Posted on 04/17/2005 4:50:14 AM PDT by Rebelbase
A "freak wave" more than 70 feet high slammed a luxury cruise ship steaming for New York yesterday, flooding cabins, injuring passengers and forcing the liner to stop for emergency repairs.
The Norwegian Dawn, an opulent ocean liner almost 1,000 feet long, limped into Charleston, S.C., yesterday afternoon after it hit vicious seas in an overnight storm off Florida - then was creamed by the rogue wave after dawn.
"[My room] was destroyed by stuff getting thrown all over the place," passenger James Fraley, of Keansburg, N.J., told NBC News before embarking on the 12-hour drive home because he didn't want to set foot on the ship again.
"It was pure chaos."
The ship, which sailed from New York last Sunday with 2,500 passengers, had been due back today.
It weathered most of a wild storm that featured gale-force winds and choppy seas. But then the vessel, longer than three football fields, was suddenly smacked by the "freak wave," said Norwegian Cruise Line spokeswoman Susan Robison. It broke a pair of windows and flooded 62 cabins, she said.
"The sea had actually calmed down when the wave seemed to come out of thin air at daybreak," Robison said. "Our captain, who has 20 years on the job, said he never saw anything like it."
The tidal wave wrecked windows on the ninth and 10th floors and wreaked havoc below decks, destroying furniture, the onboard theater, and a store that sold expensive gifts.
It also injured four passengers and terrified scores more, many of whom lost belongings and were being flown back to New York early this morning.
"My daughter said people were freaking out," said Mel Blanck, 74, whose daughter, Caren Hogan, 42, of Matawan, N.J., was vacationing aboard with her family. "She said some doors were ripped off and broken glass was everywhere."
In a message Hogan left on her parents' voice mail, she said her ship "feels like the Titanic" and described "water running everywhere, with people getting hurt and panicking."
"She felt lucky that she and her children weren't hurt," said Blanck, whose daughter had called from South Carolina last night. "She's calm now, but she said it was a nightmare."
The floating city of a ship, which was commissioned in 2002, left New York a week ago for Orlando, Miami and the Bahamas. It had started heading home when it ran into the wicked weather.
During the storm, one frightened passenger called a relative who relayed the information to the Coast Guard, which escorted the ship into Charleston yesterday.
"The ocean is unforgiving; it doesn't care who is out there," said Petty Officer Bobby Nash of the Coast Guard in Florida. "This could have happened to anyone."
Repairs were done last night, and the ship resumed it's voyage around midnight after a team of Coast Guard inspectors gave it approval.
Many of the Norwegian Dawn's passengers remained on the ship while it was readied for the sea again, Robison said. The battered vessel is expected to return to New York tomorrow.
All passengers would be given a partial refund, a credit for a future trip and access to the ship's open bar, Robison said.
That's assuming they pay someone to do lookout. Many captains no longer post lookouts 24x7 the way they should. Ask any ocean-going sailor in a small boat and they will tell you about large ships and supertankers getting too close for comfort and no one on deck seeing their boat.
Lookouts aren't mandated by regulations?
Taken aboard the SS Spray (ex-Gulf Spray) in about February of 1986 (best recollection), in the Gulf Stream, off of Charleston. Circumstances: A substantial gale was moving across Long Island, sending a very long swell down our way, meeting the Gulf Stream. We saw several rogue waves during the late morning on the horizon, but thought they were whales jumping. It was actually a nice day with light breezes and no significant sea. Only the very long swell, of about 15 feet high and probably 600 to 1000 feet long. This one hit us at the change of the watch at about noon. The photographer was an engineer (name forgotten), and this was the last photo on his roll of film. We were on the wing of the bridge, with a height of eye of 56 feet, and this wave broke over our heads. This shot was taken as we were diving down off the face of the second of a set of three waves, so the ship just kept falling into the trough, which just kept opening up under us. It bent the foremast (shown) back about 20 degrees, tore the foreword firefighting station (also shown) off the deck (rails, monitor, platform and all) and threw it against the face of the house. It also bent all the catwalks back severely. Later that night, about 1930, another wave hit the after house, hitting the stack and sending solid water down into the engine room through the forced draft blower intakes.
That picture puts a knot in my gut every time I see it. I can't imagine the terror of looking at a wave that size.
This can't be true. EnviroWhackos say the ocean is our friend. It would never hurt us, but we can hurt it. ;)
I wish someone had gotten a pic of that wave!
Thanks for the link. Lots of good information there.
It's a matter of historical perspective. If tsunami like that happen every 100 years, it is within nobody's living memory, and the Indian Ocean tsunami might have been an every 500 year event.
I thought all this talk of rogue waves sounded familar:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1176837/posts
Was the captain planning on using the Beeline? Hey reporter, Orlando is in the MIDDLE of the state.
The passengers should sue the cruse snip, they should of known there was water in the ocean.
a ship of this size and type does not change course at a moments notice.
Some details on the "Semester at Sea" incident a few months ago. Smaller wave but more damage.
http://www.timescommunity.com/site/tab5.cfm?newsid=13875362&BRD=2553&PAG=461&dept_id=511688&rfi=6
Rough seas damage student cruise ship
By Frank Mustac
02/02/2005
STRANDED IN HAWAII: The 590-foot-long cruise ship MV Explorer is currently in Honolulu undergoing repairs of damage sustained when a 55-foot-high wave struck her bridge during rough seas.
Beds, dressers, tables and TV sets violently hurling about was the last thing University of Pittsburgh junior Erica Hincewicz expected after boarding a cruise ship in Vancouver for a 100-day voyage to Asia, Africa and South America. ...
After struggling through a week's worth of rough seas in the North Pacific on its way to Pusan, South Korea, the 590-foot-long vessel was hit by a 55-foot-high wave on Jan. 26, smashing into the ship's bridge.
Partially disabled with much of its navigation and communications system out, the MV Explorer, equipped as a floating university campus complete with classrooms and a library, limped into the port of Honolulu, Hawaii, on Monday, Jan. 31, for repairs—the remainder of the voyage in doubt.
"I woke up to my bed launching into the wall. My roommate's bed came out about four feet from the wall. We were really being thrown around like rag dolls," said Hincewicz on Monday via cell phone, recalling the rough seas that included 100-mile-per-hour winds and 20-foot-high waves.
After the giant wave hit the ship at about 6 a.m. local time, a foghorn blasted from the loud speaker in her room, she said, and the voice of the assistant dean, who was almost screaming, came on instructing all students to don their life jackets and assemble in the hallway on deck number 5.
Bread from the ship's kitchen was served as breakfast at about 8 a.m., while the students, representing more than 237 universities and colleges, were crunched and huddled together until about 2 p.m. that afternoon.
"We sat in the hallway in the dark not really knowing what was happening," Hincewicz said. "At one point, they separated the men from the women."
Hincewicz said she later learned that all four of the ship's engines had stopped working at about 6:20 a.m. and that the MV Explorer was listing severely. By 7 a.m., however, partial power was restored to one of the engines, and the vessel was once again navigable.
"When they started separating the genders, I thought we would start going into the life boats," she said.
Fortunately, that was not necessary, and the students and other passengers, which included 18 non-student adult chaperons and 90 faculty and staff members and their families, could return to their cabins. Everyone was confined to the interior of the ship until Sunday, Jan. 30. ...
By telephone from his Pittsburgh office, Institute for Shipboard Education spokesman Paul Watson offered some options for continuing the Semester at Sea voyage.
"We're intent on completing the semester," Watson said. "We're looking at different scenarios which are contingent on the length of time it takes to complete the repairs. We'll know within the next few days."
One scenario he suggested is to fly the students to China, thus forgoing the originally scheduled ports of call in South Korea and Japan. The ship would then catch up with the students either in Shanghai or Hong Kong. ...
1943, North Atlantic. Cruise liner Queen Elizabeth ploughs into a trough and is hit by two massive waves in succession. The impacts shatter the bridge windows 28 meters above the waterline.
1944, Indian Ocean. British Royal Navy cruiser Birmingham plunges into a deep hole then takes a huge wave over her bows. The commander reports wading through knee-high water on a deck more than 18 meters above sea level.
1966, North Atlantic. Italian steamship Michelangelo is hit by a 21-metre wave en route to New York. The water smashes through the bridge and into the first class compartments, killing two passengers and a crew member.
1995, North Sea. Statoil floating rig Veslefrikk B is severely damaged by a rogue wave. One crew member describes a "wall of water" visible for several minutes before it strikes.
1995, North Atlantic. The QE2 encounters a hurricane on a crossing to New York. She takes a 29-metre wave over her bow. "It looked as if we were going into the White Cliffs of Dover," says Captain Ronald Warwick.
1998, North Atlantic. Schiehallion, a BP Amoco floating production platform, is struck by a wave which smashes the fo'c'sle 18 meters above the waterline.
2000, North Atlantic. British cruise liner Oriana is hit by a 21-metre wave while answering a mayday call from a yacht 600 miles west of Cork, Ireland.
From New Scientist magazine, vol 170 issue 2297, 30/06/2001
Most of my Army career was at sea – and a rogue wave was about the only hazard I never experienced. It was also the only hazard I did not wish to experience.
Leni
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