Path: utzoo!censor!geac!jtsv16!uunet!samsung!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!psuvax1!rutgers!att!cbnews!military
From: pierson@cimnet.dec.com
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Navy Accidents...
Message-ID: <11309@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 10 Nov 89 12:41:00 GMT
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Lines: 27
Approved: military@att.att.com



From: pierson@cimnet.dec.com

in part:
...
>:NPR reports that the swells were 4-6 ft. when the accident occured.  This
>:is considered `moderate' seas and shouldn't cause any disruption to carrier
>:Ops.  Apparently the the wave that swept the elevator was a freak and was
>:therefore completely unexpected.
> 
>I find all this surprising.  Don't ships have lookouts any more?  Just where
>could the wave have come from?
..

There is, i believe, a phenomenon formally known as "the freak wave" (defined
as "larger than whats running), it's not simply a phrase.  This is dredged out
of a Scientific American article read long ago.  Origins of such waves were
unknown at that time.  I suspect that even if such a wave were spotted, there
would be little that could be done, with the ships rigged together

thanks
dave pierson			|The facts, sometimes fuzzily remembered,
Digital Equipment Corporation	|the opinions, my own.
600 Nickerson Rd
Marlboro, Mass
01742				pierson@cimnet.enet.dec.com