When Nature Strikes Back - Episode 105: Freak Waves

when moving air meets water friction develops this energy causes movement of the water molecules during storms waves can reach up to 70 feet in height seamen have been telling stories about 120 foot high monster waves for a long time but scientists dismissed these stories as yarns however we know now that they really do exist freak waves the monsters of the sea rotterdam the biggest port in the world intense activity prevails here in the container terminal even at midnight captain carl ulrich lampe on his way to work he has had more experience with the power of waves than he could ever want there are still 400 containers to be loaded on board the freight ship angela j the 65 year old captain could have retired long ago but he was once again persuaded by the shipping company to take command of the freighter time to set sail the sailors take to the gangways and the hausers captain lampe commands a 10-man crew coming from six different countries four thousand seven hundred tons begin to move the ship's destination is on the other side of the atlantic after 20 miles when the angela j reaches the open sea the sun begins to rise carl ulrich lampe has been at sea for almost 50 years weather and visibility are good as the ship crosses the english channel nevertheless the second mate on the bridge registers each and every movement around the ship when the sea is calm there is enough time for a chat on the bridge with the second mate who comes from poland have you heard anything about freak waves no no no i've never heard anything they happen quite often and they they measured waves up to a height of almost 30 meters that's right yes yes and it's interesting what they the theory how they develop you know waves move with different speed yes so one wave overtakes the other ones they approach each other with different angles and suddenly the energy of two waves adds each other and then they build up storms can cause massive waves to swell but until recently scientists were convinced that waves of more than 80 feet in height were physically impossible during experiments scientists acted on the assumption that wave motion remains constant but the wind causes waves to move irregularly and different waves of varying speeds overlap one another when a number of large waves meet at a particular point monster waves of up to 140 feet can be generated and then they have this phenomenon sometimes it's one big way or various people or three causes three sisters have you ever seen this yes once in my life yeah and and so far i never believed it i must say afternoon on the english channel a wind begins to blow evening draws near as the coast of ireland appears on the horizon fast net rock the most southwesterly lighthouse before the irish coast here the winter storms which strike every year see to it that stories of giant waves will never be forgotten saturday evening in the fishing village of baltimore every two weeks after their routine drill the lifeboat men meet up for a chat and a pint of guinness in bush's pub the captain of the lifeboat kieran cotter is an assorted good salesman by profession today he commanded an alarm drill and this time it is quite possible that it will prove useful a storm is forecast for tomorrow the next morning all is quiet on land but out at fastnet rock the storm is already raging although the lighthouse tower is 180 feet high the waves almost reach the top the waves crashing against the cliffs of misenhead provide an impressive spectacle it is the 3rd of january in the afternoon the storm has already caused substantial waves to form dietrich vasel and his longtime girlfriend utta younga are on holiday here from germany the marine biologist is a passionate hobby photographer and does not want to miss this unique opportunity three hours ago the storm changed course coming from the northwest two different waves crash into each other the sea boils and time and again unimaginably high waves are formed dietrich verzel and his girlfriend discover an old concrete stairway that leads to the cliffs the storm is too rough for ootayunga so she decides to stop and wait the hobby photographer goes down a few more steps and stops a good 90 feet above the waterline the waves make for breathtaking subjects but then a muffled rumbling noise becomes unusually loud even during this rough storm the wave is a good 90 feet high and the photographer has no chance dietrich verzel fights for his life the place where he stood is empty realizing that she herself cannot do a thing dietrich vassell's girlfriend runs off to find help in the raging sea it is almost impossible to find a rock to cling to yet another wave nearly reaches the spot where dietrich vessel stood not even two minutes ago the lifeboat men in baltimore assemble hastily kieran cotter knows he doesn't have much time it takes half an hour through the high waves to get to misenhead if the man is not found within a further half hour then he doesn't even stand a chance of surviving the water temperature this time captain cotter does not take it easy on the engine of his boat before they reach the cliffs of misenheit the search operation is coordinated with the rescue team on land the men immediately take up their lookout positions the storm and waves have decreased in strength but there is no trace of the missing man and the half hour has long since passed after two hours captain cotter decides to break off the search and to return to baltimore before dark he knows that dietrich verzel will no