The Height of Sea Waves.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 475, 28 May 1890, Page 5

The Height of Sea Waves.

The theory of the late Captain Scoresby as to the height of sea waves appears to be untenable, judging by the reports of the fearful weather which has recently prevailed in the Atlantic. We now know that powerful passenger steamers have had their bulwarks shattered, their deck ladders torn away, their boats wrenched from their davits, and the iron davits themselves twisted like pin wire. Now, the boats of such vessels are swung high above the deck. Therefore the seas which smashed them into matchwood, and twisted the davits from which they were torn, must have been of greater elevation than 26it. (the maximum height accordiog to Scoresby). Nob long ago the Servia was the largest and mosb powerful passenger steamer afloat. Seen on smooth water inner ordinary trim, her towering height appeared to render her secure against being boarded by any wave, yet on one occasion a leaping sea struck her with such violence that it flattened one of her huge funnels. The height of the wave must have been nearer 50 feet than 26 feet. The other week the Dundee screw-liner Croma arrived at New York in a sea-battered condition, and reported fearful weather. She had actually shipped a sea down her funnel —an elevation of 56 feet above the ordinary water level. If steamers having a fair degree of buoyancy meet with euch experience, what wonder is it that heavy cargo steamers like the National Line steamship Erin, their decks loaded with cattle, occasionally go to the bottom?—‘lron.’