"and the gates to hell opened"
November 4, 2015 4:57 AM   Subscribe

"In those terrible moments we did not know if the ship was below the water or still floating! But like a miracle the windows cleared again, and 'Stolt Surf' continued its brave battle against the waves." Amazing photographs and first-person description by Karsten Petersen of the chemical tanker "Stolt Surf" running afoul of a strong hurricane and rogue waves in the North Pacific, 1977.

Petersen's images were some of the few (at the time, perhaps the only) photographs actually documenting rare waves at sea of over 20 meters (65 ft), but the addition of his other photos capturing moments of onboard leisure time enjoyed by the captain and crew, plus images of ship damages in the aftermath, both above- and below-deck, make this particularly special, as does his very human description of the event... especially his wry commentary on the reception they received when they finally limped into port, having barely escaped the watery deep sea maw of "the gates of hell" with their lives intact.

(You can see more of Petersen's maritime photos on the rest of the site)

According to Wikipedia, the evidence provided by Petersen's photos helped affirm the existence of abnormally large waves, "where science, using the linear model had predicted that such extreme waves were extremely rare, to the extent that a 30 metre crest to trough wave would occur only once every 10,000 years. The proof gathered by the Stolt Surf joined a growing body of evidence that the linear model did not adequately explain all of the types of waves that could be encountered."

Today, the storied freak waves once dismissed as a nautical myth have been acknowledged via satellite evidence establishing the existence of so-called "rogue waves," and advanced predictive models are now being researched.
posted by taz (19 comments total) 24 users marked this as a favorite
 
(btw, the ships-in-peril theme some may notice is not a coincidence! I came across this while looking up info related to the Edmund Fitzgerald after reading mandolin conspiracy's great post.)
posted by taz at 5:02 AM on November 4, 2015 [3 favorites]


That was literally awesome. My dad used to work on small freighters doing deep sea runs from the late 60s through to the 80s. When on leave he'd read Lloyds List every day to keep up with the latest maritime disasters - groundings, fires, sinkings, collisions. He lost quite a few friends that way. Not sure he ever saw anything as terrifying as this, but it probably got close. Sailors are a tough lot.
posted by peterkins at 5:20 AM on November 4, 2015 [1 favorite]


That would be terrifying to experience. As he notes, they were lucky that the engine didn't stop running.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:30 AM on November 4, 2015


Through this post, the Edmund Fitzgerald post, and the post about the three men who disappeared from a lighthouse on an island off the coast of Scotland, rogue waves are now my new baseline for equal parts terror and awe.
posted by Kitteh at 5:35 AM on November 4, 2015 [2 favorites]


Loud, nervous laughter.

Waves over 22 meters high? (70 feet? )

HA HA HA HA AH HA hah ….
posted by From Bklyn at 5:51 AM on November 4, 2015


Comparing the height of the vertical cranes on the deck from the shots in port to the size of the waves in front of them is awe-inspiring.

I can even forgive Captain Oddenes for wearing knee socks with sandals.

Here's the excellent BBC Horizon programme Freak Waves for more chills.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 6:05 AM on November 4, 2015 [4 favorites]


Maybe if the ship had a different name the sea gods would not have said, "I'LL GIVE YOU SOMETHING TO SURF!"
posted by ardgedee at 6:15 AM on November 4, 2015


Cargo ship? Ocean? Gigantic Cthulhu like waves? Nope. Nope. Nope.
posted by Beholder at 6:37 AM on November 4, 2015


First priority in damage assessment: how badly damaged was the bar? Then we see another view of the bar. Shots of damage to the crew quarters, then a photo of the Captain looking "deeply concerned" into the officer's bar.

Only later do we see that the deck is covered in twisted metal.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 7:07 AM on November 4, 2015 [13 favorites]


I don't think 1st Engineer Gunnar Erikson was wearing any pants at that party!
posted by ChuraChura at 7:26 AM on November 4, 2015 [1 favorite]


There's also quite a bit about rogue waves in The Perfect Storm (probably what took out the Andrea Gail), and Susan Casey wrote an excellent book called The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean which goes into the science of rogue waves and the people who are interested in them: scientists and surfers.
posted by ChuraChura at 7:29 AM on November 4, 2015 [3 favorites]


how badly damaged was the bar?

justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow, after surviving something like that, the bar would be my first priority too! :)
posted by taz at 8:01 AM on November 4, 2015 [4 favorites]


> First priority in damage assessment: how badly damaged was the bar?

I wonder if at the time the photos were taken it was still unsafe to be outdoors, or even in the hold or on the lower decks.
posted by ardgedee at 8:34 AM on November 4, 2015


I wonder if at the time the photos were taken it was still unsafe to be outdoors, or even in the hold or on the lower decks.

I think at the time the photos were taken it was unsafe to be in that geographical region, let alone anywhere on that ship.
posted by dazed_one at 8:38 AM on November 4, 2015 [1 favorite]


This whole site is a fantastic time sink for the maritime-inclined. Thanks for the link!
posted by thesmallmachine at 8:54 AM on November 4, 2015 [1 favorite]


This was super neato. Thanks Taz! The wrecked metal! Wowie zowie that's a lot of F. It'd be intesting to do the calculations of the sheer tonnage of those waves. . . . That's it. I'm gonna realize a lifelong dream. I'm going to ask for a trip on a container ship around Cape Horn for Xmas. It's time to do this.

(And huh. I've been on so many ships where the crew was Filipino. I shouldn't be surprised to see that in the '70s but for some reason I was.)
posted by barchan at 10:19 AM on November 4, 2015


I don't think 1st Engineer Gunnar Erikson was wearing any pants at that party!

"First mate, bring me my brown pants."
posted by JackFlash at 10:26 AM on November 4, 2015 [2 favorites]


It's entirely my own fault, I knew what was coming and I still clicked and scrolled. This is what my nightmares will be about tonight.
posted by Vortisaur at 10:50 AM on November 4, 2015


I spent a few years working as a marine technician aboard a research icebreaker in the Southern Ocean. We routinely saw 20+ ft swell while crossing the Drake Passage, which makes even a 308 foot ship feel tiny. However, I never experienced anything like the linked article (holy damn!) and I never hope to.
posted by deadbilly at 1:05 PM on November 4, 2015 [4 favorites]


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