longer be found alive eleven days later seals circle around a lifeless body seals instinctively try to protect hopeless creatures by doing this the body of dietrich verzel is found by the coast guards the rocks have decapitated him dietrich verzel is not an isolated case every year people are swept away by giant waves off the coast of ireland meanwhile far out in the atlantic the angela j continues her journey captain lampe sets course for newfoundland in the meantime mareko zislov prepares lunch the cook has made quite a name for himself with his polish specialties mealtimes are sacred on board the weather is glorious nevertheless captain lampe goes up to the bridge he is mistrustful of the sea's calmness did you see the last vessel report yes i saw unfortunately it became to be a little bit worse than now so as you can see now it's about five degree in buffalo scale and later on in the evening will be about even eight degree in buffalo skate i mean today evening will be a little bit more rolling than now yeah well okay we have to live with that wind force eight means a gale warning not a big problem for a ship like the angela j but memories haunt captain lampe in march 2001 when he left the falkland islands on the passenger ship caledonian star a wind force of eight was also forecast yet much worse was in store well uh we see this is the morning of the second of march when we were already in the into in the storm you see the weather forecast was entirely wrong we already had wind force 12 that means 60 knots of wind or even more 80 knots of wind we were down to minimum speed heading into the sea and try to keep the ship as steady as possible under these circumstances the 330 foot long passenger ship battled through the ever-rising waves of course the sea was building up all the time and at this moment at this time the sea was approximately between 40 and 50 feet in average well of course we see with the time being when the wind speed increased steadily the sea was building up more and more and it became more difficult to maneuver to keep the ship steady on this course the ship was pitching and rolling heavily and for this reason we had asked all our passengers to remain in the cabins best stay in their banks the crew members were on standby in the alleyways for and looked after the passengers and served food or drinks on request and of course the deck crew wasn't standby all the time the outer decks were closed at about quarter past five i had left the bridge and went down to my uh quarters and uh 15 minutes later we were the ship was hit by three of these very big wives what we now say freak waves and um as the chief mate who was on watch at that time told me he saw the waves about in a distance of one nautical mile uh on starwood bow and while he altered course slightly to starve to have a better angle when meeting the waves because there was no way to avoid them the ship took the first wave pretty good second wave was already very very difficult and after the third the second wave the ship just fell down into a trough and was hidden by the third wave when tons of water was just smashing down to the ship i was in my cabin and when the first wave hit the ship i was thrown into my shower cabin and of course try to get up as fast as possible and to rush to the bridge back to the bridge and when i passed my waters the water was already pouring out of the ceiling i was really scared and i saw everywhere ship was going down already when i arrived and in the wheelhouse on the bridge the bridge was filled about three to four feet with water and the entire bridge crew was swimming and cold sea water and they had to open the the sliding doors to both sides to the red wings to to let the water out of the bridge the rest flattened down to the officer's quarters and when i arrived okay there was hardly any water left on the bridge but the entire bridge equipment was destroyed and it really looked looked very messy the entire electronic electrical equipment has been i was out of order short circuits everywhere flash flashing lights the alarm bells were ringing because of the short circuit and starboard bridgewing was severely damaged out of order so there was quite some damage but fortunately we never lost engine power steering power so that we we could control the ship and then just keep the ship steady as good as possible and wait for that improvement after a few hours the gale began to die down the caledonian star had withstood three freak waves of over 100 feet in height damaged certainly but without any casualties back on board the angela j the storm begins to blow a fitting time for the weekly safety training exercise thick neoprene suits serve to enable the seamen to survive in cold water of course if there is any possibility we can help each other like this here we have to put one head here another our nose bring the second one like this and jump into the water fit first captain lampe knows that not many ships are so lucky as to withstand a freak wave like the caledonian star the hold is quickly checked to make sure all of the containers are properly secured as the first officer takes over the helm captain lampe immerses himself in the records he has collected about freak waves since his dramatic encounter he knows that these monsters of the sea must first be understood before seafaring can be safe again oil drilling platforms are also threatened by freak waves 600 such huge platforms dot the world's oceans one of them is the petrobras 23 located 90 miles off the coast of brazil in the south