SCARY! Huge wave damages college-at-sea ship

[alicia-w]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/02/01/stricken.vessel.ap/index.html

A passenger ship with about 700 college students aboard limped into Honolulu Harbor five days after a huge wave tossed the vessel around in heavy seas, damaging three of its four engines and injuring two crew members.

"Most people have been happy it's finally sunny and are glad to be going to Hawaii," Becca Leonard, a 21-year-old junior at the University of Southern California, said Monday after the ship pulled into port.

The 591-foot Explorer, with 990 people aboard, was about 650 miles south of Adak, Alaska, when the wave hit early Wednesday morning. Adak is in the Aleutian Islands about 1,300 miles southwest of Anchorage.

The 50-foot wave broke furniture and computers on the ship, and students participating in the Semester at Sea program were forced to sit on the floor for classes for several days after the incident.

Video footage showed students sitting on the floor and sliding back and forth, ramming each other into the wall as waves rolled the ship.

"We were falling all over the place," Leonard said.

Semester at Sea is a University of Pittsburgh-based study-abroad program for undergraduate students intended to give students a more global perspective.

Students from about 250 colleges are on board. Many of them are from the University of Pittsburgh and University of Colorado at Boulder, Leonard said. The 100-day voyage began January 18 in Vancouver.

Woodrow Freese, operations manager for the Institute for Shipboard Education, which operates Semester at Sea, has said no passengers reported injuries, and none wanted to depart once the ship reached port. One crew member suffered a broken leg and another a broken arm, he said.

The ship had headed for Midway Island after the incident but opted for the longer route to Honolulu for repairs, the Coast Guard said. The ship is scheduled to remain in Hawaii for several days before heading to China.

The vessel will be inspected by the Coast Guard, naval architects and Marine engineers. The Coast Guard will ultimately decide whether the vessel is seaworthy, said Jim Lawrence, spokesman for the Explorer.

"I think some kids were really pretty traumatized, but maybe a day and half of calm weather will have changed their minds. It remains to be seen," Leonard's mother, Susan Popik, said in a telephone interview from her home in Redwood City, California.

[TexasStooge]

[ohiostorm]

What were the waves from?

[alicia-w]

i really dont know, but wonder if the recent volcanic activity in Alaska had anything to do with it.

[pojo]

there is a kid from one of the Green Bay suburbs aboard that ship.... he is safe.

[southerngale]

My cousin is on that ship. We've been following it closely. They also had one of the students on The Today Show this past Saturday.

They divided up the guys and girls on the ship and they were all given lifejackets and of course they have lifeboats. That part really scared a lot of them. You know..."women and children first" - thank God they're safe now!

There was damage to the ship and some injuries to staff so you can imagine what those conditions would do to a lifeboat!

I've been getting a lot of information from http://www.semesteratsea.com/voyages/sp ... index.html
They post updates throughout the day and if you can view back several days, it was quite scary.
I also get news from my cousin's hometown news site. She has sent letters in and they posted them.

They were headed for South Korea and from what I understand, Semester at Sea has never been through these parts of the Pacific Ocean during January.

[Rainband]

Glad she is ok.

[alicia-w]

Wow, that had to be really scary! I'm glad to hear that she's okay.

[Lindaloo]

Glad she is safe Kelly.

[southerngale]

They were just on INSIDE EDITION and I saw my cousin. Her name is Amy. They even interviewed her. If it hasn't come on your local NBC yet, watch it. They show clips from the ship and the students sliding on the floor in their lifejackets. They show the library books that were strewn everywhere, etc.



Thanks guys...we are too!!

[Brent]

They were just on INSIDE EDITION and I saw my cousin. Her name is Amy. They even interviewed her. If it hasn't come on your local NBC yet, watch it. They show clips from the ship and the students sliding on the floor in their lifejackets. They show the library books that were strewn everywhere, etc.



Thanks guys...we are too!!

Glad to hear that. It comes on at 7pm ET here, so I'll try to check it out.

[southerngale]

Did you see it Brent? Anyone else?

I wish I had known in advance so I could have taped it. It doesn't seem to rerun here and it costs $30 plus shipping to order a tape from them.

