#650 The New Year's Monster

 Fun Fact #650

The New Year’s Monster

New Year’s is a wonderful holiday filled with a lot of reasons for people to be happy. However at 3:24pm, New Year’s day, 1995 the crew of the North Atlantic Oil Rig “Draupner” did not celebrate, but sought cover as an 85ft (26m) high wave struck their platform. This was highly unusual as the previous high for a wave above sea-state in the Atlantic was 49ft (15m). Thankfully no one was hurt and the platform only sustained minor damage. 

However, the event itself sparked a lot of interest as “Rouge Waves” which were previously thought to be an old sailor’s tail were now proven real (in nature). Worse yet, The New Year’s Monster –better known today as The Draupner Wave– appeared with almost no warning and a height well above what most ships are designed to be able to handle (modern cruise ships are built to handle sustained 50ft waves on average, cargo ships have different standards). 

 Thankfully these kinds of waves are rare, with the term “Rouge Wave” appearing more in historical use to describe sneaker waves near shorelines, than historical Monster waves. Since the Daupner wave only 23 confirmed sightings have occurred (with many more unverified). Interestingly there is a concerning habit of these waves, in the fact that they rarely occur as a 1-off wave but more frequently appear in sets of 3 (still recorded as 1 event) meaning if you were to encounter a Rogue wave, you’d likely be hit 3 times in a very brief period. Yet Draupner is still the tallest on record and one of the few not to occur in a set.

Interestingly while not limited to there the majority of the encountered rouge waves by vessels with scientific instruments have been in the seas around the north of mainland Europe (Apparently, they like to pummel Ireland), and off the east coast of Australia. Although many more have been spotted in the open oceans, these are not recorded as events since they did not strike anything, and height couldn't be accurately gauged. Sadly, the exact cause of the Natural Rouge waves is still unknown with currently 7 different leading theories still being debated today.

Image above is a sounding recorded from the Daupner Wave