atlantic the first freak wave ever recorded and measured hit an oil platform like this in 1995 sensors which monitor every movement of the water with laser beams recorded a wave that peaked at a height of 94 feet the floating city of steel buzzes with activity the christmas tree is being prepared for its 6 500 foot journey to the bottom of the sea a container with spare parts is unloaded from the supply boat the men on board the petrobras 23 searched the ocean floor for four months and finally found what they were looking for the christmas trees pumps and valves will control the supply of compressed air and the pumping of oil from the ocean floor just a few years ago it was all dangerous manual work today computers have taken over the drill master controls every movement from his little glass cabin with a joystick it is very precise work the tiniest deviation above could make a huge difference 6500 feet below on the bridge six marine propellers steer the ship against winds and currents and keep the floating halts pontoon in exactly the same place in case of an emergency the 80 technicians could leave the platform with boats in the space of a few minutes and even 90 feet up the portholes are secured from the inside with steel doors an engineer monitors the computer that pumps water into or out of the pontoons in order to keep the platform level the final touches are added to the christmas tree the work on board and oil platform is very demanding even when the sea is calm but when winter storms strike it becomes a dramatic challenge february 1982 the oil platform ocean ranger off the coast of canada is caught in a storm the ocean ranger's 15 000 tons of weight float on two massive pontoon bodies which are filled with air like a submarine ballast water is pumped into or out of the pontoons individual chambers using pumps and valves in this way the platform is kept steady on the surface of the water on the ocean ranger the control room for operating the valves and water pumps is located in one of the artificial islands pillars donald rathbun is experienced in operating the ballast water pumps winter storms are nothing new off the coast of newfoundland the steel doors in front of the portholes remain open february 14th 7 55 pm a giant wave strikes the salt water causes a series of short circuits donald rathbun no longer has any control pumps and valves switch themselves on as if by magic the portholes deep down in the pontoons open water gushes in and the ocean ranger begins to list dangerously at 109 am an emergency call is placed but because of the storm the rescue helicopters are unable to take off a list of 15 degrees and waves 70 feet high water gushes into the pillars the men on board the ocean ranger begin to realize how serious the situation is most of them had been in their cabins until now there is very little time left these were the last words ever heard from the ocean ranger at 3 38 am the ocean ranger disappears off the radar screens when the helicopters finally are cleared for takeoff a dramatic rescue operation begins there is no sign of the huge platform and the 84 men who work on it the wreckages of lifeboats testify to a desperate fight for survival equipped with underwater boats and divers the coast guard crew sets out to find the ocean ranger and the cause of the catastrophe 250 feet below they discover the wreckage of the ocean ranger again we appear to be looking at a lot of electrical equipment transformers this appears to be off the top of the one of the cranes again we're looking at uh cutting believed to be an accommodation around a bed and eventually they find the control room and the porthole where the disaster originated the metal door being closed over the uh glass window the glass on this uh porthole number one is broken we can see glittering around the edges first the glass broke and then the steel safety door behind it closed divers not as a available of the short 84 people lost their lives on the ocean ranger since the existence of monster waves has been proven a lot of research has been done into their causes freak waves occur mostly when the wind puts pressure against a strong ocean current when the depth of the ocean changes dramatically and when two storms that are close to each other lead to the overlapping of waves in the beginning they were believed to be very rare but now scientists know freak waves occur during almost every big storm when ships are no longer maneuverable normal waves are dangerous enough but monster waves of 100 feet in height or higher can cause large freight ships to simply break into pieces october 2000 a massive wave damages the bow of the evilly sun so badly that the tanker ship sinks the 14 crew members are rescued by helicopters when a freak wave hits the hull of a ship the pressure amounts to 100 tons per one single square meter december 1999 the tanker ship erika gets caught in a storm off the coast of brittany the hull breaks after the impact of a huge wave in the meantime researchers have been investigating shipwrecks from the last few decades whose cause for sinking remains unclear the result is alarming in the last 20 years alone 200 large ships and one drilling platform have sunk as a result of giant waves scientists have now begun to carry out large research projects with the aim of making seafaring safer again it is important to understand the origins of monster waves in order to improve forecasting systems wolfgang rosenthal is the coordinator of the eu research project maxwave for three years he studied all of the data