The Truth Behind "The Poseidon Adventure"

That's right, it turns out that rogue waves are for real. They have been observed from space and systematically characterized by a group of European researchers using the ERS Earth-observing satellites of the European Space Agency.

Over a three-week period of study they detected ten "rogue waves" with heights of more than 25 meters - well above the height of all the waves around them. Prior to this, some had estimated the rogue waves' frequency (in the absence of earthquakes or undersea avalanches) to be as low as one or two per century. To the contrary, now, all those salty tales of "walls of water" coming out of nowhere cannot, in fact, be chalked up to ready availability of distilled spirits and the tedium of long sea voyages. Such waves may even be responsible for the great majority of ship sinkings that occur each year.

That ought to liven up your next cruise vacation.