'Rogue wave' strikes Antarctic cruise ship, leaves 1 dead and 4 injured

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• Expedition cruise ship loses power after being hit by rogue wave
• Rogue wave strikes cruise ship, killing 1 and injuring 4 more

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. 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. These waves are very unpredictable and have a frightening appearance – with most reports describing rogue waves to look like steep "walls of water," the NOAA says.

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There were no serious injuries among guests or crew members aboard the MS Maud vessel, operated by HX, formerly Hurtigruten Expeditions. The ship was on its way from Florø, Norway, to Tilbury, England, at the time, according to a spokesperson. Rogue waves, which scientists call "extreme storm waves," are more than twice the size of surrounding waves, the NOAA says, and often come from different directions than that of the already-existing waves and wind.

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A guest died following the incident, Viking said, though did not share further details on the cause of death. The Viking Polaris had been heading toward the Argentinian port city of Ushuaia en route to a cruise of Antarctica. The ship was able to arrive in port without further incident, but Viking said the Antarctic portion of the itinerary would be canceled.

Cruise ship hit by rogue wave during storm, loses ability to navigate - Fox Business

Cruise ship hit by rogue wave during storm, loses ability to navigate.

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

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Tom and Pam Trusdale were enjoying a bucket list trip to Antarctica, until their trip of a lifetime turned into a deadly disaster. The MS Maud’s on-board technology makes her “exceptionally well-suited” to trips through Norway and the British Isles, the company boasted. “It really hit home when they started handing out orange survival suits to everyone,” Lawrence explained. Every time we move we nearly go flying,” one passenger commented under Hansen’s post. But most of them are very brave and find it very interesting,” he wrote on Facebook. The Viking Polaris was launched in 2022 and is the newest ship in the company's fleet.

Hurtigruten told the outlet in a statement that no serious injuries resulted from the rogue wave. The ship sustained "limited damage" from the rogue wave and arrived in Ushuaia on Wednesday "without further incident," Viking said. Cruise Critic's cruise industry news focuses on cruise lines, such as updated policies and partnerships, as well as cruise ships, ranging from the latest on updated itineraries to the newest and best ships on the oceans (and rivers) today. "At this time, the ship has confirmed that no serious passenger or crew injuries have been sustained as a result of the incident and the condition of the ship remains stable," the statement said. Viking called it a "rogue wave incident" and said the four other passengers' injuries were non-life threatening. "It is with great sadness that we confirmed a guest passed away following the incident," Viking said in statement.

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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. A passenger died and four others were injured after a large, unexpected wave hit a cruise ship traveling toward a popular launching point for expeditions to Antarctica, Viking Cruises said. The ship is docked as passengers await further travel plans from Viking, according to Gooding, who said that two other ships in their bay in Ushuaia were also damaged, possibly by rogue waves. 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.

Expedition cruise ship loses power after being hit by rogue wave

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. “We are investigating the facts surrounding this incident and will offer our support to the relevant authorities,” the company said. Viking Cruises did not say how the passenger was killed or provide the passenger’s name. The four passengers who were injured were treated by onboard medical staff and had non-life-threatening injuries, Viking Cruises said. Rogue, or extreme storm, waves are "greater than twice the size of surrounding waves" and are "very unpredictable," according to the National Ocean Service.

Rogue wave strikes cruise ship, killing 1 and injuring 4 more

The MS Maud isn't the first ship to encounter rough seas in the North Sea — dramatic videos of huge waves crashing in the area have become a source of fascination on TikTok. Dorothy Hallam, a passenger on board, wrote on social media, "We've been sat on the floor in our muster stations for hours wearing our safety suits and life jackets and there's no sign of us being allowed up any time soon. We were thrown about a lot." "I only had to go down a nearby flight of stairs to get to my muster station in the main restaurant, but the ship was tilting pretty violently. When it was all the way over to one side, you could just see a wall of water, no sky or anything," she told BI. "An Esvagt ship is towing it slowly towards Bremerhafen in Germany at around 8-9 knots," the spokesperson told Reuters. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a rogue wave is a large and unexpected wave that can be very dangerous.