collected about monster waves from around the world now here on the north german island of silt he is testing a new kind of radar which is capable of identifying the exact height of waves from a long distance with the use of such radar machines ships can at least be warned of a collision with a monster wave a few minutes in advance the new machines are still undergoing tests but the results so far are encouraging the wave radar machine is also expected to be very helpful in researching the chaotic formation of waves in nature this is what you see on a typical radar screen if you take an image with a photograph for instance to measure sea state to measure waves and wave heights with from such a sensor you need to remove all the noise and this is done in the left-hand picture there you see large wave crests and valleys wave quests are depicted by dark colors valleys by light colors and you see here what you can also measure in terms of wave height that are long crested ocean waves that run from in this case north towards south and we use it to measure individual wave heights individual quests to draft differences however the monster waves can be detected not only from land and sea for three weeks the satellites ers-1 and ers2 circled the world's oceans shooting 34 000 pictures a map of the world was put together recording all the wave heights 10 monsters reaching a height of 90 feet and three others reaching 110 feet were recorded in just three weeks a frightening result nobody ever imagined that freak waves occur so often of the 39 000 cargo ships that sail the world's oceans every year 200 of them sink shipping companies now face further problems insurance companies are demanding better precautions on board ships modern electronic equipment in particular has been proven to be very vulnerable when it comes in contact with large amounts of salt water if the engine is cut out the ship can no longer be steered and is absolutely helpless in a storm with this knowledge in mind each and every rule and regulation for shipbuilding is being reconsidered electronic equipment needs to be protected from above from water leakage caused by a huge wave striking the bridge captain lampe knows that this newly acquired knowledge about the danger of freak waves will change the face of shipbuilding a shipyard in flensburg germany the newly acquired knowledge about the power of monster waves is already being applied to the construction of this ferry boat ten thousand tons of steel are shaped into a body 720 feet long 97 feet wide the welding seams and the strutting need to be more stable the bow needs to be built much stronger in order to withstand the impact of masses of water to date the ship sides have been far too thin one single wave could break the hall in two but now some additional millimeters of steel let the hull withstand the freak waves ship builders and wave researchers are also demanding that the cross beams on the inside of the ship be constructed more stably here in the department of ship design and information technology at the technical university of hamburg harbor scientists estimate the enormous powers which result when a giant wave strikes the bow of a large ship and threatens either to capsize it or to tear it asunder some ship types are very vulnerable to special phenomena related to a sea state problem such as parametric rolling or pure loss on the wave crest we can clearly distinguish and say there are some types of ships where the imo limits seem to be not okay where they should be increased and there are some ship types which seem not to have any problems during simulations with massive waves half of the 150 existing ships none of which was older than five years had capsized only the ships with higher boughs proved to be more stable you have to maximize the stability when the ship is in a situation where the wave crest is at the middle of the ship because then she loses most of the stability because the aft ends of the ships are not submerged and you can do so by on one hand try to trim the vessel extremely by stone if she's in the wave crest position and on the other hand if you want to have more stability you have to force the ship to immerse it further on the crest and you can do that by a well-rounded main section the adriatic coast of montenegro peter makovic suffered the consequences of the simple lack of knowledge seafarers had until recently he had only been a seaman for six months when he set sail from rotterdam on the flare a 650 foot long freight ship that's what i said my at 3 a.m on december 30th 1997 we set sail for canada from the harbor of rotterdam without being given a specific destination a few days later we were told that it would be montreal there we were supposed to pick up grain that was destined for saudi arabia at the danish hydraulic institute the newly acquired knowledge is made use of during tests on ship models the model is that of a modern tanker ship like the hundreds which sail the seas every day on a scale of one to one hundred to date tests performed on the bows of ships were carried out using regular waves which of course do not occur in reality now it is possible to simulate the chaos caused by real waves these waves correspond to real 43-foot high storm waves that is how high the waves were when the flare with the inexperienced seaman peter makovich on board got caught in a winter storm the ship was swaying heavily and i was standing there staring into the sea then the enormous wave struck a second time i was really frightened so i went to the mates