[southerngale]

Here's an article about it and click on the link for a video that shows the kids sliding across the floor and books and stuff going everywhere as well as a short interview with one of the students. My cousin is the one on the front row, left.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/02/01/strick ... index.html

Rough seas torment college-at-sea ship

Boat in Honolulu for repairs

Tuesday, February 1, 2005 Posted: 9:41 PM EST (0241 GMT)

HONOLULU, Hawaii (AP) -- Lauren Osgood watched as waves and flecks of sea spray licked at the glass on the door. But there was nothing to hold onto.

Computers, library books and furniture crashed to the floor and were flung against the walls as the ship leaned like a massive metronome from port to starboard and back again.

"We were right by the exit doors on either side, and so you could like see the waves on the doors, which freaked me out," said Osgood, 21, a junior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who was enrolled in the Semester at Sea program that used the research ship Explorer as a floating classroom.

"That's kind of when I began to panic because you could see the water and realize that you were tipping that much," she said.

The 591-foot Explorer limped into Honolulu Harbor on Monday for repairs and inspections after passengers endured more than a week's worth of rough seas.

None of the students suffered injuries beyond bruises, but one crew member suffered a broken leg and another a broken arm.

The ship's seesawing motion made sleeping difficult, so many of the nearly 700 students were awake when a wave shattered the glass on the ship's bridge and three of the four engines shut down early last Wednesday.

The incident occurred about 650 miles south of Adak, Alaska, in the Aleutian Islands and about 1,300 miles southwest of Anchorage.

Students said rough seas had plagued the ship since they left Vancouver on Jan. 18 with 990 people aboard, including the students enrolled in a University of Pittsburgh program designed to give them a global perspective. Tuition for the program is about $20,000 for the semester, which includes living expenses on the ship and some trips ashore.

The crew distributed plastic bags for nauseous passengers, and students sat on the floor during classes because the furniture was not secured to the floor and would topple with the ship's movement.

"We were so used to it after a while. You'd just be talking to someone and when you felt the boat move, you'd just instantly grab for something," said Becca Leonard, 21, a junior at the University of Southern California.

After the engines and bridge were damaged, passengers and crew donned life vests. The students were herded into the ship's narrow hallways and eventually to the fifth deck of the ship.

"Your cabin was probably the worst place to be. Glass tables, chairs, beds were flying, our TV had fallen. Glasses were breaking, the doors were flying open and shut," Leonard said. "They had to help you out of your room if stuff was lodged (against the door) because by the time you moved it, another wave would come."

The crew eventually separated the students and passengers by gender. Some students weren't sure whether the procedure was meant as a prelude to entering lifeboats, or as a safety measure, or both.

"They tried to stick everyone in a hallway, so we were like halfway on top of each other," said Melissa Good, 20, a junior at Indiana University. "I was just getting like smashed around. That's the main reason I think they separated us."

A spokesman for the ship said the crew took precautions to protect passengers.

"Safety is always the first concern when you do anything at sea. This is a state-of-the-art vessel," spokesman Jim Lawrence said. "The route she travels is one taken by 6,500 vessels a year, and she has a superb captain and crew."

Osgood and Leonard suffered bruises but said the experience "bonded the group."

"It was totally not fun when it was happening, but afterward, everyone was so much tighter," Leonard said.

The ship is expected to remain in Honolulu for about five days while undergoing repairs and Coast Guard inspections before sailing for Shanghai, China.

[azsnowman]

HOLY COW!

I've seen the Bering Sea and it's anger first hand, I was stationed at Adak, Alaska from 12 Dec '77 to 10 Nov '78, the reason for the rough seas (I would assume) is the fact that's where the Northern Jet Stream orginates from, Adak suffers SUSTAINED winds of 20 knotts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, hence the reason the tours of duty were limited to 1 year, the weather up there drives you INSANE, constant wind, NO sunshine to speak of, just a NASTY place all around. The Navy shut the base down in 1980 I believe and for GOOD reasons!

Dennis

[azsnowman]

Here's a link to the island...as you can see, it's a city now, no military.....and talk about EARTHQUAKES!!!! When I was stationed there, we had, on the average, 2-3 tremors per WEEK, nothing over 3.0

http://www.adakisland.com/

Dennis