List of rogue waves
freighter Mnchen.
2 Known or suspected rogue wave
2.1 Before 1950
The Draupner wave, a single giant wave measured on New Years
Day 1995, nally conrmed the existence of freak waves, which
had previously been considered near-mythical.
This list of rogue waves compiles incidents of known
and likely rogue waves also known as freak waves, mon-
ster waves, killer waves, and extreme waves. These are
relatively large and spontaneous ocean surface waves that
occur in deep water, usually far out at sea, and are a threat
even to large ships and ocean liners.
1 Background
Anecdotal evidence from mariners testimonies and dam-
ages inicted on ships have long suggested rogue waves
occurred; however, their scientic measurement was
only positively conrmed following measurements of the
"Draupner wave", a rogue wave at the Draupner platform,
in the North Sea on January 1, 1995. During this event,
minor damage was inicted on the platform, conrming
that the reading was valid.
In modern oceanography, rogue waves are dened not as
the biggest possible waves at sea, but instead as extreme
sized waves for a given sea state.
It should be noted that many of these encounters are only
reported in the media, and are not examples of open
ocean rogue waves. Often a huge wave is loosely denoted
as a rogue wave, when it is not. Claims in the media are
also commonly sensationalized.
Freak waves have been cited in the media as a likely
source of the sudden, inexplicable disappearance of many
ocean-going vessels. However, although this is a credible
explanation for unexplained losses, there is to date little
clear evidence supporting this hypothesis nor any cases
where the cause has been conrmed, and the claim is
contradicted by information held by Lloyds Register.[1][2]
One of the very few cases in which evidence exists that
may indicate a freak wave incident is the 1978 loss of the
1
incidents
On 11 March 1861 at midday the lighthouse on
Eagle Island,[3] o the west coast of Ireland was
struck by a large wave that smashed 23 panes, wash-
ing some of the lamps down the stairs and damaging
beyond repair the reectors with broken glass. In
order to damage the uppermost portion of the light-
house, water would have had to surmount a seaside
cli measuring 40 m (133 ft) and a further 26 m (87
ft) of lighthouse structure.
On 15 December 1900, three lighthouse keepers
mysteriously disappeared from the Flannan Isles
Lighthouse in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland dur-
ing a storm. Although there were no surviving wit-
nesses, a rogue wave that hit the west side of the
island has been hypothesized to be responsible.
On 10 October 1903, the British passenger liner
RMS Etruria was only four hours out of New York
City when, at 2:30 p.m., a freak wave struck her.
The wave was reported to be at least 50 feet (15 m)
high and struck the ship on the port side. The wave
carried away part of the fore bridge and smashed the
guardrail stanchions. There were a number of rst-
class passengers sitting in deck chairs close to the
bridge and they caught the full force of the water.
One passenger was fatally injured and several other
passengers were hurt.
The Blue Anchor Line luxury steamer SS Waratah,
an Australian ship of 16,000 gross tons, disappeared
without trace south of Durban, South Africa, in July
1909 with 211 passengers and crew aboard. No sur-
vivors or wreckage were found. The most plausible
theory for her disappearance is that she encountered
a rogue wave which either caused her to capsize or
ooded her cargo holds, sinking her almost instantly.
On 7 November 1915 at 2:27 a.m., the British battle-
ship HMS Albemarle suered severe damage during
a storm in the Pentland Firth when two large waves
struck her in rapid succession. Water rose as high as
2 2 KNOWN OR SUSPECTED ROGUE WAVE INCIDENTS
the bottom of her lower foretop, lling it with wa- 2.2 Second half of the 20th century
ter, sweeping her forward deck clear, smashing her
forebridge much of which was found in pieces on
her upper deck wrecking her chart house, shifting
the roof of her conning tower, and ooding her for-
ward main gun turret, mess decks, and ats. Five
of her crew died, and 17 others suered serious
[4][5][6]
injuries.
At midnight on 56 May 1916 the British polar ex-
plorer Ernest Shackleton was at the tiller of the small
sailboat James Caird in the Southern Ocean during a
storm when he thought he saw the bad weather clear-
ing in the west, astern. He then realized that what he
