Six injured as 'freak wave' hits British ferry

[tocqueville]

9 minutes ago

BREST, France (AFP) - A freak wave reportedly measuring 12 metres (40 feet) hit a British ferry on its way to Spain, injuring five passengers and forcing the ship to shelter in France, officials said.

Brittany Ferries flagship the Pont-Aven was carrying 1,149 people from Plymouth to Santander in Spain when the wave struck late Sunday in the English Channel, French emergency workers said.

It arrived in the French port of Roscoff before dawn.

"While passing Ouessant on the northwestern coast of France... Pont-Aven encountered what appears to have been a freak wave," a spokesman for Brittany Ferries was quoted as saying by the British Press Association.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060522/wl_uk_afp/britainfrancetransport;_ylt=AknutZh89uRWwv9fZu.muqx0bBAF;_ylu=X3oDMTBjMHVqMTQ4BHNlYwN5bnN1YmNhdA--

[Lautremont]

1. I believe this was either cooked up or outright caused by

the studio behind "Poseidon" for publicity purposes. At the very least, they LIHOP.

[Matariki]

4. It was THE KRAKEN!!!

[Lautremont]

6. Strange you should say that - I'm a bit obsessed with krakens.

And now that you mention it, there's a strong possibility a kraken was involved.

[Matariki]

7. Ha! I'm a priestess of The Kraken

And I have the website to prove it ;-)

I'd point you there but it's surreal and smutty...

on edit: what am I saying? with your uesrname, Lautremont, i'm sure you can handle surreal and smutty...

[Lautremont]

9. Surreal and smutty is what it's all about.

Point away!

And a priestess of the Kraken? Very cool!

[confusa]

23. Alchemy

Knowledge of Lautremont and Alchemy?!?! Color me amazed. I really like your mystical images by the way.

Cheers!

[bluerum]

2. No no no. God sent the wave to kill French lovin traitors.

[tenshi816]

16. Was it God,

or Bill O'Reilly?

[bluerum]

18. Well - God asked Bill first - with Bills blessing God ran with it.

[tenshi816]

20. Well, it's a good thing then that God

asked Bill's permission. Wouldn't want the Big Giant Head to bring down the wrath of the Factor on Him, would we?

[bluerum]

22. No - Bill O'liely forbid. He would have God on the show and try to

rough him up to get him back in line. Floods and plane crashes for liberal french loving pagan commie fags - quit killing rabid RW yapping dogs.

[mike_c]

3. awesome animation of rogue wave formation....

Watch the bottom trace to see the effect of the top wave added to the middle wave. You are getting very sleepy....



From http://www.math.uio.no/~karstent/waves/index_en.html

[slackmaster]

8. You're right, that is awesome and I am getting sleepy

[Joanne98]

10. Thanx. I think rogue waves are really interesting.

[LostinVA]

12. My SO is -- literally -- petrified of rogue waves

I can barely get her to get on anything bigger than a kayak. For real. I just read this to her, and she shrieked!!!

[uppityperson]

11. That is a very interesting graphic.

Thank you. Freak waves are weird, good graphic explanation.

[barb162]

15. very interesting article

[Lars39]

5. Wasn't too long ago there was an article about 90'+ waves.

:scared:

[ThoughtCriminal]

13. I think I remember that

Turns out they are much more common than histoically assumed and may be responsible for a considerable number of unexplained ship losses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_waves

[Dogmudgeon]

14. Do the math

It means that at some point in the next 1000 years, there will be a wave that is higher than the radius of the Earth!

And it will be formed on land!

Beware!

--p!

[Javaman]

17. Land Shark. nt

[noonwitch]

19. Bruce Willis' interview footage on the Today Show this morning

He and another guy were being interviewed in Cannes, while sitting on a porch or something near the beach. A huge wave crashed over them while they were speaking.

[Xithras]

21. I was hit by one of those off California

We were running a friends boat from Berkeley to Monterrey on a relatively calm sea when this wave came out of nowhere and nailed us. We got very lucky. The previous several days had seen the typical gray marine layer with dense offshore fog, but the day we ran it was clear and bright. My friend saw the wave in the distance and turned the boat just enough so that we went over bow first. It was a fun ride, but no harm was done.

Had it been foggy that day, we wouldn't have seen the wave until it hit us, and it would have hit us broadside. The boat probably would have rolled, and a 34 foot sailboat baing rolled by a 30 foot wave four miles outside of Half Moon Bay would NOT have been a good thing.