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Can a ship be built to withstand a 100 foot rogue wave? I don't know if it's even possible. It's probably possible to design a ship to take 100 feet of water at
by ahi 17y ago
Can a ship be built to withstand a 100 foot rogue wave? I don't know if it's even possible. It's probably possible to design a ship to take 100 feet of water at the bow, but what happens if you have to design for a wave hitting the stern or the sides as well? Do you end up with a giant brick of steel that doesn't even float? Then throw on top the economics where the vast majority of ships won't encounter a wave of that magnitude in their lifetimes.
The solution probably isn't better ships, but better mapping of wave conditions and routing around more dangerous areas.
- swombat 17y agoThe ship doesn't need to withstand the wave without any damage - that would be unnecessarily expensive. But they should at least be designed to withstand such a wave without sinking. If I climb on a ship and you tell me "well, there's a 1 in 100'000 chance that we'll be hit by a freak wave and then it's quite likely that everyone on board will die, since the ship will be broken in half and sink", that's a very different thing to say than "well, there's a 1 in 100'000 chance that we'll be hit by a freak wave, and then the ship will sustain severe damage but should be able to limp back to shore or at least float long enough for a rescue." The difference between those two scenarios is probably less expensive than you think.