5 TERRIFYING Rogue Wave Encounters 

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One of the terrifying possible reasons why only in the 20th century did rogue waves start to have evidence found for them is theroized to be that- in the time before ships were made of steel, anyone who encountered them simply vanished

The fact that the Lusitania managed to survive getting dipped like that, with no casualties no less, is honestly a testament to these Gilded age beasts.

The Queen Mary's ability to _recover_ from the extreme rolls she was vulnerable to was absolutely insane.

I can't imagine the horror of the officer who saw the wave crash over the lusitainia with himself above the ship with his legs submerged. Incredible.

My dad was a merchant mariner for 39 years and the stories he tells me have made me terrified and enamored of the ocean to this day. He's had a few near-capsizings which constantly leave me wondering how I managed to be born. (In that scenario, it doesn't matter that he can't swim.) Keep up the good work; cheers from the USA.

I'm surprised the narrator doesn't mention that one of the soldiers on board the Queen Mary was Paul Gallico, a novelist who later wrote a book called The Poseidon Adventure. The book was based on the near-rollover incident, and when they made the movie a few years later, they used the Queen Mary, recently retired, as their ship.

I'm happy more people are actually making content on rogue waves, even with the still limited understanding we have of them. It's something that should be discussed a lot more when it comes to ships at sea.

When I was a passenger on the Maiden Transatlantic Voyage of the Queen Mary 2 in April 2004 from Southampton UK to NYC we were in a massive storm for 4 of the 6 day crossing. I was having dinner on deck 7 in one of the alternative restaurants and seated in a glass alcove that protruded out on boat deck with a view looking forward toward the bow. I was amazed at the massive rolling waves going by that were clearly visible when suddenly feeling a sudden vibration and then looking up to see the biggest wave I have ever seen which had obviously slammed into and over the bow. creating a wall of white that towered over the height of the boat deck. years later i found a drawing posted online done by a passenger who was an artist to show what we went through. truely amazing to experience but also terrifying. I wish i had the ability to post that image on here so you all could see it.

I have a photo from my grandfather while on board the USS Wyoming, in the South China sea, during a typhoon. He was in the crow's nest and took a photo of a 130 ft wave coming at them from behind. I calculated the height using trigonometry, and the ship's dimensions. No one ever doubted his stories of life at sea after taking that photo.

"Don't worry, this ship is practically unsinkable!" "Oh no. No no no no no. I'm not getting on that death trap."

Those aren't mountains...they're waves.

In 1985 a rogue/sneaker wave struck Fastnet Lighthouse off the coast of southern Ireland. It smashed the windows and broke the light 46 metres in the air. I don't know how the hell it took until 1995 for us to realize they were real.

The Lucy animation was amazing! I can easily imagine that the Edmund Fitzgerald encountered this very same thing, but unfortunately was unable to recover. So hard to imagine something that size just getting swallowed up whole like that... the scale involved is mind boggling. Love your channel, keep up the great work!

Excellent presentation. Voice: every word audible. Pace: slow enough to hear and the ember facts. Great illustrations. Thankyou

Absolutely love the transition into 3D! Can’t wait to see this form of media grow and new animations of new ships

As a kid, I like watching waves on Lake Ontario. They came in sets of three. Every once in a while, one of the three waves would seem to steal the energy of the others and rear up, then die down, and another would pop up nearby. It looked to me like the energy of the waves hitting the shore was being reflected back at an off angle and interacting with the incoming waves, creating peaks and troughs or canceling waves as it passed.

I have heard that the original 1972 "The Poseidon Adventure" movie was based on the rogue wave that hit the Queen Mary. Parts of the movie were even filmed on board the Mary after she was bought by the city of Long Beach CA. Great watch, thanks to Mike for his time and work.....

Out of 60 years of sailing and motoring both salt and fresh waters, the most horrifying thin I've ever experienced was a roque wave on a perfectly calm lake. It wasn't the size, I've riden much, MUCH larger waves, it was the velocity of the continuous breaking of the wave. It was like a supernatural experience.