thought was a line of white clouds above a clear dark
sky was actually the crest of a single enormous wave
that struck and nearly swamped the boat. Shackle-
ton reported that the wave was larger than any he had
ever seen before in his 26 years of seafaring.[7][8]
On 29 August 1916 at about 4:40 p.m., the United
States Navy armored cruiser USS Memphis was
wrecked in Santo Domingo harbor in the Dominican
Republic when struck in rapid succession by three
waves of up to 70 feet (21 meters) in height, caus-
ing 40 men to be killed and 204 to be injured. The
waves also damaged and nearly capsized the U.S.
Navy gunboat USS Castine, which also was in the
harbor. Once described as a tsunami, the waves
have more recently been assessed as exceptionally
large, freak wind-driven waves generated by passing
hurricanes.[9][10][11]
In February 1926 in the North Atlantic a massive
wave hit the British passenger liner RMS Olympic,
smashing four of the bridges nine glass windows and
doing some other damage.[12]
In 1933 in the North Pacic, the U.S. Navy oiler
USS Ramapo (AO-12) encountered a huge wave.
The crew triangulated its height at 112 feet (34
m).[13]
In 1934 in the North Atlantic an enormous wave
smashed over the bridge of the British passenger
liner RMS Majestic, injuring the rst ocer and the
White Star Line's nal commodore, Edgar J. Trant,
who was hospitalised for a month and never sailed
again.[12][14]
In 1942 while operating as a troopship and carry-
ing 16,082 United States Army troops, the British
passenger liner RMS Queen Mary was broadsided
during a gale by a 92-foot (28 m) wave 608 nau-
tical miles (700 mi; 1,126 km) from Scotland and
nearly capsized. Queen Mary listed briey about 52
degrees before slowly righting herself.
In 1947, the Kon-Tiki crew reported encountering
three gigantic waves on a calm day. Author Thor
Heyerdahl said that they seemed to come out of
nowhere.
In 1963, on the 5th of February, the French Naval
Academy ship The Jeanne d'Arc, encountered a
rogue wave [15]
In 1966, the Italian liner Michelangelo was steaming
toward New York City when a giant wave tore a hole
in its superstructure, smashed heavy glass 80 feet (24
m) above the waterline, and killed a crewman and
two passengers.[13]
The Wilstar, a Norwegian tanker, suered structural
damage from a rogue wave in 1974.[13]
SS Edmund Fitzgerald was a lake freighter that
sank suddenly during a gale storm on November
10, 1975, while on Lake Superior, on the Canada
United States border. The ship went down without
a distress signal in Canadian waters about 15 nau-
tical miles (17 mi; 28 km) from the entrance to
Whitesh Bay (at 4659.9N 856.6W / 46.9983N
85.1100W). At the location of the wreck the water
is 530 feet (160 m) deep. All 29 members of the
crew perished.
In October 1977, the tanker MS Stolt Surf ran into
a rogue wave on a voyage across the Pacic from
Singapore to Portland, and the engineer took pho-
tos of a wave higher than the 72-foot (22 m) bridge
deck.[16]
The six-year-old, 37,134-ton barge carrier MS
Mnchen was lost at sea in 1978. At 3 a.m. on
12 December 1978 she sent out a garbled mayday
message from the mid-Atlantic, but rescuers found
only a few bits of wreckage. This included an un-
launched lifeboat, stowed 66 feet (20 m) above the
water line, which had one of its attachment pins
twisted as though hit by an extreme force. The
Maritime Court concluded that bad weather had
caused an unusual event. It is thought that a large
wave knocked out the ships controls (the bridge was
sited forward), causing the ship to shift side-on to
heavy seas, which eventually overwhelmed it. Al-
though more than one wave was probably involved,
this remains the most likely sinking due to a freak
wave.[17]
The MV Derbyshire, which sank with all hands o
Japan in 1980, is the largest British vessel ever lost
at sea. Some now believe it to have been sunk by a
rogue wave.
The Ocean Ranger (North Atlantic, 1981), a semi-
submersible mobile oshore drilling unit sank with
all hands in storm seas of 55 feet (17 m) to 65
feet (20 m) after a wave higher than 28 feet (8.5
m) ooded the platforms ballast control room, al-
though there has been no ocial suggestion that it
was caused by a rogue wave.
2.3 21st century
The Fastnet Lighthouse o the south coast of Ireland
was struck by a 47m High Wave in 1985.[18]
Draupner wave (North Sea, 1995): The freak wave
rst conrmed with scientic evidence, it had a
maximum height of 25.6 metres (84 ft).
RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 (North Atlantic, September
1995), 29 metres (95 ft), during Hurricane Luis in
the North Atlantic.
The Master said it came out of the darkness
and looked like the White Clis of Dover.
[19]
Newspaper reports at the time described the
cruise liner as attempting to "surf" the near-
vertical wave in order not to be sunk.
In February 2000, a British oceanographic research
vessel, the RRS Discovery, sailing in the Rockall
Trough west of Scotland encountered the largest
waves ever recorded by scientic instruments in the
open ocean, with a SWH of 18.5 metres (61 ft) and
individual waves up to 29.1 metres (95 ft).[20]
On November 4, 2000, Channel Islands Sanctuary
research vessel R/V Ballena was hit by a rogue wave
and capsized near Point Conception in Santa Bar-
bara, California. The ship was 56 feet (17 m) long,
and the wave estimated at 20 feet (6.1 m) high. Two
USGS crew members were trapped briey inside the
capsized ship, they were able to nd their way to
the bridge doors and escaped. The liferaft was in-
ated and the three attempted to paddle out of the
surf zone. The size of the raft and drogue anchor
prevented escape in the raft. The two available life
jackets were worn by the USGS crew and all three
attempted to swim to a pocket beach on Point Ar-
guello. After the captain made shore he swam back
out to assist both of the USGS crew to shore. One
USGS crew member was treated for facial lacera-
tions and a slight concussion. The Ballena, oper-
ated by NOAA at the time, broke apart in the waves
against the rocky shore and was a total loss.[21][22][23]
2.3 21st century
The Bahamian-registered cruise ships MS Bremen
and MS Caledonian Star encountered 30-meter (98
ft) freak waves in the South Atlantic in 2001. Bridge
windows on both ships were smashed, and all power
and instrumentation lost.
Naval Research Laboratory ocean-oor pressure
sensors detected a freak wave caused by Hurricane
Ivan in the Gulf of Mexico in 2004. The wave was
around 27.7 meters (91 ft) high from peak to trough,
and around 200 meters (660 ft) long.[24]
3
Norwegian Dawn, (three waves in succession, o the
coast of Georgia, 16 April 2005)
The sea had actually calmed down when the 21-
metre (69 ft) wave seemed to come out of thin air
Our captain, who has 20 years on the job, said he
never saw anything like it. [25]
The water exerted enough force to shear o the
welds for the aluminum rail supports on the [ninth
and tenth level] balconies of two cabins, allowing the
teak balcony rails to break loose and crash into the
cabin windows. The broken glass lling the drains
compounded the water damage by allowing a large
amount of water to enter the two cabins and damage
the carpets in 61 other cabins. The ships operating
at reduced speed when the waves hit probably limited
the damage. [26]
Aleutian Ballad, (Bering Sea, 2005)
Footage of a rogue wave appears in an episode of
Deadliest Catch from Season 2, Episode 4 Finish
Line (Original airdate: April 28, 2006). While sail-
ing through rough seas during a night time storm,
a freak wave, believed to be around 60 feet (18
meters) high, violently hits the shing vessels star-
board side. The wave cripples the vessel, causing the
boat to tip onto its side at a 30-degree angle. The
boat manages to right itself; some of the crew suer
minor injuries. One of the few video recordings of
(what might be) a rogue wave.[27]
38 miles o Merritt Island, Bahamas, June 2005 -
two participants in a shing competition, struck by
pair of rogue waves which capsized their 34 ft boat.
Described in print: One second everything is going
great. The next second we're upside down in the At-
lantic Ocean, 30 miles out ... We weren't going fast,
but the speed of the wave -- the back wave pushed
us into the front one,[28] and on radio: The sea had
essentially dropped out ... It was just like we were
just tumbling straight down and picking up speed at
a wave that was triple the size of what we were just
dealing with.[29] Rescued by Coast Guard 30 hours
later, after an extended search.
Norwegian Spirit, (o the coast of Tortola, January
2006)
Brittany Ferries' MV Pont-Aven was struck by a
wave estimated at between 40 feet (12 m) and 50
feet (15 m) in height during a Force 9 gale in the
Bay of Biscay on 21 May 2006.
On February 1, 2007, Holland America's cruise ship
MS Prinsendam was hit by two 12-meter (39 ft) tall
rogue waves near Cape Horn. There were around 40
injuries, with some requiring hospitalization.[30]
5 February 2008 The ferry Riverdance was struck
