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Rogue wave! A merchant ship labours in heavy seas as a large wave looms ahead, Bay of Biscay, circa 1940For the cruise industry, the best that can be said for current reports of a rogue wave and a man overboard is that they happened on different cruise ships.

It wasn’t as though a rogue wave had swept a man overboard, but the two reports, coming so close together last week, are just what the industry doesn’t need as it works to manage lurid media stories of new Covid outbreaks on ships.

The outcome of the two separate cases, the Rogue Wave and the Man Overboard, couldn’t have been more different.

Case 1: The Rogue Wave

A monstrous “rogue wave” slammed into Viking Polaris on a voyage toward Ushuaia, Argentina, last week, killing a passenger and injuring several others.

Viking Cruises did not say how the passenger died or disclose the passenger’s name or nationality. Photos of the ship after impact, however, show what appear to be several shattered cabin windows. The Guardian reported the victim was a 62-year-old woman hit by broken glass when the cabin windows smashed.

“It is with great sadness that we confirm a guest passed away following the incident,” Viking said in statement. “We have notified the guest’s family and shared our deepest sympathies.”

The four passengers who were hurt were treated by onboard medical staff and had non-life-threatening injuries, Viking Cruises said.

Rogue waves (also known as freak waves, monster waves, episodic waves, killer waves, extreme waves, and abnormal waves) are unusually large, unpredictable surface waves that appear by surprise and can be extremely dangerous to ships, even to large ones.

Rogue waves are “large, unexpected and dangerous”, confirms the National Ocean Service of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The description is also true of rogue elephants.

NOAA continues: “Rogue waves are greater than twice the size of surrounding waves, are very unpredictable, and often come unexpectedly from directions other than prevailing wind and waves. Most reports of extreme storm waves say they look like ‘walls of water.’ They are often steep-sided with unusually deep troughs.”

A passenger aboard Viking Polaris told US news station WIBW the wave’s impact was “just like your whole house got shook really hard.”

“I mean, it was just a thud.”

The cruise line cancelled the Viking Polaris’ next scheduled trip, a 13-day cruise to the Antarctic Peninsula.

“We are investigating the facts surrounding this incident and will offer our support to the relevant authorities,” Viking said, adding that the “focus remains on the safety and wellbeing of our guests and crew” and that it was arranging return travel for those affected. 

Case 2: Man overboard!

News channel CNN and other US media have run the remarkable story of a man named James Michael Grimes, who “fell overboard from a Carnival cruise ship in the Gulf of Mexico” and attributed his survival to “the sheer will to live, along with strength from God”.

An American from Alabama, Grimes, 28, believes he swam for more than 15 hours. He was in the water for about 21 hours.

Grimes was aboard Carnival Valor with 18 members of his family for Thanksgiving week.

On 23 November, about an hour before midnight, Grimes left an onboard bar, where he was with his sister, to use a restroom. That’s when the trouble began.

The last thing he remembers before regaining consciousness in the sea was going to listen to live music aboard the ship with family, Grimes said.

He doesn’t remember where, or how, he fell off the ship but says he was not drunk.

He says that during his time in the sea he swam through two schools of jellyfish, watched sunrise, lost almost 9 kilos in weight and had conversations with God.

Grimes was eventually spotted in the water by a cargo ship which alerted the US Coast Guard – who sent a helicopter to hoist him out of the water.

Grimes won’t rule out taking another cruise.

It’s a strange story but a great outcome. Footage of Grimes’ remarkable rescue from the ocean can be viewed below:

 

 

 Written by Peter Needham

 

 

 

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