Rogue waves in crossing seas: The Louis Majesty accident

TLDR

The cruise ship Louis Majesty was struck by a large wave that destroyed windows on deck five and caused two fatalities. The study analyzes the sea‑state conditions during the Louis Majesty accident. Using the WAM wave model driven by COSMO‑ME winds, the authors perform a detailed hindcast, model the sea state with two coupled Nonlinear Schrödinger equations, and examine breather solutions to estimate maximum wave amplitude. The results reveal two comparable wave systems with nearly identical frequencies, and although the exact wave causing the accident cannot be identified due to missing measurements, the angle between the systems was close to the condition for maximum breather amplitude.

Abstract

We analyze the sea state conditions during which the accident of the cruise ship Louis Majesty took place. The ship was hit by a large wave that destroyed some windows at deck number five and caused two fatalities. Using the wave model (WAM), driven by the Consortium for Small‐Scale Modelling (COSMO‐ME) winds, we perform a detailed hindcast of the local wave conditions. The results reveal the presence of two comparable wave systems characterized almost by the same frequency. We discuss such sea state conditions in the framework of a system of two coupled Nonlinear Schrödinger (CNLS) equations, each of which describe the dynamics of a single spectral peak. For some specific parameters, we discuss the breather solutions of the CNLS equations and estimate the maximum wave amplitude. Even though, due to the lack of measurements, it is impossible to establish the nature of the wave that caused the accident, we show that the angle between the two wave systems during the accident was close to the condition for which the maximum amplitude of the breather solution is observed.