Ghost Wave - Chris Dixon [166]
4. Insights into the science and theory of wave propagation were provided through years of relentless interrogations of Sean Collins for Surfermag.com, Surfer, and The New York Times (Chris Dixon, “A Site for Real Surfers Catches a Wave,” The New York Times, June 13, 2002); a telephone interview with Walter Munk in February 2010; and through two books: Tony Butt and Paul Russell, Surf Science: An Introduction to Waves for Surfing (Cornwall, UK: Alison Hodge Publishing, 2002), and Craig B. Smith, Extreme Waves (Washington DC: Joseph Henry Press, 2006).
5. 1933 weather stories:
A. “Cold Wave Strikes City Again Tonight; Blizzard in West; Worst Storm in Years Sweeps Middle West,” The New York Times, February 8, 1933.
B. “Ireland Is Swept by Gale and Snow; Towns Isolated and Shipping Suffers Heavily in Worst Storm of Century,” The New York Times, February 26, 1933.
C. “Gale-Borne Snow Hits New England,” The New York Times, February 27, 1933.
D. “6 Die, 20 Missing As Gale Hits Coast; Fishing Boats Lost; Giant Waves Capsize Many Craft, Imperil Hundreds of Fishermen,” The New York Times, August 21, 1933.
E. “13 Dead, Many Hurt In Pacific Floods; Thousands Are Homeless as Northwest Gets Ray of Hope in Colder Weather,” The New York Times, December 24, 1933.
F. Paul Bonnifield, The Dust Bowl: Men, Dirt, and Depression. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1979).
G. Background on the extreme weather of 1933 was also gleaned from Monthly Weather Review, January 1933.
H. 1933 record hurricanes—NOAA (http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/tropical-cyclones/2005/13).
I. Oregon weather records—NOAA (http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/pqr/paststorms/index.php).
J. Larry Greenemeier, “Welcome to the Coldest Town on Earth—Oymyakon, Siberia, is bracing for temps as low as minus 90 degrees Fahrenheit,” Scientific American, December 24, 2008.
6. On the topic of “rogue” or “freak” waves:
A. “Ship-sinking monster waves revealed by ESA satellites,” European Space Agency News, July 21, 2004 (http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMOKQL26WD_index_0.html).
B. Peter Müller, Chris Garrett, and Al Osborne, “Rogue Waves—The Fourteenth ‘Aha Huliko’a Hawaiian Winter Workshop,” Oceanography 18, no. 3 (2005).
C. A fascinating interActive wave machine on PBS’s “Savage Seas” Web site (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/savageseas/multimedia/wavemachine.html).
D. Bruce Stutz, “Rogue Waves—The Physics of Pure Hell at Sea,” Discover Magazine, July 2004.
E. The “Max Wave” project was featured in the BBC Horizon Freak Wave series (http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2002/freakwave.shtml).
7. To determine the energy in the Ramapo wave, the following simple mathematical equation provides a rough but still reasonable estimate: height2 (meters) x period (seconds) x .5 = kilowatts per square meter of horizontal wave front (if you were able to see how wide the wave stretched across the horizon).
A. In this case: 34(meters)2 x 16 x .5 = 9248 kilowatts (a kilowatt being 1000 watts) or 9.2 million watts per square meter.
B. Next, assume this wave presented a front at least two miles wide from end to end—perhaps considerably more. Two miles = 10,560 feet or 3,218 square meters.
C. Thus, 3,218 square meters x 9,200,000 watts = 29,605,600,000 (29.6 billion) watts of energy in this single wave.
8. Custom of the Sea – A Shocking Tale of Shipwreck, Murder and the Last Taboo, by Neil Hanson (Wiley Publishing, London, 2000), is the gripping, tragic account of the cannibal crew of the Mignonette.
9. The logs of the Ramapo are held at the National Archives in Washington DC, and contain entries from Whitemarsh and captain C. B. Mayo.
CHAPTER 6
1. This chapter was made possible through hours of interviews over the course of the past decade (most however, were undertaken when I started research for this book in 2008). Interviewees: Rob Brown, Sean Collins, Bill Sharp, Mike Parsons, Brad Gerlach, Sam George, Walter Munk, Candace Moore, Flippy Hoffman, and