For me, the story about the Queen Mary is the most terrifying. What an absolute disaster that could’ve been. Any loss of life is terrible of course, but 16,000 soldiers and 1,000 crew?

This is extremely impressive. You've done a marvelous job recreating these liners and the weather and lighting effects really set the atmosphere. I'd never heard of any of these incidents except for the Mary.

The MS Munchen's loss was so haunting and scary, can't imagine what the crew must have felt when the rogue waves hit. Must have been so scary for the troops on RMS Queen Mary when she was hit by that wave. They must have felt shocked when they found how close their ship came to capsizing especially when other ships like MS Munchen sank. Must have felt terrifying to the officer who stood on the RMS Lusitania's compass platform.

I was on one of the ships caught by superstorm Sandy. Most of the ships survived, not all. It was something that really brought stories like these to reality. At the time, this was the largest cruise liner built - but we were dwarfed by waves. The 6th floor windows were smashed and that deck abandoned. I was on the 8th and it felt from that height like we were ants in a mountain range. When we rose up a wave - it seemed like we were climbing for minutes, then, the ship would teeter and come crashing down at free-fall speed on the other side. Nobody believed that even steel could withstand the pounding. When disaster hits, and then, suddenly, the magic of engineering fails... the feeling of hopelessness must be overwhelming.

It's impressive that the Lusitania, QE2, Queen Mary, and Michelangelo survived the rogue waves they encountered. Except for the Munich.

My grandfather rode to Europe on the Queen Mary in 42 or 43. He said it was absolutely packed with troops and was a gamblers paradise. My grandfather was a very good poker and craps player.

While doing a crossing on the Queen Mary 2, I bought a book by the ship's architect, Stephen Payne, detailing how the ship was designed and built. At one point, he had arguments with Carnival and Cunard executives about the need to design the ship as a true ocean liner and not as a typical cruise ship. He highlighted the Michelangelo and Queen Elizabeth 2 incidents in his presentation and, as he stated it, "Photographs of these episodes really focused the Carnival/Cunard audience and thereafter there was no question that if we were to maintain the tradition of transatlantic crossings, it was agreed that it had to be by liner and not cruise ship."

You reminded me of my nan! She lived in Torbay, Devon in a bungalow overlooking the bay. Her taps in the kitchen used to suffer from water hammer. This is a very loud droning noise emanating from the water pipes sounding just like a foghorn. Anyway, any time this happened, she'd point out to sea & say "Oh! The Queen Mary's in!" 🚢

I was a Chief Officer in the Merchant Navy. The knowledge that these occur is terrifying. Going from Durban up through the Agulhas is an area where we had to keep a close eye out for rogue waves.

This whole video is so intense. Had me at the edge of my seat. The animations were great at conveying the tension with your narration!

WOW!! This video was absolutely mesmerizing and in my opinion your best one yet. Thanks for taking the time to create this masterpiece.

Do you think a part of the reason why the Queen Mary 2 didn't roll over is because all the loose furniture that would typically go flying had been stripped out, and she was filled with thousands of troops who would've been holding on to all sorts of things rather than becoming a living free surface effect?

I've watched some of the research into rogue waves. They're used wave pools to recreate the phenomenon. They created single double and triple rogue waves in a row. The scariest one is able to lift a ship so high that when coming out it leaves so much if the ship unsupported by water that it could break the ships back. Don't think they have ever found a ship that was broken like that before though.

Thank you Michael. Great animation to bring these stories to life. I ALWAYS learn something new from you. Your deprh of knowledge is awe inspiring.

Bravo, Mike! Rogue waves have always held a morbid fascination for me, and I really enjoyed this video!

Great content as always Mike. Rogue waves are definitely the scariest monsters out there.