and disabled by a rogue wave in the Irish Sea on
its journey from Northern Ireland to Heysham in
Lancashire.[31]
4 3
14 April 2008, half a nautical mile o Kleinbaai,
near Gansbaai, South Africa freak wave hit tourists
diving to see sharks. The shark diving boat capsized.
Three tourists died, two were seriously injured and
a number treated for shock. Multiple other shark
boats witnessed the wave.
[32][33][34][35][36][37]
3 March 2010, o Marseille, the Cypriot liner Louis
Majesty was hit by a 26-foot (8-meter) wave which
killed two people on board. The height of the wave
was reported to be abnormally high with respect to
the sea state at the time of the incident.[38]
On February 4th, 2013, a 19-metre wave was
recorded from an automated buoy between Great
Britain and Iceland.
It has also been suggested that these types of waves
may be responsible for the loss of several low-ying
aircraft, namely U.S. Coast Guard helicopters on
search and rescue missions.[39]
3 References
[1]
[2] The story that 200 large ships lost to freak waves in
the past two decades was published in The Times (May
2006). The earliest reference seems to be in the press re-
lease by the European Space Agency (cited at the page
bottom), and rst quoted as 200 large ships of 600ft long
or more in the past two decades sunk without trace. At
the time the claim was made, there had only been 142
ships of that size lost at sea in the time frame, all with
clear, known causes (source: Lloyds Register - Fairplay).
The main culprits were the Iranian and Iraqi air forces in
the 1980s (See: Iran-Iraq war).
[3]
[4] oldweather.com Log entries of HMS Albemarle.
[5] naval-history.net Royal Navy Logbooks of the World War
I Era: HMS ALBEMARLE - March 1915 to November
1916, 3rd BS, Grand Fleet, damaged in gale Nov 1915,
North Russia (icebreaker)
[6] Jackson Papers, National Museum of the Royal Navy,
Portsmouth, U.K. 255/4/31.
[7] Carol Fowl. Unplanned epics - Blighs and Shackletons
small-boat voyages, website of the National Maritime Mu-
seum, rst published in the magazine Sailing Today, Issue
75, July 2003.
[8] Excerpt: The Voyage of the James Caird by Ernest Shack-
leton
[9] Smith, Craig B. Extreme Waves. Washington, D.C.:
Joseph Henry Press, 2006. ISBN 0-309-10062-3,
pp. 68-69
REFERENCES
[10] The Loss of the USS Memphis on 29 August 1916 Was
a Tsunami Responsible? Analysis of a Naval Disaster by
Dr. George Pararas-Carayannis
[11] heinonline.org 4 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 520 (1935-1936)
Annotations of Opinions of the Attorney General of the
United States
[12] Chirnside, Mark (2004). The Olympic-Class Ships. Tem-
pus Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-7524-2868-3.
[13] Rogue Giants at Sea, Broad, William J, New York Times,
July 11, 2006
[14] Daniel Othfors. The Great Ocean Liners: Bis-
marck/Majestic (II)".
[15] The Glorious Three, 2004; retrieved June 30, 2016.
[16] The Storm: Stolt Surf in the North Pacic, 1977, Petersen,
Karsten, December 8, 2003; retrieved July 11, 2006.
[17] Freak Wave, BBC.co.uk programme summary for
Horizon episode aired on 14 November 2002
[18] The Story of the Fastnet The Economist Magazine 18
December 2008
[19] Freak waves (PDF). (1.07 MiB), Beacon #185, Skuld,
June 2005
[20] Holliday, NP, MJ Yelland, RW Pascal, VR Swail, PK
Taylor, CR Griths, and EC Kent (2006). Were extreme
waves in the Rockall Trough the largest ever recorded?
Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 33, L05613
[21] National Marine Sanctuaries News, 19 November 2001.
Accessed January 23, 2008
[22] Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary Hero . Ac-
cessed January 23, 2008 Archived March 22, 2005, at the
Wayback Machine.
[23] Guy Cochrane, USGS
[24] Hurricane Ivan prompts rogue wave rethink, The Register,
5 August 2005
[25] Freak wave pummels cruise ship, Sydney Morning Herald,
April 18, 2005
[26] NTSB Marine Accident Brief: Heavy-weather dam-
age to Bahamas-ag passenger vessel Norwegian Dawn,
National Transportation Safety Board, April 16, 2005,
reference NTSB/MAB-05/03
[27] Deadliest Catch Season 2, Episode 4 Finish Line Orig-
inal airdate: April 28, 2006; approx time into episode:
0:40:00 - 0:42:00. Edited footage viewable online at
Discovery.com
[28] Miami herald tribune, 14 June 2005, p.7
[29] Science out of the Box - host Andrea Seabrook, 15 De-
cember 2007
[30] Liu, Paul C. (2007). A Chronology of Freaque Wave
Encounters (PDF). Geozika. 24 (1): 5770. Retrieved
October 8, 2012.
 5

