“I wasn’t asleep-no chance of that when your bunk appears to be trying to throw you out of it. Penny Holliday, a scientist, was on board at the time and recounts the experience: The 90-foot freak was measured by a wave-height recorder aboard the Polar Front, and a similar device was fitted to the research ship Discovery when she encountered the first 100-foot wave ever recorded from a ship. Laying out here in the middle of the track from Atlantic lows is a rough job, but a man gets used to whatever comes.” The crew itself took the incidence calmly-just another nasty bastard. There was no damage to the vessel itself, but in cabins, galley, and other areas, furniture and loose parts were a mess. “The seawater smashed to the front of the vessel and found the way into the accommodations through different air outlets. Thank goodness for a tough ship.Ī rogue wave bears down on this tanker during a Force 12 gale. I took a quick photo and then ran for shelter as it crashed over the stern and swept over much of the forward superstructure, half submerging the ship. It was like a vertical wall of water with the crest likely 40- to 50-feet high. Then, out of the blue came a rogue, rearing up and topped by a curling white crest. I was down on the low afterdeck trying to get some good photos of the rough sea, and I remember watching these waves curl up behind us and then pass under the ship in a regular procession as I clicked away. We were running before the big storm seas that are a frequent winter experience in the region-indeed it is a good day up there between Iceland and Greenland when it is only blowing Force 8. Our big oceangoing tug was there on escort duty, protecting the British trawlers from the Icelandic patrol boats. The third extreme wave I experienced was found to the north of Iceland during the Cod Wars, a series of disputes between the United Kingdom and Iceland regarding fishing rights. I estimated that breaking wave at three or four times the average height of waves that day, and so it had been just starting to break in the deeper water outside our path. We went up the side of that wave like an express elevator and toppled over the crest just as it broke, narrowly escaping from a capsize that would have washed our self-righting lifeboat onto the beach. This nearly vertical wall of water seemed poised to curl over and crash down on us, and it was too late to do anything but pray. I looked to seaward and saw a towering wall of water rearing up alongside us with the sun shining weakly through it. I was at the helm and watching toward shore as well when I was suddenly conscious of a looming darkness. Though we would have gone inside the surf if we had seen something or someone to rescue, the risk was too great during the searching period.Īs you can imagine, all eyes were turned toward the shore to look for the man in the water. My plan was to run parallel to the shore, just outside the surf line where a big sea was breaking in the northwesterly onshore gale. The Coast Guard hailed us on the radio to ask us if we would assist in the search. We were in a brand-new lifeboat being delivered to its station and were on passage along the coast in a Force 7 gale, looking forward to getting into harbor. Another scary moment was when my crewmates and I were searching for a fisherman who was reported washed off the rocks in the Bristol Channel on the west coast of the United Kingdom.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |