Yikes, I’d hate to see what a wave like that could do to one of those ocean-going cargo ships!
Well in June/July ‘94 I was on the Independence as OOD with 100-110 MPH winds (ran between two typhoons and the northern one turned back on us) and we had waves breaking over the bow. Granted it was a 60s carrier and not the current super carrier but still....
XO was ticked because I was grinning ear to ear as he was getting sea sick....granted he was a brown shoe....
The small boys took a ton of damage on that one. At least one Japanese destroyer lost a mast, 2 sonar domes lost.
We lost the rescue helo... set it down too late as winds picked up...was too high to fold the blades back and ended up breaking the stay for the forward blade and completely bent it back over airframe.
Watched some show on a big cargo container sinking in the Pacific. They figured it caught between on super rogue wave and snapped the keel in half. Picture a large cantilevered beam hanging from the top of a hundred foot wave...