
Or are they? There are questions to be asked. Saddening it was - a bucket-list dream trip for the passengers on board that resulted in tragedy - but these gargantuan waves are somewhat rare. Related: When Is Cruising Wave Season & How Can You Take Advantage Of It? In the aftermath, Viking expressed its deepest sympathies and launched an investigation into the incident. Four other guests also suffered injuries, although not life-threatening. Sadly, the event led to the death of a 62-year-old American woman who sustained serious injuries. The power of this kinetic wall of water also shook passengers, sending them flying into the air. The ship, owned by travel company Viking, was on its way from Antarctica to Argentina however, an abnormally huge wave struck the vessel as it voyaged through the said port, smashing a number of exterior windows, flooding several rooms, and causing internal structural damage. While not one of the biggest cruise ships in the world, it covers long-haul ventures, catering to global passengers. It was the night of November 29, 2022, when the 202-meter (662 feet) cruise ship, the Viking Polaris, sailed through the Drake Passage in Antarctica's Southern Ocean toward Ushuaia port - the latter where many Antarctic cruises begin and end. What Happened To The Viking Cruise Ship Hit By A Rogue Wave?Ī wave curling in the ocean against a sunset sky Related: Everything You Need To Know About Royal Caribbean's Ultimate World Cruise That's the case of a fated cruise ship, which, last November, was hit by one such suspected and destructive rogue swell in the sea. Unsunk vessels, though, often don't escape unscathed. Some can even attain heights of over 30 meters - and, in their strongest, most catastrophic form, can sweep people out to sea and even sink an entire ship. To date, little is known about rogue waves, which are defined as waves twice as high as the background ocean. Some historians and scientists even attribute the demise of many sunken shipwrecks resting under the surface around the globe to such titanic waves, from the chilly seas of the Northern Hemisphere to the tropical waters of the Bermuda Triangle - where a graveyard of ghostly shipwrecks await.

Although these tremendous titan tsunamis that swallow ships seemingly - and suddenly - have spooked seafarers for centuries, they were officially recorded for the first time in the 1990s.Įven since, a common denominator applies to numerous experts the world over: the study of these sudden swells. Rogues waves, also referred to as "extreme storm waves", "freak waves", or "killer waves", maintained their place among marine folklore for hundreds of years.