[31] Beached: Amazing picture of the ferry that ran aground

in Blackpool. Daily Mail. London. 5 February 2008.

[32] Cape Times. April 14, 2008. p. 1. Missing or empty

|title= (help)

[33] The Australian. April 15, 2008. p. 9. Missing or empty

|title= (help)

[34] Tourists die when shark-diving boat capsizes. Mail &

Guardian Online. April 13, 2008. Retrieved July 22,
2011.

[35] Three shark-diving tourists die. IOL. April 14, 2008.

Retrieved July 22, 2011.

[36] Leila Samodien & Murray Williams (April 14, 2008).

Freak wave caused shark-boat tragedy. IOL. Retrieved
July 22, 2011.

[37] Brian Indrelunas (April 15, 2008). Shark-diving industry

mourns deaths. IOL. Retrieved July 22, 2011.

[38] Giant Rogue Wave Slams Into Ship O French Coast,

Killing 2. Fox News. 2010-03-03.

[39] Monster waves threaten rescue helicopters (PDF). (35.7

KiB), U.S. Naval Institute, December 15, 2006
6 4 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

4 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

4.1 Text
List of rogue waves Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rogue_waves?oldid=766823200 Contributors: Edward, PBS, Rich
Farmbrough, FT2, Wtmitchell, Woohookitty, Tabletop, SchuminWeb, Wikimucker, Hmains, Chris the speller, Bigturtle, JAF1970,
Dawnseeker2000, ElComandanteChe, Jetstreamer, Beagel, G-41614, Funandtrvl, EoGuy, Drmies, ChrisHodgesUK, Carlson288,
Crowsnest, Mdnavman, LiteralKa, Yobot, AnomieBOT, DynamoDegsy, Geogene, Full-date unlinking bot, Inferior Olive, RjwilmsiBot,
Tomrohwer, Brycehughes, Helpful Pixie Bot, Cyberbot II, Hmainsbot1, ProprioMe OW, GreenC bot, Bender the Bot and Anonymous: 16

4.2 Images
File:Drauper_freak_wave.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/78/Drauper_freak_wave.png License: Fair use
Contributors:
http://www.math.uio.no/~{}karstent/waves/index_en.html Original artist: ?
File:Question_book-new.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/99/Question_book-new.svg License: Cc-by-sa-3.0
Contributors:
Created from scratch in Adobe Illustrator. Based on Image:Question book.png created by User:Equazcion Original artist:
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4.3 Content license

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