"The condition of the ship remains stable and the crew are able to sail under their own power," a spokesperson for HX said. Lawrence added that while in their muster stations, passengers were given "survival suits" — or suits that "dramatically extend survival times" with insulation, per the Coast Guard. Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week. In Hamburg, the Elbe River flooded streets around the city's fish market, with water waist-high in places. German authorities warned of a storm surge of up to three meters (nearly 10 feet) or more above mean high tide on parts of the North Sea coast on Friday.

A U.S. woman was killed and four other passengers injured when a massive wave struck the Viking Polaris cruise ship while it was sailing toward the port of Ushuaia in southern Argentina on an Antarctic cruise, 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. But the Drake Passage is also a notoriously treacherous part of the Southern Ocean, with deep waters that are fed by the powerful Antarctic Circumpolar Current, which makes it capable of producing very large non-rogue waves as well, according to Britannica.

The cruise company canceled the Viking Polaris’s next scheduled trip, a 13-day cruise to the Antarctic Peninsula. Rogue waves are unpredictable, typically twice the size of surrounding waves and often come from a different direction than the surrounding wind and waves, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Scientists are still trying to figure out how and when these uncommon waves form.

The Viking Polaris was launched this year and was designed for travel to remote destinations such as the Antarctic Peninsula. The ship is 665 feet long and can carry 378 passengers and 256 crew members. "At the time that it happened, we personally wondered if, you know, we knew that we weren't by any icebergs, but it's like, did we hit an iceberg? It just was so sudden."

The ship "sustained limited damage during the incident," Viking added, and arrived in Ushuaia Wednesday afternoon. Viking said in a statement on its website that it's investigating the wave incident and is committed to the safety and security of all guests and crew. The vessel carrying 266 passengers and 131 crew suffered shattered windows on its bridge when it encountered a powerful storm in the North Sea late Thursday, Danish authorities said. A Norwegian cruise liner carrying hundreds of passengers weathered a “terrifying” storm before a rogue wave temporarily took out its power, stomach-churning footage showed. The passengers were hurt after a large, unpredictable wave hit the ship, which was traveling toward the Antarctic, Viking Cruises said. In an industry with ever-evolving safety standards, as well new and refurbished ships, and cruise news from around the world that could affect your next sailing, Cruise Critic has the best and most accurate cruise line information, often before it breaks.

The ship suffered limited damage and arrived in Ushuaia, 1,926 miles (3100 kilometres) south of Buenos Aires, the next day. One woman was killed and at least four more were injured when a colossal rogue wave struck a cruise ship off the coast of Argentina last week. The force of the massive wall of water sent passengers flying and smashed several exterior windows, which flooded some rooms and caused further structural damage inside. A 62-year-old American woman, Sheri Zhu, was killed by injuries sustained from the broken glass and four other people received non-life-threatening injuries, according to Australian news site ABC News. The "rogue wave incident" occurred during a storm on Tuesday – when the Viking Polaris cruise ship was heading towards Ushuaia, Argentina, the company said in an Thursday update. One person died and four others were injured after a giant "rogue wave" hit an Antarctica-bound cruise ship, travel company Viking said.

The passenger's leg required surgery, which led the ship's captain to turn back to Argentina. During the trip back toward Argentina, through a known turbulent stretch of ocean, was when the "rogue wave" crashed into the cruise ship. The death on the Viking Cruises ship this week comes after the death of two other cruise ship passengers in the Antarctic last month. Two Quark Expeditions cruise ship passengers died after one of the ship’s heavy duty inflatable Zodiac boats overturned near shore, Seatrade Cruise News reported. The MS Maud sustained a temporary loss of power while sailing to Tilbury, England, from Florø, Norway, HX said in a statement to NBC News. No serious injuries were reported among the 266 passengers and 131 crew members, according to HX.

These rare killer waves were once seen as a myth reported by mariners or explorers. The polar explorer Ernest Shackleton wrote in his book of a "gigantic" freak wave he encountered in Antarctica in 1916. The ship suffered minor damage and was anchored off Ushuaia, 3,200 kilometers (nearly 2,000 miles) from the capital Buenos Aires, with several windows smashed on the side, AFP journalists reported. "We wondered if we hit an iceberg," Suzie Gooding, a passenger from North Carolina, told WRAL-TV.