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Because of a lack of navigational abilities, the ship had to be steered manually from the engine room, per the news agency. The Viking Polaris ship's next departure for the Antarctic, scheduled for Dec. 5, has been canceled "after careful consideration," the cruise line said. "No matter what side of the boat you're on, it was felt throughout the ship that clearly something bad had happened," she said. Californian Beverly Spiker told ABC News that a "huge smash" against the window of her and her husband's cabin caused her window frame to break. Lawrence told BI that while she probably won't head to the North Sea in the winter again, she would still cruise with HX in the future. He studied marine biology at the University of Exeter before training to become a journalist.
Rogue Wave Strikes Cruise Ship, Killing a Passenger and Injuring 4 Others
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. "We are investigating the facts surrounding this incident and will offer our support to the relevant authorities," the company said. The ship, operated by HX, a cruise company owned by Norway's Hurtigruten Group, was about 120 miles from Denmark's west coast when the wave struck, Reuters reported. The wave's force shattered some of the ship's windows and caused it to tilt "pretty violently," passenger Elizabeth Lawrence told Business Insider.
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"We are investigating the facts surrounding this incident and will offer our support to the relevant authorities," Viking said in a statement Thursday. "Our focus remains on the safety and wellbeing of our guests and crew, and we are working directly with them to arrange return travel." The Norwegian cruise ship MS Maud temporarily lost power on Thursday after encountering the rogue wave. Its operator, Hurtigruten Expedition, said in a statement that the 266 guests and 131 crew were uninjured and that the vessel, initially headed for the English port of Tilbury, would be diverted to Bremerhaven, Germany, for disembarkation.
Rogue wave strikes cruise ship, killing 1 and injuring 4 more
Hurtigruten Cruise Ship Awaiting Tow After Hit from Rogue Wave - gCaptain
Hurtigruten Cruise Ship Awaiting Tow After Hit from Rogue Wave.
Posted: Thu, 21 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]
In 2019, a study published in the journal Scientific Reports predicted that rogue waves could become less frequent but more extreme in the future due to the effects of human-caused climate change. The exact mechanisms behind the rogue waves are still unknown, but researchers think the freakish crests are formed when smaller waves merge into larger ones, either due to high surface winds or changes in ocean currents caused by storms, according to NOAA. "This wave hit and came over and literally broke through windows and just washed into these rooms," Tom Trusdale, a passenger aboard the Viking Polaris when the incident happened, told ABC News. "It is with great sadness that we confirmed a guest passed away following the incident," Viking Cruises said in a statement.
The ship suffered limited damage and arrived in Ushuaia, 1,926 miles (3,100km) south of Buenos Aires, the next day. Scientists often refer to rogue waves as extreme storm waves that surge out of nowhere, often in an unpredictable direction, and can look like a steep wall of water, up to twice the size of surrounding waves. The Viking Polaris cruise ship was sailing toward Ushuaia in Argentina — the main starting point for expeditions to Antarctica — when there was "a rogue wave incident," a representative of the Viking cruise company said in a statement. 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 ship was on its way from Florø, Norway, to Tilbury, England, at the time, according to a spokesperson. Rogue waves are freak waves that are at least twice as high as the surrounding sea state — the average height of the waves for a given area at a given time, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The massive walls of water come from seemingly out of nowhere and without warning. Four passengers who were injured were treated onboard the ship by a doctor and medical staff for non-life-threatening injuries, the company said. The MS Maud lost power after the wave hit as the ship was sailing toward Tilbury, England, from Florø, Norway, HX, a unit of Norway’s Hurtigruten Group, said in a statement. On Dec. 2, a passenger onboard another cruise ship in the Drake Passage shared a video of another massive, but less destructive, wave on Twitter.
Rogue Wave Knocks Out Power Aboard Expedition Cruise Ship - TravelPulse
Rogue Wave Knocks Out Power Aboard Expedition Cruise Ship.
Posted: Fri, 22 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Viking Polaris passengers speak out after 'rogue wave' strikes Antarctic cruise ship, killing American woman
Sheri Zhu, 62, has been identified by ABC News as the person who died during the incident last Tuesday, citing Secretary of the Ushuaia Federal Court Melina Rodriguez. The ship was traveling to Ushuaia, Argentina, when it was struck and Fox News Digital has reached out to the government there for further comment. 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. The ship "sustained limited damage during the incident" and arrived in Ushuaia Wednesday afternoon, Viking said in its statement.
'Rogue wave' hits Viking cruise ship, killing 1 passenger and injuring 4 others
Nathan Diller is a consumer travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Nashville. A similar incident occurred on Viking Polaris last year, killing one passenger and injuring four others. The company said that falling trees damaged overhead electric wires or blocked tracks largely in northern Germany, but also in the central state of Hesse. National railway operator Deutsche Bahn said Friday there were cancellations on routes from Hamburg and Hannover to Frankfurt and Munich, while long-distance services from Hamburg northward to Kiel and Flensburg weren't running, among other disruptions. Danish Search and Rescue said the vessel could "maneuver via emergency systems, and it has two civilian support vessels close by."
Such freak accidents may seem rare, but hundreds have occurred without warning around the world — on cruise ships, cargo vessels, oil platforms and beaches. The passenger killed was a U.S. citizen, a State Department spokesperson confirmed to ABC News Friday. The cruise company canceled the Viking Polaris’s next scheduled trip, a 13-day cruise to the Antarctic Peninsula. 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. State Department confirmed to ABC News that the deceased was an American citizen.
Beverly Spiker of California also told ABC News that a "huge smash" against the window of the cabin she and her husband were staying in caused the frame to shatter, adding, "A lot of water came shooting in." According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a rogue wave is a large and unexpected wave that can be very dangerous. However, scientists have learned more about them in recent decades, studying how they emerge and how to predict the wall of water that can surge up even in calm seas.
The MS Maud, a Norwegian cruise ship, lost its ability to navigate after a rogue wave knocked out its power on Thursday. Reuters reported that the ship was being towed to Bremerhafen in Germany after the power outage. A spokesperson for the Danish Joint Rescue Coordination Centre told the news agency that a ship from civil rescue firm Esvagt had managed to connect a tow line to the MS Maud. Viking called it a “rogue wave incident” and said the four other passengers’ injuries were non-life threatening. The ship "sustained limited damage during the incident," Viking added, and arrived in Ushuaia Wednesday afternoon.
"We are offering all appropriate consular assistance. Out of respect for the family during this difficult time, we have no further comment," the spokesperson said. A guest died following the incident, Viking said, though did not share further details on the cause of death. The Viking Polaris was launched this year and was designed for travel to remote destinations such as the Antarctic Peninsula. A State Department official said that a U.S. citizen died and that the department was offering consular assistance to the person’s family. "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.
Argentine authorities said the woman who died was hit by broken glass when the wave broke cabin windows. The ship suffered limited damage and arrived in Ushuaia, 1,926 miles south of Buenos Aires, the next day. The 62-year-old woman was hit by broken glass when the wave broke cabin windows late Tuesday during a storm, Argentine authorities said.
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