Rouge Waves

April 23, 2008 10:50 AM

Some could be 500 Ft tall and would engulf a cruiseliner or warship They come from nowhere. Rising from the deep...
posted by shockingbluamp (60 comments total)

rouge waves = red tide
posted by DU at 10:56 AM on April 23 [3 favorites]

Rouge wave!
posted by MrMoonPie at 11:00 AM on April 23 [1 favorite]

Wait

...two large ships sink every week on average, but the cause is never studied to the same detail as an air crash. It simply gets put down to 'bad weather'.

What the hell? How about swamp gas? Or dragons?

...the MaxWave team identified more than ten individual giant waves around the globe above 25 metres in height.

Really puts the size of the ocean in perspective when you realize that 10 75+ ft objects can be roaming around and nobody noticed. And that's just the surface!

I can't wait until we learn to harness this power for ourselves. Military-grade surfing.
posted by DU at 11:01 AM on April 23

Rogue Wave.
posted by synaesthetichaze at 11:02 AM on April 23

Military-grade surfing.

Count me in for that. Its like the end of Point Break. You wrestle in the surf with Keanu for a few hot minutes, then you make an emotional plea and he takes the cuffs off and wistfully watches as you ride out to meet your fate.

This is how I want to die.
posted by allkindsoftime at 11:05 AM on April 23

Am I the only one who is disappointed that the topic of this post didn't turn out to be a giant squid?
posted by The Light Fantastic at 11:05 AM on April 23 [20 favorites]

They come from nowhere. Rising from the deep... Single-link FPPs with a little coolness-factor, but not much else.
posted by KokuRyu at 11:05 AM on April 23

previously
posted by jouke at 11:06 AM on April 23 [1 favorite]

i flunked spelling class
posted by shockingbluamp at 11:07 AM on April 23

For an interesting point of reference, here's a photo of the Esso Languedoc (the ship in the first photo on the ESA page) when it's not being attacked by rogue waves.
posted by brain_drain at 11:08 AM on April 23

Am I the only one who is disappointed that the topic of this post didn't turn out to be a giant squid?

No.
posted by rooftop secrets at 11:09 AM on April 23

Where is our Crimson Tide joke?
posted by Viomeda at 11:12 AM on April 23

We're going to need a bigger boat.
posted by Hicksu at 11:17 AM on April 23 [1 favorite]

Where is our Crimson Tide joke?

Double post?
posted by Pollomacho at 11:17 AM on April 23

Its like the end of Point Break.

I apologize to everyone. The last thing in the world I'd want to wish on anyone is thoughts of Point Break or Keanu Reeves.
posted by DU at 11:21 AM on April 23

Wikipedia's Rouge Editors
posted by Plutor at 11:21 AM on April 23

I am disappointed it's not a giant squid. Giant waves are almost as neat, though.
posted by Green Eyed Monster at 11:21 AM on April 23

I was hoping for a big squid.

*sigh*

This internet isn't turning out to be everything I dreamed.
posted by Bathtub Bobsled at 11:22 AM on April 23

what GEM said
posted by Bathtub Bobsled at 11:23 AM on April 23

/whispers, "White squall!"
posted by Democritus at 11:23 AM on April 23

I don't want to die anywhere in the vicinity of Keanu.
posted by fusinski at 11:29 AM on April 23

2004 and very very talked about
posted by badstone at 11:35 AM on April 23

Where does 500 ft come from? I see several references to both 10 story and 30 meters, both of which equate to roughly 100 ft.
posted by horsemuth at 11:38 AM on April 23

world's worst software development pun ahead, cap'n!

Ever since the STL became really widespread I found that Rogue Wave really lost their relevance in the C++ development tools market. Perhaps that explains their change in strategy to sinking cargo ships.
posted by GuyZero at 11:40 AM on April 23

[H.P. Lovecraft Referrence]
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 11:43 AM on April 23 [1 favorite]

Can you tag your post a little better than the shoutout to damninteresting.com? I'm not even clear what that has to do with this.
posted by ardgedee at 12:03 PM on April 23

Some could be 500 Ft tall and would engulf a cruiseliner or warship They come from nowhere. Rising from the deep...

Interesting link, but a) the waves are discussed are 20-30m tall, b) the article discusses different causes and there is no suggestion that they come from nowhere, and c) the waves don't rise from the deep.
posted by ssg at 12:03 PM on April 23

I was hoping for a big squid.

Yes, well, maybe we can all compromise and have a giant wave of squid. Or else a squid riding a giant wave. Or perhaps Keanu rising from the deep, riding a giant squid while trying to start The Wave.

Everybody happy now?
posted by zeph at 12:08 PM on April 23

Am I the only one who is disappointed that the topic of this post didn't turn out to be a giant squid?

