Freak wave damages cruise ship, injuring 4

seattle times ^ | Monday, April 18, 2005 | AP

[Lokibob]

 

Monday, April 18, 2005 - Page updated at 12:00 a.m.

Freak wave damages cruise ship, injuring 4

By The Associated Press

CHARLESTON, S.C. — A seven-story wave damaged a cruise ship returning from the Bahamas over the weekend, smashing windows, flooding more than 60 cabins and injuring four passengers.

The Norwegian Dawn was diverted from its route when the ship ran into rough weather on the way back to New York on Saturday.

The 965-foot-long vessel docked in the Charleston harbor for repairs, and departed for New York early yesterday after a Coast Guard inspection, officials said. It was expected back in New York by noon today.

"The ship was hit by a freak wave that caused two windows to break in two different cabins," Norwegian Cruise Line said in a statement. It said 62 cabins flooded and four passengers suffered cuts and bruises. The wave reached as high as deck 10 on the ship, company spokeswoman Susan Robison said yesterday.

[Lichgod]

Seven story wave. History Channel did an episode I saw on mysteries of the ocean. One part was on these rogue waves. Apparently, they do occur but often ships are completely lost that get hit with them.

Very detailed episode including replicating the scenario with model ships in wave tanks done at some university lab. They showed something like a rogue wave able to sink a ship in mere seconds.

I also saw something even more fascinating involving lighter than air gas released from the ocean bottom. How this changes the buoyancy of the water and makes ships sink as they are now heavier than the water can support. Also thought to impact aircraft flying over the same area. They set up a controlled test and found it possible to sink a boat but the amount of released gas needed was tremendous except for a big bubble.

Overall, it kept my interest when I not really too interested with anything involving the sea.

[Daus]

We went out of Port Canverval and were at Cayman on March 29th. There were 7 ships tendering in that day. We decided to come back to the ship early so we were lucky to get out before it got real nutty.

We were on Holland America and they ended up moving down to the other pier to get away from the much larger tenders of the monster ships who were having a terrible time in the surf.

[TruBluKentuckian]

Why did I think of this when I saw the headline?

[Pagey]

Pics of up to 100 Foot Waves, taken from Oil Tankers etc., with comments here:

http://tv-antenna.com/heavy-seas/

[retrokitten]

Cruises have never appealled to me, either. It's just not the type of vacation we enjoy. My husbands family just loves them and can't understand why we aren't interested. It's like they take it personally that we don't want to go on a cruise.

[retrokitten]

A former co-worker told me once about how his parents were near a hurricane once while on a cruise. Not IN the hurricane- NEAR it. They had bad weather, but nothing near hurricane strength. You guessed it, they were planning to sue. Because according to them the cruise line should have known a hurricane was in the area.

[Snickersnee]

Let's say you have a big storm off to the NNE generating a pattern of waves -- say 30' high -- and another storm off to the SSE generating another pattern of waves 40' high -- eventually, a thirty-footer is gonna climb on the back of a forty-footer, and voila, a seventy-foot wave. Very temporary effect, but spectacular while it lasts. On the way to Vietnam on my troopship we got hit abeam by one of those and we heeled over almost horizontal, all 600 feet of us. Terrifying, esp. at night.

[Grammy]

We have been on 2 cruises. The first was on the Cunard "Princess". It was like a floating building it was so big! It was nice, but we were so poor we really couldn't afford to do anything extra.

The next one we took was our favorite. It was a barefoot cruise and on an actual sailing ship. Holds about 60 or so passengers. The Christmas trade winds were strong so there was a lot of movement with the ship. We just stayed up in front and enjoyed the heck out of it!

[fatnotlazy]

I've never done one of those smaller vessels...I would really like to one of these days. Seems it would be far more intimate and less imposing than the larger ships.

[AngryJawa]

Cruises have never appealled to me, either

I felt the same way until my wife convinced me to try a 3-night Royal Carribbean cruise last year.

We are boarding for our 7-night cruise next Sunday. I can't wait.

[TXBSAFH]

What happened? Was this one of Rosie O'Donuts gay cruises, did she cannonball of the side of the ship?

[Grammy]

You feel more like you are on a ship on the ocean, rather than like you are in a hotel that sways now and then. You definitely feel the sea on a smaller ship. We loved it.

[b4its2late]

Wow. Glad that they are ok. Keep us up to date...

[hattend]

Hannity just said that they have video and will show it on H&C tonight.

[b4its2late]

Yikes.

Surfs up dude.

[1Old Pro]

Any pics of the wave? That would be neat.

Hannity says he has video and will show it on his show tonight.

[dead]

Just spoke with parents who are home now. My dad just has a bruise on his back. He was drinking a beer in the cabin when the wave hit and sent him and his chair flying.

They said that a lot of the people on the boat were furious with the company before the wave hit. Apparently, they changed the itinerary to accomodate a photo op with Donald Trump, costing them a half day in some port, which screwed up some people's plans. It didn't make any difference to my parents though.

They said they had a great time. The cruise line is refunding half their money, plus providing a $1000 credit towards another cruise, and paid for a limo from the dock in Manhattan to their home in NJ ($240). Plus they had a news helicopter escort as they pulled into NY harbor, making them feel like celebrities.

They said that the best part was after the wave, the boat switched to open bar for the rest of the trip. Two and a half days of free drinking. The money they saved will help them pay for the next cruise!

[newvista]

I saw the gas-eruption piece (History or Discovery channel, can't recall). It was actually done as their explanation of the Bermuda Triange phenomenon (where planes and ships have mysteriously disappeared). They found that there were pockets of methane gas in the sea floor. Fascinating stuff.

[dead]

Thanks, just posted the update in #57. All's well that ends well.

[Kay]

Thanks for the explanation! Now it makes sense.