"Rogue wave" kills American woman, injures four others on Antarctic cruise ship

Table Of Content

• Bethenny Frankel announces mom Bernadette Birk died from lung cancer: ‘You did the best you could’
• Cruise Ship Collides With Dock at Turkish Port
• Queen Elizabeth 2
• Passengers on Antarctic cruise ship hit by deadly 'rogue wave' speak out
• Video
• More from CBS News
• What Happens After Being Hit By a Rogue Wave?
• What Happens If A Cruise Ship Is Hit By A Rogue Wave?

Authorities were quickly alerted and multiple nearby vessels and rescue personnel responded to the scene. On Dec. 2, a passenger onboard another cruise ship in the Drake Passage shared a video of another massive, but less destructive, wave on Twitter. "Following a detailed diagnosis by the ship's medical team, the decision was taken for the ship to immediately sail to Ushuaia so that the guest could receive additional medical care from a shore-based hospital," it continued. One passenger posted a video on Facebook showing the view from her room's window Thursday with the cruise ship bobbing up and down and creaking in the throes of high waves.

Bethenny Frankel announces mom Bernadette Birk died from lung cancer: ‘You did the best you could’

"This wave hit and came over and literally broke through windows and just washed into these rooms," Tom Trusdale, a passenger aboard the Viking Polaris when the incident happened, told ABC News. A possible rogue wave sent headlines around the world last week after it broke windows on a cruise ship off the coast of Argentina, killing a woman and injuring four others. One of them was the Great Lakes freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald which is thought to have been hit by a rogues wave on Lake Superior, one of the more expensive Lakes cruises. Although thankfully, not caused any cruise ships to sink on the Great lakes.

Cruise Ship Collides With Dock at Turkish Port

The Bremen was adrift for 2 hours with no propulsion, while the Caledonian Star had to be tugged by the Argentinian Navy at the Argentine port of Ushuaia. The weight of the water would also cause the ship’s hull to buckle and possibly break apart. Nathan Diller is a consumer travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Nashville. The passenger killed was a U.S. citizen, a State Department spokesperson confirmed to ABC News Friday.

Queen Elizabeth 2

In many cases, rogue waves are relatively short-lived, according to NOAA, unlike a tsunami that may travel around the world. Seafarers have reported the phenomenon in their logs for centuries, but rogue waves were not studied in depth until 1995, when a measuring instrument on an oil rig near Norway recorded the first data-based evidence of a rogue wave. The Draupner wave, as it is called, reached a height of 85 feet—what science, at the time, deemed a "1-in-10,000-years" wave. Smaller ships are lost to rogue waves more commonly, but it’s hard to give exact numbers of exactly how many are lost due specifically to rogue waves, since ‘regular’ stormy waters can also cause smaller ships and boats to sink. An expedition cruise ship that was damaged after being hit by a large wave is set to return to service in April 2024. "We are investigating the facts surrounding this incident and will offer our support to the relevant authorities," the company said.

Passengers on Antarctic cruise ship hit by deadly 'rogue wave' speak out

There have been some incidents where ships are lost to rogue waves, but with cruise ships these are very minimal. Another of the recent incidents involving a cruise ship being hit by a rogue wave was the case of the Viking Polaris in December 2022. A US woman was killed, and four other guests were injured when a rogue wave struck the ship when it was sailing towards Ushuaia on an Antarctic cruise. A rogue wave could sink a ship, although most modern cruise ships are big enough to withstand the majority of smaller rogue waves, though not without damage.

On the 26th of January 2005, the cruise ship MV Explorer, part of the Semester at Sea program, was hit by a 50ft rogue wave that smashed windows on the bridge, shorted navigational systems, and resulted in two engines failing. Given that we have highlighted rogue waves can reach 100ft, it is entirely plausible that a rogue wave could capsize or sink a cruise ship, although the likelihood of this happening is extremely small. "We are investigating the facts surrounding this incident and will offer our support to the relevant authorities," Viking said in a statement Thursday. An American passenger on an Antarctic cruise died and four other guests were injured after their Viking ship was struck by a "rogue wave," officials said. Rogue waves are intimidating if you’re on a small boat, but cruise passengers shouldn’t worry too much, especially on larger cruise ships. That doesn’t mean that a rogue wave would leave a cruise ship completely untouched.

