5 TERRIFYING Rogue Wave Encounters
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- čas přidán 18. 05. 2024
- Rogue waves. For centuries they’ve captured the public’s imagination and terrified sailors - they have become the stuff of legends. But for a long time, Rogue Waves couldn’t even be proven to exist, but then, in the modern age, ships began to encounter huge waves, seemingly out of nowhere at sea. Some of these encounters were deadly; and some even sank ships. Here are some terrifying true encounters with real life rogue waves! Featuring the RMS Lusitania, RMS Queen Elizabeth 2, RMS Queen Mary, SS Michelangelo and the MS Munich / MS München.
3D ship models used with permission, made by Lucas Gustaffson;
3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/by/L...
Written by Michael Brady
Editing assistance by Michael Keegan
Animation by Michael Brady in Unreal Engine 4
Oceanliner Designs explores the design, construction, engineering and operation of history’s greatest machines and vessels- from Titanic to Queen Mary and from the R.101 airship to the battleship Bismarck. Join researcher and illustrator Michael Brady as he tells the stories behind some of history's most famous ocean liners and machines!
#ship #history #disaster #sinking #wave #tsunami #rogue wave #titanic #queen mary #engineering
0:00 Introduction
0:40 Lusitania
3:50 Queen Elizabeth 2
6:31 Queen Mary
10:58 Michelangelo
13:19 Munich /München - Zábava
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▶MORE OCEANLINER DESIGNS;
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5 Ship Design Fails: czcams.com/video/QsKNWEsm4r8/video.html
How Did They Steer the Titanic?: czcams.com/video/CZe-exu2RBU/video.html
I'm surprised you didn't do that cruiseliner one from a few years back where the liner got side swiped. busted windows and flooded rooms all the way to the top of the ship. left some really spectacular footage giving you a terrifying idea of just what'd happen to a smaller vessel taking a wave like that.
What if a rouge wave went over a submarine that was close to the surface? Would it pick up the submarine? Horrifying 😳
Just stayed on the QE2 in Dubai last week. It's a floating hotel now. I recognized the photos as I walked over the entire boat. Awesome ship!
@@philobetto5106 '.... 'rouge' governments? do you mean rogue?
@@philobetto5106 Give it a rest pal. We come here to get away from that crap.
One of the terrifying possible reasons why only in the 20th century did rogue waves start to have evidence found for them is theroized to be that- in the time before ships were made of steel, anyone who encountered them simply vanished
Here be monsters.
It is in fact the only possible reason. Rogue waves may have become more frequent due to oil spills reducing surface tension, and possibly also warming climate (though ice caps seem to be recovering, so jury is still out on global warming). But they always existed, so the only reason why they wouldn't be reported is that there was nobody left alive to report them.
S. S. Pacific perhaps?
@@johannlaufenberg9798 no
Exactly, especially back in the 19th century and the centuries before it. Generally, in wooden ships less than 200-feet long powered by sail, those who encountered freak waves weren't coming back to tell about them.
The fact that the Lusitania managed to survive getting dipped like that, with no casualties no less, is honestly a testament to these Gilded age beasts.
Make no mistake. Modern cruise ships are not designed for that. A rogue wave will destroy one of those.
@@giggiddy absolutely. Those monstrosities are top heavy floating hotels lmao
True. It also simultaneously scares me to think about what might have happened if the wave that struck her was any larger. It was _only_ ~75' tall. Imagine if it were 90-100' tall?
Stop before you make me cry (with laughter).
@@Kaidhicksiithe wave was approximately 75 feet above sea level but due to gravity and the natural trough behind a moving wave causing the bow of a ship to “slam” down to far deeper than normal draft depth after coming down the back side of the wave it crested the height of the wave if measured from Lusitania’s normal waterline was near to 90 feet….scary stuff. More in depth studies have said the heavy steel used in her superstructure, including the wheelhouse, breaking the remaining surface tension of the oncoming wall of water was all that saved the bridge crew from being killed instantly when the wave impacted the wheelhouse. Once surface tension is broken the water starts to become “aerated” and while still a deadly force it’s something the human body can at least stand a chance of fighting for survival. That old adage about hitting solid water at high speed being like hitting concrete is true, think of doing a belly-flop vs a dive at the pool. Using your outstretched hands or pointed feet to break the surface with as narrow and pointed an object as possible. The bridge crew were all lined up to basically do a 90mph standing belly flop but the large, flat front of the bridge took that impact and aside from the windows held together keeping the men from being blown apart on impact.
I can't imagine the horror of the officer who saw the wave crash over the lusitainia with himself above the ship with his legs submerged.
Incredible.
he was up there on his tippy toes
@@exactlywhatisaid TIPPY TOES💀
To be fair, he probably _needed_ his trousers rinsed by that point.
@@ZGryphon Perhaps even shoveled...
My dad was a merchant mariner for 39 years and the stories he tells me have made me terrified and enamored of the ocean to this day. He's had a few near-capsizings which constantly leave me wondering how I managed to be born. (In that scenario, it doesn't matter that he can't swim.) Keep up the good work; cheers from the USA.
I've come to suspect the reason the rogue wave thing was considered a legend for so long... is because of how few survivors there were in the old days. :/
I worked for a short time at Bermuda Star Line. My late mother, who couldn’t swim, was somewhat reassured that I was a strong swimmer. I said, “What difference does it make? If you’re more than a mile from shore, swimming isn’t going to help you a bit!”
@@wotan10950 if you can keep yourself from drowning long enough for rescue to arrive then it does make a difference.
Thank you to your father for his service! My dad was in the US Navy for 30 years. He was the CO of the USS Reid in the early '90s. I remember on one family cruise, waves were breaking over the forecastle, sometimes with the bow submerging and I was freaking out. He thought it was funny. Basically, his attitude was "this is nothing". I've never doubted the sea's power!
