Rogue Waves

Minn said:
The Ben Line cargo liner Bencruachan fell into a hole off Durban and survived but was slightly bent. 2nd May 1973.



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One my favourite ships,sailed on her before and after the "concorde incident".....The story I heard was that she was saved from a plunge to the bottom because the for,d hold was loaded with kapock which kept her afloat
 
Jimi,

yes his name was Leo and he became paranoid because every time his name was mentioned everyone ducked and ran to the other side of the boat...:rolleyes:

Jumbleduck,

if rogue waves are now accepted by science, doesn't that mean they're not ' rogue ' any more, sporadic, episodal or something ?
 
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Findhorn said:
One my favourite ships,sailed on her before and after the "concorde incident".....The story I heard was that she was saved from a plunge to the bottom because the for,d hold was loaded with kapock which kept her afloat
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Front full of kapok eh, that dates her and your good self - reminds me of the 1960's Batman film when the Batcopter is shot down, next second they're walking down the street dusting themselves off;

" Holy Cow Batman, lucky to crash into the only rubber wholesaler in town ! "

" Yes Robin, the chances would make the most fevered gambler cringe "
 
I wasn’t involved in the Bencruachan case but I was involved in a small way after the event in the Neptune Sapphire case. I think the Benledi class may have had a deep tank in way of no.1 /no.2? The perfect ring fracture of the Neptune Sapphire gave rise to some comment and there were out of court settlements...
 
Seajet said:
I'm guessing a deep tank in No.1 would have the opposite effect of loads of kapok; hopefully all these ships made it to port ?
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A deep tank will have bulkheads either side, so two bulkheads for the price of one, so to speak...

The two ships in the 1973 cases made it into port and no-one was hurt; the Waratah was posted missing with all aboard her...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Waratah
 
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Minn said:
I wasn’t involved in the Bencruachan case but I was involved in a small way after the event in the Neptune Sapphire case. I think the Benledi class may have had a deep tank in way of no.1 /no.2? The perfect ring fracture of the Neptune Sapphire gave rise to some comment and there were out of court settlements...
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Yes ,if my distant memory is correct there was a deep tank in way of No.1 which was used to carry latex when I sailed on her...Latex and bilge pumps do not get on well together !...thank god for the kapok
 
I sailed with a RO who had been on Bencruachan and regularly exchanged messages with those aboard. I believe she regularly had a female RO, quite unusual back then. The story I heard was that she was pressing on a bit to maintain the liner timetable and possibly pressed on a bit too much given the bad weather and the cape rollers. Not uncommon if true, then, now and even back in Titanic days.
 
Biggles Wader said:
I sailed with a RO who had been on Bencruachan and regularly exchanged messages with those aboard. I believe she regularly had a female RO, quite unusual back then. The story I heard was that she was pressing on a bit to maintain the liner timetable and possibly pressed on a bit too much given the bad weather and the cape rollers. Not uncommon if true, then, now and even back in Titanic days.
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That coincides well with the story I heard...She was slamming hard and causing the turbines to hit the thrust limits..but the old man allegedly refused to allow a reduction in speed..the 2nd engineer knowing the consequenses of turbine failure had begun to gradually reduce the revs without permission when she hit the big one.....all hearsay of course but knowing the characters involved I could believe it
 
Seajet said:
Jimi,

yes his name was Leo and he became paranoid because every time his name was mentioned everyone ducked and ran to the other side of the boat...:rolleyes:

Jumbleduck,

if rogue waves are now accepted by science, doesn't that mean they're not ' rogue ' any more, sporadic, episodal or something ?
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First of all, I'm new to this sailing m'larky and I still laughed at that one. :encouragement:

Jumbleduck will probably agree (hopefully) that they'll still remain 'rogue waves'. They're not rogue because they're 'random', they're rogue because they don't fit the norm. According to Wikipedia they are also known as 'Episodal Waves', though I've never heard that term used before.

from Etymonline.org
In playful or affectionate use, "one who is mischievous," 1590s. Meaning "large wild beast living apart from the herd" is from 1859, originally of elephants. Meaning "something uncontrolled or undisciplined" is from 1964. Also common in 17c. as a verb. Rogue's gallery "police collection of mug shots" is attested from 1859.
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We had a rogue wave just north of St Martin - Caribbean. We had to take our charter boat back to base and there was gale, a high wave arrived and there was nothing behind it the bows went straight down and the water came up to the mast. Had the forward hatch been torn off we would have sunk.
 
JumbleDuck said:
Science works on evidence. As soon as there was evidence for rogue waves, science accepted them, and as soon as there was evidence for anthropogenic global warming science accepted that. Eppe si muove, as we scientists say when confronted with wilful stupidity and ignorance.
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I thought it was 'eppur si muove' but perhaps 'eppe' is equivalent?

On the subject of the nomenclature of rogue waves, tidal waves are not tidal but the term persists.
 
Minn said:
And another one, the Neptune Sapphire, also 1973, on her maiden voyage, same area, steamed into a hole and ring fractured in way of the bulkhead between hold 1 and hold 2. Towed in.



There is a funny story about this one. The Master was thrown out of bed and immediately looked out of his cabin window... to see the bow of a ship going past. He ran to the wheelhouse and yelled at the OOW «*What the ****?»

To which the officer of the watch replied That was our bow, Sir!
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"The front fell off"
 
JumbleDuck said:
You are quite right. I don't Latin as good as I English.
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Isn't it Italian? Whatever, the implication that it is on the lips of English-speaking scientists when they encounter 'wilful stupidity and ignorance' struck me as a delightful, if rather hopeful, idealisation. ;)
 
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