One tale that gave me the shudders comes from the 1998 Sydney Hobart yacht race. This was the roughest race on record and 6 people unfortunately lost their lives. The tale came from a helicopter rescue pilot. A yacht crew member had been lost overboard and the rescue chopper was trying to recover the crew. The pilot states he was maintaining a 100 foot hover when he saw a wave coming at him. He put 40 ft of altitude on and stated the altimeter went to 10 ft when the wave passed under. He had a crew member in the water trying to save an unconscious crew member from the yacht. Fortunately he got all to safety.

Rouge waves are fascinating to me. You described the events of the München with more detail than I have heard before. Looks like I need to do some reading! Thanks Mike!

Has anyone collected stories from troops aboard the Queen Mary? It'd be interesting to hear what a journey with 16000 other people was like.

Love seeing the new 3d renditions of the ships

Love your channel, Mike! The Queen Mary story is incredible - I was at the wheel of a sail boat once (my first time at the wheel too!) when we came around an island and got hit with a massive wind gust which rolled the boat over about 50 degrees. The inclinometer tipped into the red and maxed out, and the port side deck and railing actually dipped underwater. Thankfully we were able to recover quickly, and amazingly no one was hurt. But in the moment I thought for sure we were going to have people go overboard - any further and that probably would have happened. I can't imagine what this must have been like in a ship the size of the Queen Mary! Crazy stuff.

Always been super fascinated by rogue waves, cheers Mike!

The production quality of this video is amazing! Awesome content!

My Father served as a cabin steward on the Queen Mary. He often told me stories of rough crossings and prayed when the waves were like mountains. He always said never underestimate the power of the sea.

My first ship was the USS Kitty Hawk. I was an engineer and the Number one attack team leader for the ships Flying Squad. It was the year 2000 and we were securing from a fire drill. Myself and my team were sitting on the deck halfway out of our fire gear. Now carriers are HUGE and a modern engineering marvel, they're big enough it's hard to perceive any movement of the ship, like we cut right through hurricanes and you barely feel it. So when you suddenly find yourself and everyone else rapidly sliding along the deck trying to find something, anything to grab onto it's VERY unnerving. Add to that the sounds of various expensive things tumbling over and crashing into things and more alarms you ever remember hearing going off. You could see the look of utter terror on everyone's face as our unshakable damn near unsinkable home is now nearly sideways. And as suddenly as it happened it was over. I don't remember what the clinometer maxed out at, just that 3-4 more degrees and we wouldn't have recovered. In 2000 the US Navy came VERY close to losing a Super carrier to a fucking wave. That's Horrifying.

What an amazing ship the Queen Mary was when she was active. Significantly overloaded with cargo and troops and still managed to right herself and continue on.

Great stories well told Mike! As usual! I'm reminded of something one of my favorite writers of sea stories, Tristan Jones, once said: "The power of the sea can make any of mans powers, like the atomic bomb, look as puny as the waving of a baby's fist!" I've crossed the North Atlantic myself in some dirty weather (not as bad as in the video) and I can say from experience it can be a VERY hostile environment out there!

One of your best - and most haunting - videos yet. You have a way with words, and these new 3d animations are an excellent way of setting and telling the scene.

Can’t wait, looks fantastic! I’m going to assume that Lusitania, Queen Mary, and Michelangelo will be in this video. Edit: at 1:16, is that the Lusitania model you have been working on with Tom Lynksey? Edit 2: Alright, the 3D models are fantastic. Can’t wait to see how far you’ll go with them. Also, never heard of QE2’s rouge wave encounter, and just never heard of the Munich in general.

My grandparents were on the QE2 in 1995. They were knocked out of their bed in their cabin. They recounted that the bow was bent once they disembarked.

Good video also wait ITS 3D!

Love what you're doing with the 3D stuff now, your overall production is getting better and better too. Keep it up mate

The story of the München has always fascinated me, and I’m glad you featured it in this video. I do really hope she’s found one day, along with her crew.