@@wotan10950 old navy vets tell the same story, a lot of them couldn’t swim but what would it matter you get sunk out in the ocean you aren’t going to swim anywhere
The Queen Mary's ability to _recover_ from the extreme rolls she was vulnerable to was absolutely insane.
Considering the documentary I watched about Roll on Roll off ships, it is possible that the equipment loaded on board the Queen Mary was very well tied down properly and hatches were closed. Which was probably just the care and attention given to wartime things and military orders and training; where the current shipping industry is about speed and thus, you get ships that are rolling and not recovering. The documetary was about the Sun Ray in Brunswick Georgia where software was trying to balance a lot of loading and unloading and officers didn't have a great safety culture of checking after each other and the computer doing the math of the ship balance. Then, they opened a door for the harbor pilot to leave faster...
I would imagine that when she started to roll, with 16000 + men on board, they moved in the opposite direction to help her, self right.. doing a calculation that 16000 × 200 lbs per man average would be 1,600 tons or 8 locomotive engins weight. I know if I was on the ship, I would be on oppose wall like a spider😂
200lbs per man is generous.
@@magesalmanac6424hardly most men weigh more
@@daleslover2771 the men were acting as ballast I would think most of them were well below the water line deep in the ship
I'm surprised the narrator doesn't mention that one of the soldiers on board the Queen Mary was Paul Gallico, a novelist who later wrote a book called The Poseidon Adventure. The book was based on the near-rollover incident, and when they made the movie a few years later, they used the Queen Mary, recently retired, as their ship.
I have not read The Poseidon Adventure, but the movie is pure kitsch. Perhaps neither has historical merit.
@@59DrauzWell, Paul Gallico sure used his ordeal aboard Queen Mary as an inspiration for his book.
Interesting. That was a fun movie.
Fascinating
I have all 3 movie versions of "The Poseidon Adventure" and the book. It would have been perfect in the remakes that they would offer pineapple upside down cake for dessert at the dinner and have people dancing to Lionel Richie's "Dancing on the Ceiling" in the disco.
When I was a passenger on the Maiden Transatlantic Voyage of the Queen Mary 2 in April 2004 from Southampton UK to NYC we were in a massive storm for 4 of the 6 day crossing. I was having dinner on deck 7 in one of the alternative restaurants and seated in a glass alcove that protruded out on boat deck with a view looking forward toward the bow. I was amazed at the massive rolling waves going by that were clearly visible when suddenly feeling a sudden vibration and then looking up to see the biggest wave I have ever seen which had obviously slammed into and over the bow. creating a wall of white that towered over the height of the boat deck. years later i found a drawing posted online done by a passenger who was an artist to show what we went through. truely amazing to experience but also terrifying. I wish i had the ability to post that image on here so you all could see it.
Is there any possibility you might remember the name of the artist, or even any information regarding where you might have seen it online? Any additional details could help!
@@ksig219 Wow, that was FAR more information than I had hoped for - Thank you so much, Dennis, it's greatly appreciated!
Those are not uncommon
Apparently the Italian Line’s Andrea Doria encountered a rogue wave on its maiden voyage to New York in early 1953, injuring some passengers - it might been considered a bad omen when 3 and a half years later the ship collided with the SS Stockholm and sank. Yet during those few years the Andrea Doria was one of the most popular and luxurious ships in service, despite its ominous maiden voyage and ultimate fate.
We can all agree that he has never disappointed us with this content, very, very cool, I also shoot such videos about interesting mysterious facts come see☺😙
I have a photo from my grandfather while on board the USS Wyoming, in the South China sea, during a typhoon. He was in the crow's nest and took a photo of a 130 ft wave coming at them from behind. I calculated the height using trigonometry, and the ship's dimensions. No one ever doubted his stories of life at sea after taking that photo.
Crikey that sounds utterly terrifying!
@@beefchops1400 He said it was a regular thing during typhoons. He also spoke of White Squals.
I witnessed 100 foot waves on a Scottish North Sea oil platform
I have never seen anything remotely like it, you can feel the pressure of the weight of water consuming and compressing the atmosphere
Post an image of it please.
Post this online somewhere and link us!
"Don't worry, this ship is practically unsinkable!"
"Oh no. No no no no no. I'm not getting on that death trap."
For real thou any ship said to be unsinkable got sunk on maiden voyage
@@anoia7783 the ocean ranger drilling rig was also unsinkable.
This ship is unsinkable!
The ocean: HOW MANY TIMES MUST I TEACH YOU THIS LESSON OLD MAN
@@larchman4327I was near the Ocean Ranger 2/14,15/82 on a Phillips Petroleum Oil tanker heading to or leaving Holyrood NF. Think we caught some of that wave - the tanker rolled 33deg one way then 35deg the other way. Scary shit.
@@billyhomeyer7414 I was on a vlcc 889x144 going back and forth from Valdez to long Beach. We were in 30 foot swells one but didn't effect ship too much couldn't imagine it listing 30 degrees that's unimaginable especially in engine room with all that heavy equipment......... and heavy spare parts. That's cool to hear.
I'm happy more people are actually making content on rogue waves, even with the still limited understanding we have of them. It's something that should be discussed a lot more when it comes to ships at sea.
Even though we are still little closer to predicting rogue waves than we were even 2 decades ago, we have an understanding of some of the factors that cause them.
- Wind and waves travelling one way meeting a current travelling another
- Two waves coming from opposite directions meeting head-on
- One wave running down another wave
- Geographical conditions
- Sea states becoming nonlinear causing waves to absorb each other's energy (how seas become nonlinear is still not understood, although it relates to quantum physics)
In any case, we still have a lot to learn. To me, that's frankly part of the fun. For one, you'll never live long enough to know everything. Still, that only motivates me to try and learn as much as possible. Second, most people look at nature as something to be conquered. That is something which will never happen, which is why I look at nature more so as a challenge to be met, constantly striving to evolve with it.
