On the night of February 8, 2000, the crew of the British research vessel, Royal Research Ship (RRS) Discovery, were braced for a storm.Wind speeds had been increasing over the previous night
On the night of February 8, 2000, the crew of the British research vessel, Royal Research Ship (RRS) Discovery, were braced for a storm.
Wind speeds had been increasing over the previous night creating conditions no one onboard had ex-perienced before – or would want to experience again.
From mid-afternoon on the 8th to mid-morning on the 9th, wave heights were topping 20 m in height and even reached 29.1 m – the equivalent to a ten-storey building – peaking around midnight.
Even for 250 km west of Scotland, out in the North Atlantic, these were abnormal conditions.
The storm left its mark on the vessel, 25 scientists and 22 marine crew, who were conducting the Ellett Line hydrographic transect. There was a shattered interior window, broken by the ship’s structure flexing under the immense forces it was under. A lifeboat came loose, and people were thrown from their bunks, suffering bruises and even broken ribs.
Were it not for the efforts and actions of the captain and marine crew, it could have been worse (and only later did they learn that they had also come very close to a collision with a trawler, avoided only by the crew’s
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