put on a destroyer converted to a mine sweep patrolling the east coast, one day a wave hit them that sent water down their stacks (80' high) and put the boilers out. He said that they were dead in the water for 3 days drying them out.

Thanks, it is an interesting read. Some of the survivals are truly amazing. Plus, the puzzling tale of the ship without a crew. true life adventure here folks

Way back in 1955 I dated a cute little Navy Wave. I thought this thread
was going to be about those Waves.

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In Omnia Paratus

No if I had started one like that it would have been rogue women and I have known a few of those.

Which reminds me of a story.

Back in my drinking days, I was in the bar one night and my dear mother who was going to the community college showed up with some women from the college. My mother in a bar was a very rare thing. i of course said hello and later when I went to leave and was saying goodby to my mom, one of the other women about my age question my ability to drive and insisted on driving me home. My mother though it was a good idea. So, we took off in her car and when I tried to give her directions, she ignored them.told me she was taking me to her house and once there took full advantage of my intoxication. It turned out she was a bit Rogue and very difficult to get rid of. Pounding on my door at any time, showing up all the time where ever I was. When i was drinking life was filled with these kinds of problems.