There is a Veritasium video where he visits the US Navy testing lab where they can create "rogue" waves.
@@Kaidhicksii yeah something like that the ripples everything makes in the ocean
Frequency shock or something like that
@@Kaidhicksii It has nothing to do with quantum physics. It's trigonometry. It's constructive interference of two or more intersecting wave trains. Since it is almost impossible to get two wave trains of the same frequency AND the same bearing (or reciprocal bearing) they tend to be short duration events.
@@JoshuaTootell Nature is as strong as it is beautiful. I'm with you.
In 1985 a rogue/sneaker wave struck Fastnet Lighthouse off the coast of southern Ireland. It smashed the windows and broke the light 46 metres in the air.
I don't know how the hell it took until 1995 for us to realize they were real.
The answer is academics who have never been out in the field, denying the lived experience of people who work in that field, because they're "better educated", despite having no experience or practical knowledge. I remember even when the scientific community started accepting the possibility of rouge waves, there were still plenty of "experts" who firmly believed they didn't exist, or only existed as a direct result of hurricanes, etc.
Hubris is not a new phenomenon unfortunately, and it continues to this day. People just don't like to be told they're wrong, or something similar would never happen to them.
It was mostly due to the low number of witnesses, because the wave usually got immediately rid of them.
It was mostly due to the low number of witnesses, because the wave usually got immediately rid of them.
It took until 1995 for there to be substantial direct measurement of the event. With all the data points to prove it conclusively, but one had to hit a platform that was specifically taking that kind of data.
@@okankyoto Yeah I know and I understand but I don’t know how you look at an event like fastnet (a gigantic lighthouse with seismic readings) and don’t think “there’s something going on here.” To this day large ships go down in rough seas and it never gets reported as rogue waves, even though a rogue wave is basically the only natural event that could sink an oil tanker or a battleship out at sea. What’s shocking is the commonness of them and how they stayed unknown for so long. Every storm season buoys off Western Europe and the Eastern United States report 30m+ rogues on a very frequent basis.
As a kid, I like watching waves on Lake Ontario. They came in sets of three. Every once in a while, one of the three waves would seem to steal the energy of the others and rear up, then die down, and another would pop up nearby. It looked to me like the energy of the waves hitting the shore was being reflected back at an off angle and interacting with the incoming waves, creating peaks and troughs or canceling waves as it passed.
On the Great Lakes, the waves do come in three’s, the “three sisters”.
That's the thought I had about it too: constructive or destructive wave interference.
Reverberation. Lake storms are bad because waves come from multiple directions.
Out of 60 years of sailing and motoring both salt and fresh waters, the most horrifying thin I've ever experienced was a roque wave on a perfectly calm lake. It wasn't the size, I've riden much, MUCH larger waves, it was the velocity of the continuous breaking of the wave. It was like a supernatural experience.
@Lemons Limes after year of thought, I think what was normally a “bank” of gravel on the side of the cliff must have slid down due to being submerged. Even with that scenario, (the most logical), the result was much more intense than would be expected.
This sounds crazy but i watched a 3 ft wave roll down the Sangamon River here in Illinois. Calm to. It stole my fishing gear and nearly dipped me. It was moving 20-30 knots. Never seen that before or since.
The Lucy animation was amazing! I can easily imagine that the Edmund Fitzgerald encountered this very same thing, but unfortunately was unable to recover. So hard to imagine something that size just getting swallowed up whole like that... the scale involved is mind boggling. Love your channel, keep up the great work!
There's a number of theories about the "Big Fitz's" loss, all plausible, but the thing to remember is it's a bit of an oversimplification to call them the Great Lakes, they're really inland seas and capable of doing anything seas can do to ships.
On a business trip to Detroit, I visited the Maritime Sailors Cathedral, the one mentioned in Gordon Lightfoot’s famous song.
@@wotan10950 Thank God for Gordon Lightfoot! If it wasn't for the song the Edmund Fitzgerald would be just another Great Lakes shipwreck, forgotten by all except the families of the lost. Now they'll always be remembered and by extension all those lost in Great Lakes shipwrecks.
They might've split up, or they might've capsized, they may have broke deep and took water. But all that remains are the faces and the names of the wives, the sons and the daughters.
I remember one critic said that Lightfoot was the only one who could make a rhyme out of “the big lake they called Gitche Gumee” and “the skies of November turn gloomy.” 😀
For me, the story about the Queen Mary is the most terrifying. What an absolute disaster that could’ve been. Any loss of life is terrible of course, but 16,000 soldiers and 1,000 crew?
I have heard that the original 1972 "The Poseidon Adventure" movie was based on the rogue wave that hit the Queen Mary. Parts of the movie were even filmed on board the Mary after she was bought by the city of Long Beach CA. Great watch, thanks to Mike for his time and work.....
Neat
The Mary was a slow roller and hung on the roll. I 1936 Paul Gallico was onboard when, during lunch, the ship rolled and hung on the end of a long roll. He wondered what would happen if the ship had just kept going over all the way. Years later while looking for an idea for a book remembered the event and the Poseidon Adventure was born.
True. The author, Paul Gallico, was aboard the Queen Mary during a crossing in 1936, when she ran into a rough storm. When an exceptionally large wave hit, it knocked the ship onto her side. Gallico was in the dining hall at the time, and besides the obvious tables flipping, cutlery crashing and people sliding, he reported looking out the window and seeing nothing but the water. The thought came into his mind on what would have happened if the Queen Mary rolled all the way over, and when the time came for him to write a book, this incident came floating back, and The Poseidon Adventure was born.
Check out the movie "White Squal"!
@@fionnmaccumhaill3257 Just watched the movie trailer, looks pretty good.
Absolutely love the transition into 3D! Can’t wait to see this form of media grow and new animations of new ships
Almost forgot to mention that. Really makes these videos even more immersive than they already are. Good on you Mike! :D👍
Excellent presentation. Voice: every word audible. Pace: slow enough to hear and the ember facts. Great illustrations. Thankyou
Those aren't mountains...they're waves.
