Re: [Paddlewise] Rogue Waves

Great question, Craig.  I'm not entirely sure I wish I had the depth  
and breadth of maritime experience to answer.
But I've been reading an array of books about large ships under  
sail...some of them many readers of this list will
find to be thoroughly worth the read (Eric Newby's "The Last Grain  
Race" is one...as is "Tall Ships Down" by Daniel S. Parrott)

I was just up in Nova Scotia and visited the harbors at Lunenburg and  
Halifax.  The Pictou Castle is sailed out of Lunenburg
and was/remains the focus of inquiry and debate about safety &  
training practices aboard these types of ships...nearly all
of which are owned by governments or by private foundations (The  
Pictou Castle being an privately-owned exception)
that rely upon people to pay their 'tuition' to train at sea under sail.

The incident in question involved a 25 year old Laura Gainey, daughter  
of Canadian hockey legend Bob Gainey,
who was swept overboard in heavy weather some 1200 miles from the  
nearest Coast Guard station.
The link to the CBC story is here:  http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/overboard/

One of the salient arguments in the 'findings of fact' in this tragic  
incident is one which claims she was swept overboard by a 'rogue wave'.
This would imply a wave that was extraordinary even within the context  
of the heavy weather in which the ship was laboring and which
hindered or defeated attempts to recover her.   And it would imply an  
'act of nature', a cause much in the interest of the ship's owner and
the man who still owns and captains the ship.   But other crew on  
board at the time of the incident (the owner/captain was not) dispute
these claims....one says, "Waves come in sets, in trains, and every  
7th wave that night was big...the watch on deck was up to their armpits
in green water that night...so how you designate the one wave that  
swept her overboard as 'rogue' is beyond me..."

In other words...there may well be a scientific model and empirical  
evidence that suggests value for a term like, 'rogue wave.'
But there are also mitigating experiences where the term 'rogue wave',  
like 'act of God', seems to invoke or explain what we either can not
or are not willing or able to explain in other, less forgiving terms.

Watch the CBC story. Compelling stuff.  I'd already read Newby's book  
a few years ago, but this led me to re-read it and to
pick up Parrott's excellent post-mortems of five 'tall ship' losses.

-Will
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