"John Sisker" wrote in
news:Yqlag.1116$921.208@newsread4.news.pas.earthlink.net:
> To Whom It May Concern:
>
> We came across this information in the trades, in the form
> of a press release, and thought it would be of interest to
> this newsgroup as well.
>
>
>
> Could huge cruise ships such as Royal Caribbean's new
> freedom of the eas -- almost as tall as the Empire State
> Building -- in real life get turned upside down by a freak
> wave as portrayed in the just released film "Poseidon?"
>
> Not really, answers The New York Times.
>
> In the film, a 150-foot wave strikes the luxury liner to
> roll it over. Surviving passengers and crew then have to
> work their way through the upturned ship to the ocean
> surface.
>
> "A wave as large as 150 feet hasn't been observed; the
> largest is around 120 feet," said Dr. William Asher, an
> oceanographer at the University of Washington.
>
> Even with such a huge wave, however, modern ocean liners
> have safety systems such as stabilizers that would prevent
> the ship from turning over.
>
> There have never been reports of large ships capsizing from
> huge waves, though they have destroyed container ships and
> have caused damage ocean liners.
>
> With modern equipment, even a Titanic-like iceberg collision
> is highly unlikely, according to Dr. Asher.
>
>
>
> John Sisker, Agency
>
>
>
>
It would be more believable if they had not made an error on the
simplist item in the list.
The largest wave ever recorded (at least by a reliable observer)
was by the USS Ramapo back in the early 1930s. The ship was
about 120 feet long and completely fit on the side of an
enormous sea wave that passed under it in the mid-Pacific, and
was estimated to be 134 feet high.
Note that is for the larged wave that was survived!!
There are frequent losses of ships in the North Pacific and off
the coast of SAfrica where the big waves are normal.
And then you have the freak waves that are actually the
superpositioning of several waves impacting at an angle. This
simply adds the power of each wave into a monster that lasts for
a few seconds.
Put a high center of gravity on any ship, and a wave to start a
roll and you have a risk of capsizing.
As for Titanic, yes an iceberg event is unlikely, ships go
farther south these days and alerts are available -- but the
berg had a surface size of only a house.
Now repeating an Andrea Doria/Stockholm event is a different
story. Lots more ships sailing on fixed scheds in poor
visibility. And they had radar then also. |