Reminds me of a certain si-fi movie I saw.😊 " Interstellar "
The MS Munchen's loss was so haunting and scary, can't imagine what the crew must have felt when the rogue waves hit. Must have been so scary for the troops on RMS Queen Mary when she was hit by that wave. They must have felt shocked when they found how close their ship came to capsizing especially when other ships like MS Munchen sank. Must have felt terrifying to the officer who stood on the RMS Lusitania's compass platform.
And the helmsman along with the bridge crew on the Lusitania
It's impressive that the Lusitania, QE2, Queen Mary, and Michelangelo survived the rogue waves they encountered. Except for the Munich.
Do you think the München will ever be discovered?
@@enpakeksi765 If Munich had a similar fate to the SS Naronic, then there's a high chance she won't be discovered.
I was on one of the ships caught by superstorm Sandy. Most of the ships survived, not all. It was something that really brought stories like these to reality. At the time, this was the largest cruise liner built - but we were dwarfed by waves. The 6th floor windows were smashed and that deck abandoned. I was on the 8th and it felt from that height like we were ants in a mountain range. When we rose up a wave - it seemed like we were climbing for minutes, then, the ship would teeter and come crashing down at free-fall speed on the other side. Nobody believed that even steel could withstand the pounding.
When disaster hits, and then, suddenly, the magic of engineering fails... the feeling of hopelessness must be overwhelming.
I'm active USCG, and I flew in superstorm Sandy (C-130J) on the HMS Bounty case... by the time my sortie was out there, it was just a debris field, but I remember looking at the 270-foot cutter that was down there and seeing the props coming out of the water. The ocean will kill you dead and care not.
@@christophermarquis8384 The fate of the crew of the Bounty still haunts me. Glad we have you guys though, at least you give us some hope in case of the worst.
While doing a crossing on the Queen Mary 2, I bought a book by the ship's architect, Stephen Payne, detailing how the ship was designed and built. At one point, he had arguments with Carnival and Cunard executives about the need to design the ship as a true ocean liner and not as a typical cruise ship. He highlighted the Michelangelo and Queen Elizabeth 2 incidents in his presentation and, as he stated it, "Photographs of these episodes really focused the Carnival/Cunard audience and thereafter there was no question that if we were to maintain the tradition of transatlantic crossings, it was agreed that it had to be by liner and not cruise ship."
Thankfully we still have the option of traveling across the ocean on a liner vs the vile act of flying!
My grandfather rode to Europe on the Queen Mary in 42 or 43. He said it was absolutely packed with troops and was a gamblers paradise. My grandfather was a very good poker and craps player.
This is extremely impressive. You've done a marvelous job recreating these liners and the weather and lighting effects really set the atmosphere. I'd never heard of any of these incidents except for the Mary.
You reminded me of my nan!
She lived in Torbay, Devon in a bungalow overlooking the bay.
Her taps in the kitchen used to suffer from water hammer.
This is a very loud droning noise emanating from the water pipes sounding just like a foghorn.
Anyway, any time this happened, she'd point out to sea & say "Oh! The Queen Mary's in!" 🚢
I was a Chief Officer in the Merchant Navy. The knowledge that these occur is terrifying. Going from Durban up through the Agulhas is an area where we had to keep a close eye out for rogue waves.
There have been some tragic losses off the Wild Coast. Ships have foundered, falling into massive holes caused by the relatively shallow water, the strong current and opposing weather. One was the Waratah for which they are still looking, lost with all hands.
Do you think a part of the reason why the Queen Mary 2 didn't roll over is because all the loose furniture that would typically go flying had been stripped out, and she was filled with thousands of troops who would've been holding on to all sorts of things rather than becoming a living free surface effect?
Yes, hundreds of tons of loose items moving to the lower side could have finished her off.
I would also imagine that she was sitting lower in the water due to the extra passengers. A lower center of gravity. I've seen 28 degrees of roll and it feels pretty extreme. Could not imagine 50
a 40,000 ton ship is hardly going to be effected by loose fittings. loose cargo sure. but not furniture.
It wasn't the Queen Mary 2.
I've watched some of the research into rogue waves. They're used wave pools to recreate the phenomenon. They created single double and triple rogue waves in a row. The scariest one is able to lift a ship so high that when coming out it leaves so much if the ship unsupported by water that it could break the ships back. Don't think they have ever found a ship that was broken like that before though.
A bunch of WWII liberty ships disappeared, possibly due to encountering large waves. It was discovered that the welds used tested fine at room temperature but at sea water temps on the North Atlantic they became brittle. So in a heavy sea they just broke up.
@@sblack48 attention to detail is everything. Glad you mentioned it. Liberty ships were built with an expected service life of less than a decade; they were born of the necessity to get as much “over there” as quickly as possible. A lot of short cuts in their design in order to fill an immediate need. Those welds were ultimately a result of that
@@jameschenard1386 my understanding is that they simply didn’t understand the impact of temperature on the ductility of the welds. Apparently it was a lady Engineer who made the discovery. Very unusual for the time.
They found the Edmond Fitzgerald broken in half.
@@Klaus293 they were launching them every day and a half. England was starving and they needed to move tonnage at all costs. They had to build them faster than the uboats could sink them. I suspect they were pretty ragged vessels.
Has anyone collected stories from troops aboard the Queen Mary? It'd be interesting to hear what a journey with 16000 other people was like.
One big vomitorium
Here's some from a guy who l used to go fishing with as a boy.
On the way back from the war the poker games on deck were incredible. Anything you can imagine being bet. I raise your luger with this iron cross... and the boxing matches....
Then they got off the coast and were low priority, meaning they anchored for 2 weeks before they could go ashore. They were pissed anything that wasn't bolted down went over the side. Along with other ships, making the debris flow miles long.
