Big wave smacks ship off Oregon coast [SIZE=-1]03:27 PM PST on Wednesday, November 15, 2006 [/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]ASSOCIATED PRESS[/SIZE] COOS BAY, Ore. -- A container ship sought refuge and repairs at Coos Bay after a rogue wave reported to be about 70 feet high smacked into it, knocking out windows and electronics. A distress call Sunday night prompted the U.S. Coast Guard to send an aircraft to make sure the Westwood Pomona was faring well. The ship arrived in Coos Bay Monday afternoon. "They apparently took a pretty good-size wave, and it came up high enough that it knocked out some of the windows of the bridge," said Bob Rogers, the manager of the Roseburg Forest Product's woodchip facility, where the ship docked for repairs. The 440-foot-long ship makes round trips between Canada and California biweekly, said Martin Callery of the Coos Bay port. It is owned by Westwood Shipping Lines, a division of Weyerhaeuser Co. He said one of the 22 crew members was slightly injured.
Earlier this week I saw a Discovery channel program about the rogue wave phenomenon. Since there was no documented evidence of rogue waves until the past decade, most oceanographers doubted their existance. There is even some suspicion that the sinking of Edmund Fitzgerald was a result of a rogue wave in the Lake Superior.
There was a fairly comprehesive article in National Geographic a couple years ago that pretty well covered the known parts of the Edmund Fitzgerald. They are still guessing what the cause was, but a rogue wave remains a possibility. We caught one in the north Atlantic when I was in the service, estimated at about 70 feet, rolled us around a bit, but that sort of thing won't hurt a sub too badly. It was in a storm, so we were buttoned up for submerged ops. Popped us up far enough that air got into the condensers in the trough that followed the lift.
When I was in the reruitment center, entering the Navy, they played the "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" all day long on the sound system - I always wondered if it would prove prophetic . . . We did go thru a hurricane once, in my 420 foot frigate. I awoke at night, in the radar room where I'd sacked out. The door to the office was BENEATH me! That didn't seem right . . . I levered it up, and the office was a shambles. It dawned on me - we were on OUR SIDE! At this point, gun mounts, the Mack structure and radar antennas should have fallen off to help right us. They didn't, but we did come back upright. Whew!! I'm betting that Russky sub we were chasing around the seamounts was laughing his butt off. I also saw the Coast Guard Cutter "Bear" after she went THRU a big wave. Not quite as big as us, but a fair sized ship. For a few moments, she was the USCG's first submarine. Total submersion. The water pressure ripped away her fiberglass 5" gun turret casing, all the stanchions from the fore deck, and set the front of the Bridge back several inches! She was okay, and was repaired and back in service soon. I bet there wasn't an unsoiled pair of dungarees on board afterwards! Yep, sailng can be an adventure . . .
