Return of the rogues

Boat/US Magazine, Sept, 2005 by Dick Thompson

They were about 31 miles from Ft. Pierce, FL, when suddenly two gigantic waves came at the boat from about 45 degrees off the stern, swamping the 34-foot powerboat Extractor within seconds. "We just had time to grab our life preservers stored topside and activate my EPIRB as water poured into the boat," Montz said. "The swiftness with which the waves engulfed us still haunts me to this day," he added.

Montz remains undeterred. Big game fishing is in his blood and the loss of his boat hasn't kept him from the ocean. "In fact, my wife gave me a new rod and reel for Father's Day," he said. Meanwhile, after the odeal his buddy, Perdigon, said that he might take up golf and risk lightning strikes instead.

Cruise Ships Take Their Hits

While the sinking of the Extractor was a local story, the cruise liner Norwegian Dawn's encounter with a 70-foot high wave last April off the coast of North Carolina made national news. Within seconds the vessel, longer than three football fields, was suddenly smacked by a freak wave that broke windows and flooded 62 cabins.

It took on all the elements of drama fit for primetime news when the ship had to divert to Charleston, SC, to be checked out by the Coast Guard for any structural damage. Although there was only minor damage, many passengers opted to return to New York by train rather than take another chance on the high seas.

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A recent suit filed by Miami lawyer Brett A. Rivkind, representing passengers from the cruise, hopes to prove that the wave that hit the Norwegian Dawn could have been reasonably expected and was not an extraordinary event, as many oceanographers believe.

In the suit, 25 passengers claim they were taken into danger intentionally and that the captain of the ship was negligent in proceeding to New York through stormy weather that routinely produces these waves.

"The Norwegian Dawn encountered conditions conducive to rogue waves," said Susanne Lehner, an associate professor of applied marine physics at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. The northeasterly storm threw strong winds and waves against the fast, intense current of the Gulf Stream along the East Coast. "If you have waves against currents, you can get very high, singular waves," Lehner contends.

But the Bahamas Maritime Authority has a different view stating, "The captain took appropriate action to reduce the effects of the weather on the ship." The report went on to state that the captain took proper precautions including reducing speed, altering course and initializing the ship's stabilizers and keeping the crew, passengers and on-shore officials informed of the ship's progress approximately every four hours.

"The sea had actually calmed down when the wave seemed to come out of thin air at daybreak," said Norwegian Cruise Line spokeswoman Susan Robison. "Our captain, who has 20 years on the job, said he never saw anything like it," she said.

Rogue waves have hit two other cruise ships, inflicting minor damage this year. The Voyager, sister ship of the Norwegian Dawn, was hit by a rogue wave in the western Mediterranean off the coast of Spain in February, and the University of Pittsburgh's Semester at Sea's chartered M/V Explorer encountered a 50-foot rogue wave that temporarily disabled its engines in the Northern Pacific in April. The University recently dropped sponsorship of the Semester at Sea program, citing concerns about safety.