A rogue wave terrified cruise ship passengers on the North Sea on Thursday as it towered over and tossed the ship, Tour Operator Thorsten Hansen told TMX.
“I love it,” posted Hansen on social media. “However, a few of my guests are not so happy.”
The video shows the rogue wave ahead of the Otto Sverdrup off the coast of Germany on Friday. The ship is over 450 feet long, 70 feet wide, almost 16,000 tons, and has eight decks, and still, the freak wave dwarfed the ship. The Otto Sverdrup can hold up to 500 passengers.
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Storm Pia’s hurricane-force winds punished the North Sea and much of Europe Thursday and Friday, according to the Danish Meteorological Institute. The rough seas interacting with the ocean floor and coasts built up the rogue wave, which can be twice the size of surrounding waves, according to NOAA.
Hansen said the wave was the same one that hit a nearby cruise ship, the Maud, at about the same time. The wave smashed at least two windows on the bridge of the more than 16,000-ton ship, and the incoming seawater knocked out the navigation system and radar. It threw the ship with 266 passengers and 131 crew into darkness as the power failed, according to local media and the cruise line HX.
The crew was able to restart one motor, according to a trade paper.
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“Spent 4 hours in survival suits and life vests while the Danish Coastguard and local oil rigs sent out rescue boats to escort us and provide navigation as the crew manually steered the boat from the engine room,” one passenger wrote on Facebook. “Hands down, one of the scariest nights of my life in gale force winds and 11 meter (36 feet) waves.”
The ship was about 125 miles off the coast of Denmark on a trip from Norway to England.
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“There were about 20 minutes in which I thought the ship might capsize, it was rocking so much and we had no idea what had happened,” an American passenger posted on X, formerly Twitter.
The cruise line initially reported no serious injuries, but German media reported that three passengers were taken to a hospital upon disembarking. Passengers reported broken bones, scrapes and bruises.
Storm Pia altered the course of the ship. Local media reported that about 200 people disembarked in Norway due to the bad weather before the accident.
The ship limped to Bremerhaven, Germany, where many passengers had to stay aboard due to limited flights out of the area.
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HX reported that the ship is not expected to return to service until February after repairs.
Passengers and crew on the Otto Sverdrup were rushed off the vessel because Storm Pia flooding closed the harbor, according to Hansen.
High seas knocked containers from cargo ships as well. On Saturday, beaches in Norway were littered with goods.
Elsewhere, Storm Pia blew over a 65-foot Christmas tree onto a woman, killing her, in Belgium, according to AP. Another person was killed by another falling tree in the Netherlands.