If by 'squid' you mean elder gods with tentacles for faces, then yes.
posted by Dipsomaniac at 12:08 PM on April 23 [2 favorites]

Squidless? O.K. Here...Giant Squid.
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 12:09 PM on April 23

In South Shackelton recounts that during his epic 1,300 km open boat journey across the Southern Ocean from Elephant island to South Georgia island, he saw an interesting cloud formation... which wasn't a cloud at all, but a gigantic wave "which I realized that what I had seen was not a rift in the clouds but [its] white crest . . . During twenty-six years' experience of the ocean in all its moods I had not encountered [one] so gigantic."

He recorded that he said something like "We've had it boys," before the wave engulfed them.

But nature wasn't bad ass enough to kill that guy.
posted by three blind mice at 12:17 PM on April 23

didn't he die of natural causes? I guess it was bad-ass enough.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 12:42 PM on April 23

I love the giant squids. hoom-dee-ya-da.
posted by The Bellman at 12:48 PM on April 23

The results of this year's most-photographed rogue wave incident so far: MV Riverdance, Blackpool, UK (article and more pictures).
posted by Lebannen at 1:05 PM on April 23 [1 favorite]

didn't he die of natural causes?

Indeed. But it weren't no big wave that got 'em.
posted by three blind mice at 1:11 PM on April 23

I love how we're calling them rogue waves. Like they're not abiding by a treaty or something.
posted by regicide is good for you at 1:20 PM on April 23 [2 favorites]

Good point, rigfy. They could be part of a disciplined unit but just doing things their own way. You know, maverick waves.
posted by Faint of Butt at 1:28 PM on April 23

Chief Wave: We do things by the book in my ocean, McSalty. One more maverick ship-sinking stunt like that and I'll have your badge.

McSalty: You'll have my badge, Chief, but you won't have results.
posted by regicide is good for you at 1:35 PM on April 23 [10 favorites]

Lebannen: what an...interesting design to that website!

Things I learned from it: in England, rogue waves are called freak waves; the M/V Riverdance was carrying, as part of its cargo, a whole lot of McVities HobNobs, many containers of which washed up on shore. The waste! the horror!

Really, though, cool photos there on the aftermath of a rogue/freak wave.
posted by rtha at 2:02 PM on April 23

Like they're not abiding by a treaty or something.

You're thinking of the Poseidon Accord of 1653. To be honest, he's been acting quite aggressively lately, and I wouldn't be surprised if we see sanctions placed against him.

Hopefully he won't return to those dark days like when he annexed Atlantis. That was just bad for everyone.
posted by quin at 2:09 PM on April 23 [1 favorite]

We all know Red Lobster's funded Poseidon for years. Sanctions would be the height of hypocrisy, and would only hurt innocent starfish.
posted by regicide is good for you at 2:29 PM on April 23

And if that wave carried big game fish, it would be a Marlin Rouge wave.
posted by JDHarper at 2:35 PM on April 23 [1 favorite]

Seems surfable to me ... if they would break more consistently.
posted by Relay at 2:43 PM on April 23

Forget about rogue/rouge waves and giant squids... I expected a biography of my ex-wife here...

(grin)

(really)

(grin)

(I mean it)
posted by Samizdata at 2:53 PM on April 23

rtha - ack, sorry, umm, yes, interesting. Last time I posted a link to Cargolaw I added a disclaimer/warning, but today I was in a bit of a hurry. Sorry again. And they're American, as it happens. Lots of people say 'freak wave' when they really mean 'rogue wave'; the documentary on which the FPP was based spent quite a lot of time complaining about it. There are actual articles written by journalists and seafarers about the Riverdance, but once again with the lazy, I didn't go looking. The short version is, she's got so stuck in the mud now that she's not going to come out in one piece.
posted by Lebannen at 3:49 PM on April 23

Tim Flannery:

It says much of our ignorance that the very largest denizens of the deep have never been captured or seen alive. It was only in April 2003 that a species known as the colossal squid was recognized as the largest of all invertebrates, exceeding even the giant squid in size. Only one juvenile and a three-quarters-grown female have been captured to date: yet the creature is not rare, making up three quarters of the diet of the sperm whale. Studies of squid beaks taken from the bellies of such whales reveal that for the great majority of squid families, the very smallest squid eaten by the whales exceeds in size the largest example ever caught by a scientist. Those enormous creatures that lurked just beyond the reach of William Beebe's searchlight remain, it seems, even today beyond our ability to apprehend.

posted by russilwvong at 3:54 PM on April 23

CRIMSON TIDE !
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:27 PM on April 23

We're going to need a bigger boat.