Such a fascinating video once again! The animations in this one were impressive. Thank you for your effort and dedication, Mike! Can’t stay anything but happy with your videos. 😊

Mike, you always seem to know when I'm having a bad day, coz you post a video to help me feel better. Thank you!

On my last crossing on QM2, I was able to speak with one of the crew who was on board QE2 when the rogue wave hit. She told me the seas had been very rough that night and she was in her cabin in bed but unable to sleep. When the rogue wave hit, she was thrown out of her bed and added "it was one of the only times that I was afraid."

Your use of words in each script capture my attention and perfectly provide visuals when I’m not looking at the screen (I sometimes use these vids to help me sleep haha) or at least, I attempt to sleep! The info you relay is too good to miss! Absolutely brilliant stuff! 👏🏻

Coincidentally, I was just reading about a rogue wave hitting a cruise ship only a couple of days ago. December 7th 2022. Viking Polaris was hit by a rogue wave and sadly an American woman died in the incident and some other people were injured

Rogue waves are terrifying, but their theorized inverse, rogue holes, are a whole new level of horror.

U can add the Derbyshire to the list. Tho initially it was claimed, she sank due to crew negligence, years of investigations including finding the wreck on the bottom of the Pacific finally proved, that she had been the victim of a rogue wave that fateful night in 1980.

Great video. As someone who experienced a rogue wave from the helm, you managed to capture both the horror and fascination of the power of the sea.

My uncle died on the Ocean Ranger oil rig. Couldn’t even imagine how scary giant waves must be.

The captain of SS Edmund Fitzgerald wired that the ship was holding its own but it sank shortly afterwards. I believe that it too was hit by one or more rogue waves. Those rogue waves may not have been the sole cause of the ship sinking so fast but I do firmly believe that they were the final blow.

I have no idea how you did this. This video is so good and the stories told so well. The Munich story is terrifying. The way the music and the images and the way you animated and told the story. Huh gives me the chills

I've heard of some of these rogue waves but this is the most comprehensive I've ever seen thank you so much

Another fantastic video! Such a haunting topic, and I can't imagine the sheer terror of those men on the Queen Mary thinking they were going to capsize. Can't wait for the next video!

You mentioned the München on my favorite maritime channel no less! I hope she's found soon. Great video yet terrifying. Three thumbs up!

Just recently, the expedition cruise ship, Viking Polaris, encountered one with one death in the Drake Passage. Cabin windows were smashed but the ship came back in Ushuaia safely.

Great video, all I can say is, the naval architects who design these big ships are absolute geniuses. You also have to admire the people who build these incredible vessels, and the crew that operate them.

The Munich story really freaked me out. Especially with that creepy music, and you’re chilling narration! Very very well done. Something about unsolved mysteries like that are so unsettling to me.

Ive literally been hit with ome at see while mending fishing gear on the starboard side. By far one of the scariest experiences of my puff. It wiped the crew out and sent us all home with injured limbs and broken bones.

the 3d animations combined with the music choice made this almost feel like a movie, great work as always and i've always loved the mary's rouge wave story, it's incredible to think that the ship was able to right itself from an approx. ~50 degree list

Nicely done. The tiny James Caird, under Shackleton, faced a huge wave, but survived due to a “miracle of bouancy.” It’s startling to realize how devastating they can also be to giant ships. I almost wonder if they could be more dangerous to a big ship, than a little, sealed life boat?

Great video! The last ship Munchen was interesting to me. It was headed to Savannah GA where I'm from and it went down in December of 1978 which is the month and year I was born. My grandfather was a docking pilot then on the Savannah River and would have likely docked it had it made it safely. I'll have to ask him if he remembers it sinking. Thanks for the video.

Great stuff. Rogue waves are terrifying indeed, your heart probably skips a beat or a dozen when you're unlucky enough to see one.

My man, your music selection in this video, alongside with the content, made my thalassophobia tip over 50 degrees. Very well done.