parlor that's where the first mate and the captain of the ship the greek manspiros were i think the ship's spark was there too i said to the captain in serbian we're going to break in two and he just laughed everyone laughed i was ashamed i was an inexperienced seaman and i was really embarrassed researchers simulate the formation of a freak wave waves come from two directions and meet in the middle of the basin 43-foot high waves suddenly mutate into 72-foot high monsters so i got the survival suit and the proper footwear ready so that i would have the necessary equipment in case of an emergency although at that time i didn't really know what was going to happen i practiced and practiced until it didn't take me more than 30 seconds to put on the survival the freight ship battled against the rough waters for six days the captain reduced the speed to three knots in order to lessen the impact of the waves the ship was acting really crazily during those waves the whole thing was shaking and it felt like everything was going to break into pieces the fittings the walls the cupboards everything january 16th 1998 4 30 a.m no one could see it but they could feel it a freak wave struck the mv flare and we both ran in different directions he to his cabin eye to mine it was such a shock i could hardly believe it from my cabin i could hear the siren screaming that means everyone off the ship it was such a shock your heart and soul just ripped to shreds managed to pull on his survival suit other seamen fled to the lifeboats without safety gear i could see a ship about 70 or 80 feet ahead of me i was so happy happy under the circumstances although i was in a state of shock without feelings i was happy because i thought that some ship had come to save us and i thought to myself we're in luck but as the silhouette of the approaching ship became clear i realized that it was the front side of our own ship i recognized our ship's crane that is to say the front part of our ship was floating around in the water the life raft either fell down or jimmy managed to free it from the mooring and it was floating in the water next to the rear end of the ship where we were as i was looking at it a wave flipped it over just like a hand would flip it over like a bowl being turned over the next morning the tanker ship stole aspiration arrived at the scene of the wreck the rear of the flare had sunk quickly but the bulkheads in the bow had held pita makovic and three comrades were floating somewhere on the overturned life raft when i was on that raft i was overcome by a sense of panic a sort of obsession i wanted them to find me dead there i didn't want to be missing forever it became a real burden i couldn't stay in touch with reality those are the kind of thoughts that would be completely absurd in any normal situation but i became obsessed with the idea of being dead and not missing tonight at 2 23 pm the canadian air force rescue helicopter r-304 discovered the overturned life raft at that moment filipino who was next to me woke me from either sleep or a state of shock but i think it was more like sleep and he pointed in a direction and i saw a helicopter about 350 or 400 feet away i couldn't tell exactly i couldn't believe it i was so happy it's a joy that you can't describe then i thought at that moment oh a mirage and i asked filipino to shake me to slap me but he just kept pointing in the other direction and i saw a plane flying at low altitude looking for us later at 2 34 pm peter makovich was pulled from the water by the canadian air force with him three other survivors the safety suits had prevented them from freezing to death the other 21 crew members from the freight ship flare however were not so lucky as the angela j approaches the canadian coast the weather is glorious and the water calm now should be about five to six the green buffalo scale now you as you can see now is not more than three and as well about no more than two meters height so the prediction was was wrong i think i agree absolutely i mean and they they predicted i think six meters sea here in the area and uh i can't see anything like that so again uh it seems to be really difficult to uh to predict uh the weather i'll make a a rather reliable weather forecast don't you think so yes they simply don't know what will be later but anyway we are fortunate the weather is better than expected and so i think our speed is pretty good at the moment and so uh now i think uh we can be at the pilot station tomorrow morning nine o'clock with that yes that's correct tomorrow morning at nine o'clock we'll be at pilot station well that's pretty good is aware of the fact that people are beginning to understand the origins of the freak waves that for so long were deemed impossible and they can build their ships better to withstand the giant waves but they will never really be able to forecast them precisely the monsters of the sea you

Channel: Janson Media

Views: 4,008,524

Rating: 4.4308929 out of 5

Keywords: Waves, Nature, Natural Disaster, catastrophes, rogue wave, rogue wave documentary, freak waves, storm documentary, freak wave, monster waves, storms at sea documentary, monster waves documentary, freak waves documentary, nature documentary, ocean documentary, rogue waves, rogue waves documentary, when nature strikes back, killer waves, big waves, giant waves, freak waves caught on tape, monster wave, big waves in the ocean, mega waves, waves documentary, nature strikes back

Id: MU4xDd9GRJM

Length: 51min 18sec (3078 seconds)

Published: Mon May 11 2009