I looks like it, Hicksu. Which size would be most appropriate?
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 5:10 PM on April 23

Truly, Lebannen, I enjoyed that site's idiosyncrasies. In some ways, in the land of Shiny New Flashy Flash! websites, it's actually kind of cool to see one that's so, um, organic. And I reckon I just assumed it was a non-US site because of all the Blackpool references, although of course it makes sense in context, since they were writing about a shipwreck site.
posted by rtha at 5:32 PM on April 23

You think that's a big wave? That's not a big wave. This is a big wave.

Also, OP reminds me:

UP FROM THE DEPTHS
THIRTY STORIES HIGH
BREATHING FIRE
HIS HEAD IN THE SKY
GODZILLA!
GODZILLA!
GODZILLA!

...and Godzooky...
posted by Rhaomi at 5:35 PM on April 23 [2 favorites]

Definitely a double post.

And even if it weren't, a single-link post to a 4-year old story is pretty thin gruel indeed.
posted by googly at 5:36 PM on April 23

Nothing's free in Waterworld.
posted by bwg at 6:07 PM on April 23

Not a squid, eh?

Well yes, but it may yet turn out to be that these large waves are entirely filled with giant squids.

and unicorns...

fighting!
posted by washburn at 6:48 PM on April 23

...Narwhales?
posted by P.o.B. at 6:55 PM on April 23

Where does 500 ft come from?

Maybe the poster is thinking of Lituya Bay, actually 500 meters, not feet.
posted by owhydididoit at 7:25 PM on April 23

Ha! In a moment of synchronicity, `The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald' started playing from my random playlist as I loaded the page.
posted by tomble at 9:18 PM on April 23

Rogue waves are an awesome, scary topic. When I lived in New Orleans (2001) my favorite bar, Molly's at the Market, had a retired Cajun sailor stop by every now and again. He'd come in for his coconut-rum, and after three or four, would try to tell you, in slurred French, about the time his ship was hit by a rogue wave. I don't speak Cajun French, so he took some pains to act it out. In a long and colorful life, this was the only thing that impressed him enough to try to share it with strangers unasked, and is probably the only reason why he was at the bar to begin with.

There are two types of rogue wave - the typical monster wave, and the Three Sisters. The Three Sisters starts out as a really, really big crest that smacks you hard as you ride up it, and then it drops you into a deep, steep trough, where you're clobbered by the second, even bigger crest, which then drops you into a black abyss in the shadow of a mountain of water. Three rogue waves for the price of one, each worse than the last.

It's not just at sea, either. Here in RI, we lose an average of two anglers a year, swept out to sea. The surfcasters working the rocks and jetties all know about Sneaker Waves - enormous waves that come out of nowhere, with enough force to knock you from your feet, and sometimes, sweep you out to sea. If you're out at sea, and the water is cold because it's early spring or late fall, or you're wearing rubber raingear (like waders) that fills with water before you can get out of it, you're hosed - notify the next of kin. Guys learn to keep half an eye on what the surf is doing at all times, and a few wear lifejackets when surfcasting anywhere that isn't a soft sand beach.

Even then you're not safe - in 1992, a fifty foot monster came out of nowhere and socked Daytona Beach. It tossed around cars like toys, and hurt dozens of people on the beach, there to splash around in the mild Daytona surf on a sunny summer day. (No deaths, thank god.)
posted by Slap*Happy at 11:58 PM on April 23

About a thousand comments back, synaeshtetichaze has the comment: Rogue Wave which is actually a link to a band by the name of Rogue Wave, which, out of weariness over the generally drifting nature of this potentially interesting thread, I checked out. And guess what, it's actually a pretty good band.
posted by Faze at 4:33 AM on April 24

I saw a freakish wave hit the caldera at Santorini, in the Greek Isles. Perhaps lucky for myself, I had just climbed out of the water (we were swimming off the pier). Some other folks were in the process of getting out when the wave hit, and nearly bashed them on the rocks. There stuff got all wet. No clue about the origin of the wave. It's not like it's open sea there. I wonder if perhaps somewhere on the bottom the rock slipped or something. It wasn't a monster wave, but it surely was a freak.
posted by Goofyy at 4:53 AM on April 24

John Bolton was right all along! If these Rogue Waves are not stopped, they may combine to form an Axis of Evil Waves, and threaten our way of life...I mean they're housing the destructive capacity of WMDs...literally. To the sea! Liberate the currents!

You realise, of course, thanks to that Tim Flannery peice I am now going to have to re-watch SeaQuest DSV. For beneath the surface lies the future

Oh FFS I just reminded myself how good 'Surface' was, which I will now also have to re-watch
posted by cosmonik at 6:29 AM on April 24