Comments on: Perils at Sea

By: cunard61

cunard61 — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 05:21:57 +0000

The Queen Mary was a notorious roller at sea. One of her stewards commented once, saying she rolled so much she separate the cream from ones tea. She was also very slow on the recovery from a roll as well, on this particular incident mention in the artical, maritime historians have predicted that had she rolled over 5 degrees more, she never would have recovered. She would have capsized and gone to bottom whith the greatest loss of life ever for a marine disaster. America took a great risk loading the three great Cunard liners used for this operation which was known as Operation Belero. The Cunarders Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, and Aquitania were load with so many US troops, that their full capacity regularly exceeded the entire population of many American towns at that time. Within just over a years time frame, April, 1943 to May, 1944, the three big liners conveyed well over a million troops across the Atlantic, making their wartime effort one of the largest migrations in modern times.

By: Marc

Marc — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:52:14 +0000

I’ve developed a very bad habit over the years (probably due to the technical/diagnostic/prioritisation aspects of my job) of only scanning through written material (blogs, emails, manuals etc). The upshot of this is, I typically only pickup key information and ignore what I deem to be superfluous data at that time. This blog entry was no exception…. somewhere in the depths of my mind the key words Holland America, Frederik Pohl and interesting facts stuck (proving the system works). Having just confirmed a cruise (my first) on the Prinsendam for June next year, I’ve now re-read the blog in more detail.

I’ll be sure to keep a watchful eye out for rouge waves, flying crockery and changes in the position of the ceiling.

Thank you for a great blog entry Fred.

By: Ironmistress

Ironmistress — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 22:44:35 +0000

The freak waves are nasty things. They may rise up to 30 m high, and they often come in threes. While they are rarities – many seafarers never encounter one during their whole career – they can sink even a large ship or damage it seriously.

Freak waves usually occur where the oceanic currents run against the prevailing winds (such as Agulhas current at westerlies’ zone at the south point of Africa), or where the form of seabed changes rapidly, such as Bay of Biscay, undersea mountains or plateaus, or Atlantic central ridge.

For a long time the freak waves were considered as tall tales or seaman stories, but there were enough indices they were real. The first recorded freak wave was the Draupner wave New Year’s day 1995, which hit an offshore platform – and was estimated to be up to 30 m high.

The freak waves are said to be extremely steep – like “a moving wall of water” and preceeded by a ravine-like trough – “like a hole in the water”. It is estimated the freak wave gathers kinetic energy from nearby waves, calming them down while accumulating size on itself.

Freak waves are not the same as tsunami. A tsunami is almost undetectable at sea – they seldom rise higher than one metre at high seas. They only gain momentum – and height – near the shore, and they may rise to 30+ m high.

The freak waves can also occur at Great Lakes – it has been suspected that one sank the ore boat Edmund Fitzgerald.

By: Teri

Teri — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:25:52 +0000

Mr. Pohl,

I don’t have a particular comment about this story, although I enjoyed it. Just wanted to let you know I appreciate your blog!

By: Robert Nowall

Robert Nowall — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 14:34:53 +0000

It’s a tribute to its designers and builders.

By: Ralan

Ralan — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 09:18:34 +0000

For folks who go in for that kind of thing, the QM is one of the most haunted places on Earth. Wonder what the ghosts thought. Great story. Glad I found this blog.