My father worked on the development of the first oil rigs in Norway that would measure the rogue waves they encountered. He told me that they used to call the wave "hundred year waves" as they thought that was how often those waves would occur, and that the oil rigs needed to withstand one or two of them. Turns out that not only would rogue waves occur more often, they could even occur multiple times per year in certain areas. Terrifyingly, one of the reasons these waves were so mysical and believed to happen so rarely was because the people who saw them often just would not survive...

Was on the Uss Gunston Hall (LSD-44) 2003-2005. Experienced 2 or 3 really bad storms including an emergency deployment for hurricane Isabel in September 2003. These storms had 20ft to 30ft waves each time. I think the worst degree of listings I saw during that time was 35 to 40 degrees. Every time the ship came down off a 20+ft wave it felt like being slammed down onto a hard surface and the ship would shudder, creak and groan!! The North Atlantic Ocean is nasty during the fall and winter!!

While I was serving my 21 years in the US Navy, I encountered two rogue waves. The 1st was when I was onboard my 1st ship, a Spruance class destroyer. I was the helmsman. We were experiencing rough seas, pitching and rolling pretty much at regular intervals. As the helmsman, maintaining the ship's course while rolling 30 degrees became fairly routine. The helmsman is not to do anything except to maintain the ship's course and speed until ordered to do otherwise. One rough day, I was minding my helm when I felt a strange vibration on the ship's wheel, after noticing a wall of water heading right towards us from the port bow. I instinctively knew what was happening and what was going to happen next. I didn't wait for orders, none were forthcoming and yelled, "HANG ON!!" We were struck and the ship started to roll much faster than what was normal. I immediately flung the wheel a hard 20 degrees rudder, turning the ship to starboard, turning the ship into the direction of the roll. I used the centripetal force to help counter the roll, thus preventing capsize. We rolled up to 52 degrees before the ship stopped rolling. I knew that the counter roll would be just as deadly, so when the ship began to right herself, I flung the wheel back to rudder amidships. When the ship was fully upright but the roll's speed continued with the momentum, I flung the wheel a hard left, do the same thing I did when we were rolling in the other direction. When that roll stopped and the ship righted herself, slowly this time, I was able to bring the ship back on course, and we continued on like nothing ever happened. Nobody noticed that I took action, only that we rolled so far over, that we thought that we were going to go over completely. My Executive Officer said as much. A few years later, as the helmsman, while serving on my 2nd ship, a Knox class frigate, the whole scenario happened all over again, resulting in only a 48 degree roll. People have found it hard to believe my story, but that's alright. I know what has happened. I was there and there are some shipmates that remember the rolls also. They just never realized that I prevented the capsizing events. If I had not done anything or worse, the opposite, I would not be here telling you all about this. We would have been upside down. Now, I'm a retired 1st class Boatswain Mate.

Oh my Lord,, I am truly terrified of the ocean. The thought of being out to sea in the pitch darkness of night, is scary enough, but to actually see the rouge wave coming, would literally make me pass out or have a heart attack out of pure terror. Hell to the NO, will you ever see me onboard any kind of boat or ship.. 🖤🖤🖤

Wow, the animation of the rogue washing over the decks of the Lusitania are terrifying. I'm now a confirmed landlubber. Great video, I love sea stories.

Back in the 1980's I was a 16" gunnersmate on the battleship Missouri. Prior to that I was on an LST that took rolls so bad we had foot prints on the bulkheads. We Left Sydney in 1986 and headed for Hobart. The seas were so rough and the waves so high we had waves that put turret 1 under water.

Love those smoke stacks on the Michelangelo! This was entertaining and terrifying. So glad I found this channel!

The idea of rogue waves is terrifying. I can't imagine being face to face. Such a helpless and terrifying situation.

Well done Mike, always enjoy your videos.