For what it's worth—though this is no consolation to the loved ones of the deceased—cruising is one of the safest modes of transportation. Between 2009 and 2019, only 34 passengers and 31 crew died on cruise ships, per a report by the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA). On Nov. 29, a suspected rogue wave slammed into the brand-new luxury expedition ship Viking Polaris on the Drake Passage, the infamously rough body of water separating South America and Antarctica. The wall of water blew out windows to cabins, unfortunately killing one passenger and injuring four others.

Norwegian Cruise Ship Loses Navigation After Wave Smashes Windows - PEOPLE

Norwegian Cruise Ship Loses Navigation After Wave Smashes Windows.

Posted: Fri, 22 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

What Happens After Being Hit By a Rogue Wave?

The Norwegian cruise ship MS Maud temporarily lost power on Thursday after encountering the rogue wave. Of the larger cruise ships, Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth 2 was hit by a 90-foot tall rogue wave in 1995 caused by Hurricane Luis. There were a handful of injuries to those on board, but nothing believed to be too serious. The largest rogue wave ever recorded was the Draupner wave, an 84-foot-tall (25.6 meters) wave that was observed near Norway in 1995. However, the most extreme rogue wave ever recorded was the Ucluelet wave, a 58-foot-tall (17.7 m) wave that was detected by an ocean buoy off the coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia in November 2020. The Ucluelet wave is regarded as the most extreme rogue wave because it was around three times higher than surrounding waves, while the Draupner wave was only around twice as tall compared with the surrounding sea state.

However, as we covered above, one of Holland America’s cruise ships, the MS Prinsendam, was hit in 2007. A  huge rogue wave has hit a passenger ocean liner (Queen Elizabeth 2), which came away relatively unscathed. Further below, we have a video with footage the students filmed while in the ship after being hit by the freak wave. A 62-year-old passenger has died after sustaining injuries from the broken glass. The pressure from the rogue wave could also cause severe damage to any windows and external features of the ship. The causes of rogue waves are still largely unknown, but scientists believe they are caused by a combination of factors.

There have been five recorded instances of a rogue wave hitting cruise ships or passengers carrying ocean liners (QE2). There were no reported casualties, and all five ships survived to sail for many more years after. Cruise ships have been hit by rogue waves in the past, but it is not a common event.

It will not be too noticeable out at sea because it’s just a raised water level – it doesn’t cause single large waves to form. Sometimes, rogue waves can be confused for tsunamis or tidal waves, but in name only. Because of the ongoing research into the causes of rogue waves, and their formal documentation being relatively recent, it’s hard to say where they occur the most frequently. The significant wave height is the average of the largest third of waves within a particular wave record.

The height of some cruise ships does mean they’re more prone to listing, but to actually capsize one would be an exceptionally rare event. And the thing about rogue waves is that they might be unpredictable and sudden, but you can hardly miss them. The job of the navigation crew is to be on the lookout for hazards such as rogue waves and to react to them.

One person died and four others were injured after a "rogue wave" hit the Viking Polaris cruise ship while it was sailing toward Ushuaia, Argentina, on Tuesday night, officials said. The Trusdales were passengers on the Viking Polaris cruise ship sailing toward Ushuaia, Argentina, when it was hit by a "rogue wave" last week, killing an American passenger, Sheri Zhu, and injuring four others. The rogue wave shattered windows on the ship's bridge, which caused water to enter the vessel and resulted in a power outage, Reuters reported. Cruise ships are designed to withstand huge waves and the roughest seas in storms, so even if a rogue wave did hit, the ship would remain afloat, and damage would be minimal.

According to AFP, Ushuaia is a starting point for many trips to Antarctica. Rogue waves are freak waves that are at least twice as high as the surrounding sea state — the average height of the waves for a given area at a given time, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The massive walls of water come from seemingly out of nowhere and without warning.

And some rogue waves are extremely powerful and could cause severe enough damage to lead to the sinking of a ship, but again it would be exceptionally rare. Both ships suffered smashed windows on the bridge, along with losses to power and navigation controls. Neither ship reported any serious injuries, though, with the crew of the Bremen able to restore engine power. These were serious incidents and the ships were lucky to not suffer injuries. The most recent incident happened when Hurtigruten’s MS Maud was hit by a rogue wave in December 2023.

The 62-year-old woman was hit by broken glass when the wave broke cabin windows late Tuesday, Argentine authorities said. It is currently unclear if the wave that hit the Viking Polaris qualifies as an official rogue wave because there is no accurate data on the wave height or the surrounding sea state. A storm was raging when the wave hit, CNN reported, which could have provided the necessary conditions for a rogue wave to form.