Read "Roots" -- there is a chapter that covers this type of crossing.
Smelly 🤢🤮
One tale that gave me the shudders comes from the 1998 Sydney Hobart yacht race. This was the roughest race on record and 6 people unfortunately lost their lives.
The tale came from a helicopter rescue pilot. A yacht crew member had been lost overboard and the rescue chopper was trying to recover the crew. The pilot states he was maintaining a 100 foot hover when he saw a wave coming at him. He put 40 ft of altitude on and stated the altimeter went to 10 ft when the wave passed under.
He had a crew member in the water trying to save an unconscious crew member from the yacht. Fortunately he got all to safety.
The Human Teabag, a great read. So very brave.
Quick thinking and reflexes from the pilot saved the day! Very courageous
My first ship was the USS Kitty Hawk. I was an engineer and the Number one attack team leader for the ships Flying Squad.
It was the year 2000 and we were securing from a fire drill. Myself and my team were sitting on the deck halfway out of our fire gear. Now carriers are HUGE and a modern engineering marvel, they're big enough it's hard to perceive any movement of the ship, like we cut right through hurricanes and you barely feel it.
So when you suddenly find yourself and everyone else rapidly sliding along the deck trying to find something, anything to grab onto it's VERY unnerving. Add to that the sounds of various expensive things tumbling over and crashing into things and more alarms you ever remember hearing going off. You could see the look of utter terror on everyone's face as our unshakable damn near unsinkable home is now nearly sideways. And as suddenly as it happened it was over.
I don't remember what the clinometer maxed out at, just that 3-4 more degrees and we wouldn't have recovered. In 2000 the US Navy came VERY close to losing a Super carrier to a fucking wave. That's Horrifying.
holy shit dude!
So interesting to hear accounts from first hand experience. Much appreciated Rachel
My grandparents were on the QE2 in 1995. They were knocked out of their bed in their cabin. They recounted that the bow was bent once they disembarked.
The captain of SS Edmund Fitzgerald wired that the ship was holding its own but it sank shortly afterwards. I believe that it too was hit by one or more rogue waves. Those rogue waves may not have been the sole cause of the ship sinking so fast but I do firmly believe that they were the final blow.
They likely got hit from behind and "slid" to the bottom face-first too which just makes it even scarier. Like imagine being on the bridge and you plunge into what seems like an average trough but then you just. keep. going. Goddamn terrifying.
@@lhaviland8602 Absolutely chilling!
When Gordon Lightfoot died last year, they rang the bell at the Mariner's Church for for him along with the EF crew. 30 rings in all.
This whole video is so intense. Had me at the edge of my seat. The animations were great at conveying the tension with your narration!
U can add the Derbyshire to the list. Tho initially it was claimed, she sank due to crew negligence, years of investigations including finding the wreck on the bottom of the Pacific finally proved, that she had been the victim of a rogue wave that fateful night in 1980.
it's kind of expected that wrecks are in one whole or two pieces, but the Derbyshire is literally a field of debree.
Coincidentally, I was just reading about a rogue wave hitting a cruise ship only a couple of days ago. December 7th 2022. Viking Polaris was hit by a rogue wave and sadly an American woman died in the incident and some other people were injured
What an amazing ship the Queen Mary was when she was active. Significantly overloaded with cargo and troops and still managed to right herself and continue on.
On my last crossing on QM2, I was able to speak with one of the crew who was on board QE2 when the rogue wave hit. She told me the seas had been very rough that night and she was in her cabin in bed but unable to sleep. When the rogue wave hit, she was thrown out of her bed and added "it was one of the only times that I was afraid."
I've been thru a storm on Lake Michigan between Mackinaw Island and Frankfurt, Michigan, where we finally ended the day, due to waves reaching 10-12 footers. We were in a 21' cuddy cabin. It was 1981 and I was 14. My dad was a Navy veteran and was a pretty good seaman but he NEVER should have had his wife and 3 kids out in seas that big. Those waves looked like buildings. We were with a 25 foot and a 26 foot boat and they were only a hundred feet away from each other and would totally lose sight of each other constantly. I'll never forget it. When we made it into the harbor people looked at us like we were crazy. Not even large yachts were out in that weather. All 3 boats had people barfing their guts out, including my dad. I got extra food for lunch as a result of not getting seasick. My uncle and my dad treated me differently afterwards. I guess it's some sort of guy thing. I cannot imagine what Cape Horn or the North Atlantic would be like. I'd love to experience it once in my life, though.
Good video also wait ITS 3D!
My Father served as a cabin steward on the Queen Mary. He often told me stories of rough crossings and prayed when the waves were like mountains. He always said never underestimate the power of the sea.
My man, your music selection in this video, alongside with the content, made my thalassophobia tip over 50 degrees.
Very well done.
WOW!! This video was absolutely mesmerizing and in my opinion your best one yet. Thanks for taking the time to create this masterpiece.
Rouge waves are fascinating to me. You described the events of the München with more detail than I have heard before. Looks like I need to do some reading! Thanks Mike!
Love seeing the new 3d renditions of the ships
Just recently, the expedition cruise ship, Viking Polaris, encountered one with one death in the Drake Passage. Cabin windows were smashed but the ship came back in Ushuaia safely.
Great content as always Mike. Rogue waves are definitely the scariest monsters out there.
Not as scary as Rogue Holes imo
@@concept5631 never heard of it tbh
@@jonessr2800 Black Holes but water
@@jonessr2800 'A 2012 study supported the existence of oceanic rogue holes, the inverse of rogue waves, where the depth of the hole can reach more than twice the significant wave height. Rogue holes have been replicated in experiments using water-wave tanks, but have not been confirmed in the real world.'
New fear unlocked I guess. Add that to the list of reasons why I'll gladly be a filthy landrat and be happy about it /s
Seriously though, that's fascinating. I wonder if they actually occur in real-world conditions and if they do, how rare and devastating they would be compared to rogue waves.