I may be a couple days late to comment, but this is seriously probably your highest quality video. The animations are absolutely stunning, and they tell such fascinating stories :)

I was doing a boat course on a 3 story coastguard boat on a average day when bizarrely just as the captain said there is no such thing as rouge waves and we looked forward and a giant wave just appeared and crashed over front of boat throwing people over the floor and ripping the windscreen wipers off the top story. Incredible size and force

I have learned so many new information from this new video. Thank you for sharing it with us! This RU-vid channel is so fantastic, this is my favorite RU-vid channel! 🙂🙂🙂 Please, keep it up the incredible job!

"If there's a storm, they have to go right through it," reminds me of the Joseph Conrad story "Typhoon", where steamship Captain McWhirr drives right into the eye of a hurricane because it's the most direct route to the destination.

As someone who has been sailing in a 48' yacht, if I was told of an ocean liner reaching *50 degrees and recovering*, I would be mighty skeptical! But... stuff like this happens - and _sometimes_ are survived. 😮

One of your best - in a plethora of 'bests' from you, Mr. Mike. Emotionally charged visuals plus your unbeatable voice, accent and measured clarity of speech. Bravo!💥

Mike, another great video with your production, content and narration. Love your channel. Great job, as usual

The Queen Mary incident had ripple effects which nobody could have predicted at the time, especially for Hollywood.... One of the US servicemen who was onboard during that voyage was Paul Gallico, and the memory of that wave impact and the terrifying 50-degree list which followed it would, more than 20 years later, inspire him to write a novel. It's title? "The Poseidon Adventure." Soon afterwards, the manuscript of the book reached Hollywood movie producer Irwin Allen, and the classic disaster movie, which in a delicious irony, would be partly filmed aboard the Queen Mary; would use her blueprints to design the studio sets and would feature a 22-foot long model of the ship as the fictional SS "Poseidon" (this model still exists today in a museum in Southern California) to effectively recreate that freak wave strike, and then the scenes of the Poseidon capsizing and floating upside-down, followed. Cue in a superb cast of actors, great writing and direction, compelling special effects and an early music score by John Williams, and the result is a movie classic which founded the disaster movie genre....... All as a result of one freak wave in 1942!

I worked for a short time at the Bermuda Star Line, whose ships, the Bermuda Star and Canada Star, were the former Argentina and Brasil. I was on the bridge during a stormy run from Hamilton to New York. We never even slowed down! But the newer cruise ships, running parallel with us, were left in the dust since they had to markedly reduce speed, as they were top-heavy.

Great presentation. I can imagine how irritated the sailors were when no one believed them! I'll bet it made for many a fist fight! I know it wasn't until ocean buoys recorded the tremendous heights of the rogue wave that seemingly came out of nowhere that they were believed. I also want to thank you for including measurements in feet in this vlog. As an American, I cannot think in meters, so I appreciate that you knew we didn't change to metric when almost every one else did.

I was on a Navy Ship during Vietnam. We went through many typhoons. Going bow first into 70ft rough waves, going underwater then coming out the other side. One one day I could hear the ship screaming in paint also hearing welds breaking along the main center beam. We we’re 5,000 miles from the home of San Diego. God stepped in and rescued the ship.

Another excellently done presentation. I am pleased that I have just recently discovered "Oceanliner Designs".

I sailed as crew on a 200 ton ship years ago in the Pacific. We got hit by a rouge wave and almost capsized. I was pinned under a recliner chair when the dust settled.

Mike these graphics are a beautiful compliment to your captivating story telling. Story 3 especially had me goin! The lightning looked amazing, hope you can do a part 2 to this video! I’m a simple man, I see a video about rogue waves I click on it! God speed brother !

3:28 That rogue wave almost ended the Lusitania! I'm glad most of them survived. I couldn't imagine a worse fate for such a large ocean liner...

The animations are very good. The Queen Mary rolled more precisely 52° and was literally just a few more from capsizing with the limit being 55°. People probably died but it's still classified information. There was certainly a lot of damage to the interiors.