There are two types of Rogue waves. One happens in a storm that’s Bas enough for all “major work” to be stopped already. These are giant waves come mostly by surprise and leave you checking your pants while yelling WTF!
The second type happen only in certain areas of the world (that were, until recently, uncharted) or because of huge events like an earthquake. These types are #%*#! massive compared to the first and you can see them rising up on the horizon. When our lookout spotted it I had time to make a PA announcement, do aevery beeif watch turnover with the CM, put the ship in manual steering and alter her course. These second types leave you completely speechless and literally pinching yourself in disbelief that you are still alive.
Having experienced both I wish researchers would call them by different names. This article makes it sound kike a type 2 rogue wave when, what they are studying is clearly a type one.
I believe type one should be called freak waves because that’s what they are… Frankenstein like amalgamations with very little that can be done to protect yourself but more of a danger to smaller vessels and ships that are already experiencing other problems. We could also call these Death Nails because they are the final blow that sink a ship that’s already floundering.
I believe the term “Rogue Wave” should be reserved for the second type because the word “Rogue” connotates something that’s unpredictable, imposing and singularly dangerous and is not dependant on other factors like the weather.
P.S. I’d be willing to guess that any mariner here who has sailed for years in high latitude open ocean has witnessed a type one freak wave. But I’ve only met a very small handfull of mariners who have an authentic type two rogue wave story. As the article reports Feak Waves happen everyday twice PER STORM (meaning they happen much more than twice a day globally) but I’d be surprised if true Rogue waves occurred more than a handfull of times per week across all the world’s oceans.
P.S.2. There is one place in the world where it may be more difficult to differentiate between the two types… The southern ocean. The reason for this is that storms can circle the globe several times before dissipating generating true Rogue wtees from nothing more than the collision of weather patterns.