@@niedas3426o not black holes in water but really a “Rogue Trough,” the opposite of a Rogue Wave.
A black hole in water happens every time you unplug your bathtub, it’s a whirlpool not a deep wave. We’ve used literally that to do black hole simulations.
However, to your question, I’d assume extremely, it would be hard to have the required momentum to power out of it I think and I’d assume there’s probably a chance of it closing with you inside.
(Think in wave tanks when simulated rogue waves “collapse” as the “closure”, as everything would be inverse)
Rogue waves are terrifying, but their theorized inverse, rogue holes, are a whole new level of horror.
Ive literally been hit with ome at see while mending fishing gear on the starboard side. By far one of the scariest experiences of my puff. It wiped the crew out and sent us all home with injured limbs and broken bones.
I was on Bridge watch in the Bay of Biscay once, when we were hit by a rogue wave. The weather was force 9 with about 7 m seas from the NW. I watched a wave roll in from the West out of nowhere which was over 15 m which hit us broadside on the port side. It stoved the pilot door in and the car deck started to flood. The total damage was €300,000.
My uncle died on the Ocean Ranger oil rig. Couldn’t even imagine how scary giant waves must be.
Thank you Michael. Great animation to bring these stories to life. I ALWAYS learn something new from you. Your deprh of knowledge is awe inspiring.
The story of the München has always fascinated me, and I’m glad you featured it in this video.
I do really hope she’s found one day, along with her crew.
Bravo, Mike! Rogue waves have always held a morbid fascination for me, and I really enjoyed this video!
Love your channel, Mike! The Queen Mary story is incredible - I was at the wheel of a sail boat once (my first time at the wheel too!) when we came around an island and got hit with a massive wind gust which rolled the boat over about 50 degrees. The inclinometer tipped into the red and maxed out, and the port side deck and railing actually dipped underwater. Thankfully we were able to recover quickly, and amazingly no one was hurt. But in the moment I thought for sure we were going to have people go overboard - any further and that probably would have happened. I can't imagine what this must have been like in a ship the size of the Queen Mary! Crazy stuff.
Terrifying!
@@OceanlinerDesigns Trouser Slopping!
One of your best - and most haunting - videos yet. You have a way with words, and these new 3d animations are an excellent way of setting and telling the scene.
Thanks so much!
Always been super fascinated by rogue waves, cheers Mike!
Was on the Uss Gunston Hall (LSD-44) 2003-2005. Experienced 2 or 3 really bad storms including an emergency deployment for hurricane Isabel in September 2003. These storms had 20ft to 30ft waves each time.
I think the worst degree of listings I saw during that time was 35 to 40 degrees.
Every time the ship came down off a 20+ft wave it felt like being slammed down onto a hard surface and the ship would shudder, creak and groan!!
The North Atlantic Ocean is nasty during the fall and winter!!
Great stories well told Mike! As usual!
I'm reminded of something one of my favorite writers of sea stories, Tristan Jones, once said:
"The power of the sea can make any of mans powers, like the atomic bomb, look as puny as the waving of a baby's fist!"
I've crossed the North Atlantic myself in some dirty weather (not as bad as in the video) and I can say from experience it can be a VERY hostile environment out there!
Although I would say Tsar Bomba gave the power of the sea a run for it's money, when you think of the utter destruction of the 2004 Indian Ocean and 2011 Pacific Ocean tsunami which hit Japan, then yeah a megathrust tsunami would definitely be a lot more powerfull than our biggest nuke ever detonated.
@@pieterveenders9793 Not even Tsar Bomba, although it's a sure bet that Russian bomber crew probably need a few shots of Stoly to calm their nerves after dropping it!
I was doing a boat course on a 3 story coastguard boat on a average day when bizarrely just as the captain said there is no such thing as rouge waves and we looked forward and a giant wave just appeared and crashed over front of boat throwing people over the floor and ripping the windscreen wipers off the top story. Incredible size and force
The production quality of this video is amazing! Awesome content!
I heard a term when I was in the navy in my 20s, A 'Grey Beard'. Was suppose to be common in the Antarctic ocean. The waves go around the world with nothing to break them, they build over several revolutions. In the distance on the horizon they look like a grey rolling fog bank coming at you. Searched the term on-line several times but have never found the term referring to giant waves.
Pulled several 'greenies' in the Pacific regular like. Lost guardrails and such occasionally.
Back in the 1980's I was a 16" gunnersmate on the battleship Missouri. Prior to that I was on an LST that took rolls so bad we had foot prints on the bulkheads. We Left Sydney in 1986 and headed for Hobart. The seas were so rough and the waves so high we had waves that put turret 1 under water.
I've heard of some of these rogue waves but this is the most comprehensive I've ever seen thank you so much
3:28 That rogue wave almost ended the Lusitania!
I'm glad most of them survived.
I couldn't imagine a worse fate for such a large ocean liner...
Mike, you always seem to know when I'm having a bad day, coz you post a video to help me feel better. Thank you!
My father worked on the development of the first oil rigs in Norway that would measure the rogue waves they encountered. He told me that they used to call the wave "hundred year waves" as they thought that was how often those waves would occur, and that the oil rigs needed to withstand one or two of them. Turns out that not only would rogue waves occur more often, they could even occur multiple times per year in certain areas. Terrifyingly, one of the reasons these waves were so mysical and believed to happen so rarely was because the people who saw them often just would not survive...
The Queen Mary incident had ripple effects which nobody could have predicted at the time, especially for Hollywood....
One of the US servicemen who was onboard during that voyage was Paul Gallico, and the memory of that wave impact and the terrifying 50-degree list which followed it would, more than 20 years later, inspire him to write a novel. It's title? "The Poseidon Adventure."
Soon afterwards, the manuscript of the book reached Hollywood movie producer Irwin Allen, and the classic disaster movie, which in a delicious irony, would be partly filmed aboard the Queen Mary; would use her blueprints to design the studio sets and would feature a 22-foot long model of the ship as the fictional SS "Poseidon" (this model still exists today in a museum in Southern California) to effectively recreate that freak wave strike, and then the scenes of the Poseidon capsizing and floating upside-down, followed. Cue in a superb cast of actors, great writing and direction, compelling special effects and an early music score by John Williams, and the result is a movie classic which founded the disaster movie genre.......
All as a result of one freak wave in 1942!
The idea of rogue waves is terrifying. I can't imagine being face to face. Such a helpless and terrifying situation.
Your use of words in each script capture my attention and perfectly provide visuals when I’m not looking at the screen (I sometimes use these vids to help me sleep haha) or at least, I attempt to sleep! The info you relay is too good to miss!
Absolutely brilliant stuff! 👏🏻
Great video. As someone who experienced a rogue wave from the helm, you managed to capture both the horror and fascination of the power of the sea.
Love what you're doing with the 3D stuff now, your overall production is getting better and better too. Keep it up mate
Oh my Lord,, I am truly terrified of the ocean. The thought of being out to sea in the pitch darkness of night, is scary enough, but to actually see the rouge wave coming, would literally make me pass out or have a heart attack out of pure terror. Hell to the NO, will you ever see me onboard any kind of boat or ship.. 🖤🖤🖤
The Munich story really freaked me out. Especially with that creepy music, and you’re chilling narration! Very very well done. Something about unsolved mysteries like that are so unsettling to me.
Nicely done. The tiny James Caird, under Shackleton, faced a huge wave, but survived due to a “miracle of bouancy.” It’s startling to realize how devastating they can also be to giant ships. I almost wonder if they could be more dangerous to a big ship, than a little, sealed life boat?
It depends on the size but a 100ft boat in 20ft sea's you bury the bow when coming out of the trough at the bottom before the start of the wave and slam back down after going over the crest. In a smaller boat rise and fall more but you don't get the slamming down after cresting the wave since you don't have the front 1/3 of the boat in air.
Great stuff. Rogue waves are terrifying indeed, your heart probably skips a beat or a dozen when you're unlucky enough to see one.
Great video, all I can say is, the naval architects who design these big ships are absolute geniuses. You also have to admire the people who build these incredible vessels, and the crew that operate them.
"If there's a storm, they have to go right through it," reminds me of the Joseph Conrad story "Typhoon", where steamship Captain McWhirr drives right into the eye of a hurricane because it's the most direct route to the destination.
Well done Mike, always enjoy your videos.
This reminds me of the Waratah, A British cargo/passenger-liner of questionable stability - according to reports by her captain and former passengers - that vanished in 1909 off the east coast of South Africa - an area known for rogue-waves.
While I was serving my 21 years in the US Navy, I encountered two rogue waves. The 1st was when I was onboard my 1st ship, a Spruance class destroyer. I was the helmsman. We were experiencing rough seas, pitching and rolling pretty much at regular intervals. As the helmsman, maintaining the ship's course while rolling 30 degrees became fairly routine. The helmsman is not to do anything except to maintain the ship's course and speed until ordered to do otherwise. One rough day, I was minding my helm when I felt a strange vibration on the ship's wheel, after noticing a wall of water heading right towards us from the port bow. I instinctively knew what was happening and what was going to happen next. I didn't wait for orders, none were forthcoming and yelled, "HANG ON!!" We were struck and the ship started to roll much faster than what was normal. I immediately flung the wheel a hard 20 degrees rudder, turning the ship to starboard, turning the ship into the direction of the roll. I used the centripetal force to help counter the roll, thus preventing capsize. We rolled up to 52 degrees before the ship stopped rolling. I knew that the counter roll would be just as deadly, so when the ship began to right herself, I flung the wheel back to rudder amidships. When the ship was fully upright but the roll's speed continued with the momentum, I flung the wheel a hard left, do the same thing I did when we were rolling in the other direction. When that roll stopped and the ship righted herself, slowly this time, I was able to bring the ship back on course, and we continued on like nothing ever happened. Nobody noticed that I took action, only that we rolled so far over, that we thought that we were going to go over completely. My Executive Officer said as much. A few years later, as the helmsman, while serving on my 2nd ship, a Knox class frigate, the whole scenario happened all over again, resulting in only a 48 degree roll. People have found it hard to believe my story, but that's alright. I know what has happened. I was there and there are some shipmates that remember the rolls also. They just never realized that I prevented the capsizing events. If I had not done anything or worse, the opposite, I would not be here telling you all about this. We would have been upside down. Now, I'm a retired 1st class Boatswain Mate.
Great job! Glad no one got on your ass for taking the appropriate actions of your own accord. You definitely shaved those ships and I think you get additional bragging rights because you also definitely drifted in a Navy vessel! lol Cheers to you for a fine maneuver!
You are a real sailor because you read the sea and counteracted it as much as you could instinctively. Bravo! 👍By the way, my roommate in college was the daughter of A USN Commander associated with the Spruance Class Destroyer, so I was invited to the ceremony when the first one was launched.
Rogue waves are no joke. While a member of the US Navy in 1978, my ship was struck at night on the starboard side by a rogue wave in the Atlantic ocean to the west of Portugal that had to have been over 70 feet tall. It rolled us over to the point that the tilt alarm began to go off, indicating that we had rolled 55 degrees to port. The ship righted itself, but not without a lot of shuddering, shaking, and the sounds of furniture breaking loose from welds. To give you an idea of the size of this wave, the ship was over 500 feet long, 84 feet wide, 65 feet high at the bridge decking, displacing 12,000 tons....not a small ship at all. I still get a small case of PTSD thinking about this event.
Another fantastic video! Such a haunting topic, and I can't imagine the sheer terror of those men on the Queen Mary thinking they were going to capsize. Can't wait for the next video!
I have no idea how you did this. This video is so good and the stories told so well. The Munich story is terrifying. The way the music and the images and the way you animated and told the story. Huh gives me the chills
Can’t wait, looks fantastic! I’m going to assume that Lusitania, Queen Mary, and Michelangelo will be in this video.
Edit: at 1:16, is that the Lusitania model you have been working on with Tom Lynksey?
Edit 2: Alright, the 3D models are fantastic. Can’t wait to see how far you’ll go with them. Also, never heard of QE2’s rouge wave encounter, and just never heard of the Munich in general.
No this Lusitania is another model :) So glad you enjoyed the video!
6:10 Pretty sure the fact that there was an hurricane saved lot of people on the Queen Elizabeth 2; imagine if that was "just a normal" rogue wave, materializing from nowhere (like it often happens) when the weather is fine and many passengers are just chilling on the bridge... instead of locked in their rooms because of the hurricane...
Such a fascinating video once again! The animations in this one were impressive. Thank you for your effort and dedication, Mike! Can’t stay anything but happy with your videos. 😊
Cheers Lari!
In the 1980's I was aboard USS Milwaukee AOR-2, a fuel and supply ship (oiler). She was over 900 ft long and had a 40 ft draft, 2 screws.
When returning from the Med', to the US, by way of the North Atlantic, this ship would sometimes shake as though a sea monster had attacked.... In fact the ship was surfing down the face of a huge wave, so that for a few long minutes her screws were no longer under the water, until she plunged into the next wave.
I was in the Navy in 1980 in a typhoon in the South China Sea on an ammunition ship (USS HALEAKALA AE-25). I had fantail watch, and was tied to a chair, that was tied to a pole under the helo deck.
I looked starboard and saw a HUGE 80' wave heading right towards us. I said "OH S..." took a deep breath and hung on for dear life.
When it hit, I was spun around the pole several times in what *_seemed_* like several minutes. Time doesn't fly when your life is flashing before your eyes!!
When it hit, there were also a couple guys up near the forecastle trying to secure a cargo hatch. Both were nearly washed over, but were both able to hang onto the lifeline. We went 15 degrees past fatal list, should have capsized, but the pressure from the wave passing under the keel prevented it. After it passed the old tub made noises I'd never heard before as it shimmied and shook until it came upright. It was bucking like a bronco, but SIDEWAYS!
I saw one of our canister life rafts floating by, and called to the bridge to let them know.
"Bridge, fantail, we lost a life raft". 42 years later I can STILL hear the reply.
"WE'RE NOT F'NG GOING BACK FOR IT!!" And 42 years later it still makes me laugh.
The wave did several million dollars worth of damage, including *_completely_* stripping the gears on the starboard 5" turret, blowing out the 6" bullet proof glass on the front, and shoving in then ripping the door off the back of it. Both doors to the wheel house were taken off (a couple guys got washed out of the port door and were saved by the railing), and almost all the railing on the starboard side was bent in, and we lost the life raft I saw, and a few other parts that were ripped off. There was one guy that came out of his rack and broke his arm (he didn't know the trick of hooking your belt on your locker handle and sleeping with your arm through it to keep you there in a hard roll). Several other minor injuries as well. Luckily everyone survived, and a FEW of us have stories that we'll remember all our lives!!
The Navy, it's not a job, it's an ADVENTURE!!
I worked for a short time at the Bermuda Star Line, whose ships, the Bermuda Star and Canada Star, were the former Argentina and Brasil. I was on the bridge during a stormy run from Hamilton to New York. We never even slowed down! But the newer cruise ships, running parallel with us, were left in the dust since they had to markedly reduce speed, as they were top-heavy.
You mentioned the München on my favorite maritime channel no less! I hope she's found soon. Great video yet terrifying. Three thumbs up!
Wow, the animation of the rogue washing over the decks of the Lusitania are terrifying. I'm now a confirmed landlubber.
Great video, I love sea stories.
the 3d animations combined with the music choice made this almost feel like a movie, great work as always
and i've always loved the mary's rouge wave story, it's incredible to think that the ship was able to right itself from an approx. ~50 degree list
Great video! The last ship Munchen was interesting to me. It was headed to Savannah GA where I'm from and it went down in December of 1978 which is the month and year I was born. My grandfather was a docking pilot then on the Savannah River and would have likely docked it had it made it safely. I'll have to ask him if he remembers it sinking. Thanks for the video.
I remember the TV coverage about the mysterious disappearance of the München, the most devastating ship loss in Germany since the Pamir in 1957. Greetings from the city of Munich (no joke)!
Love those smoke stacks on the Michelangelo! This was entertaining and terrifying. So glad I found this channel!
Kudos to all sailors both civilian and military who brave the elements! My father was a sailor in WW 2 and mentioned about a Typhoon somewhere in the Pacific. That’s got to be unnerving enough let alone a rogue wave. You have to respect Mother Nature. I think it takes a special caliber of a person to work at sea. A salute to them all!
I was on a Navy Ship during Vietnam. We went through many typhoons. Going bow first into 70ft rough waves, going underwater then coming out the other side. One one day I could hear the ship screaming in paint also hearing welds breaking along the main center beam. We we’re 5,000 miles from the home of San Diego. God stepped in and rescued the ship.
Hitting a rogue wave head on presents its own dangers, as the ship can break up when breaching. Being ocean liners of solid construction, the Lusitania and QEII were able to withstand these forces, but they present a massive risk for modern cargo and cruise ships which are considerably weaker.
Apropos: the Queen Mary inspired the 1972 Poseidon Adventure
A ship breaches when it hits a wave sideways.
@@MarieJackson-sp3be Not really, as it’s only called breaching when a considerable portion of the ship leaves the water. This can only happen lengthwise. A ship rolls or capsizes when it’s hit side on by a wave.