alaskan cruise ship hit by wave

'Rogue wave' hits Viking cruise ship, killing 1 passenger and injuring 4 others

One person died and four others were injured after a "rogue wave" hit the Viking Polaris cruise ship while it was sailing toward Ushuaia, Argentina, on Tuesday night, officials said.

“It is with great sadness that we confirmed a guest passed away following the incident,” Viking said in a statement Thursday. “We have notified the guest’s family and shared our deepest sympathies. We will continue to offer our full support to the family in the hours and days ahead.”

The name and hometown of the passenger was not released, but Argentine authorities identified her as a 62-year-old American who was hit by broken glass when the wave broke cabin windows, according to The Associated Press .

The four other guests had non-life-threatening injuries and received treatment from doctors and medical staff onboard.

Rogue waves, or extreme storm waves, are uncommon, unpredictable and "greater than twice the size of surrounding waves," according to the National Ocean Service . They are described as "walls of water" in most reports.

Suzie Gooding, who was on the ship when the incident happened, recalled feeling like they'd hit an iceberg, according to NBC affiliate WRAL of Raleigh, North Carolina.

“Everything was fine until the rogue wave hit, and it was just sudden. Shocking,” Gooding told the news station. “We didn’t know if we should get our gear ready for abandoning ship.”

The ship "sustained limited damage during the incident" and arrived in Ushuaia Wednesday afternoon, Viking said in its statement.

"We are investigating the facts surrounding this incident and will offer our support to the relevant authorities," the company said. "Our focus remains on the safety and wellbeing of our guests and crew, and we are working directly with them to arrange return travel."

The Viking Polaris’ next departure, the Antarctic Explorer cruise scheduled for Dec. 5-17, was canceled due to the incident.

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Viking Polaris passengers speak out after 'rogue wave' strikes Antarctic cruise ship, killing American woman

Ship reportedly was crossing drake passage between south america and antarctica.

Large waves hit glass of Antarctica cruise ship as it navigates the Drake Passage

One American woman was killed and four others injured after a rogue wave hit the cruise ship. (Credit: Ann Clark Mah)

Passengers onboard the Viking Polaris cruise ship that was hit by a "rogue wave" during a voyage to Antartica, killing an American woman, are now speaking out, saying a "wall of seawater" came onto the vessel. 

Sheri Zhu, 62, has been identified by ABC News as the person who died during the incident last Tuesday, citing Secretary of the Ushuaia Federal Court Melina Rodriguez. The ship was traveling to Ushuaia, Argentina, when it was struck and Fox News Digital has reached out to the government there for further comment. 

"If somebody had told me we had hit an iceberg I would have believed them," Tamarah Castaneda, a passenger from San Diego onboard the Polaris, told ABC’s "Good Morning America." 

"The windows came crashing in, there was this wall of seawater that came in," she added. "Beds were being shoved up against the doors so that they were not able to get out of their rooms." 

US WOMAN KILLED WHEN ‘ROGUE WAVE’ STRIKES ANTARCTIC CRUISE SHIP  

Viking Polaris ship of norwegian flag, is seen anchored in waters of the Atlantic Ocean in Ushuaia, southern Argentina, on December 1, 2022. - One person was killed, and four other passengers. (ALEXIS DELELISI/AFP via Getty Images)

Beverly Spiker of California also told ABC News that a "huge smash" against the window of the cabin she and her husband were staying in caused the frame to shatter, adding, "A lot of water came shooting in." 

The incident reportedly happened around 10:40 p.m. local time while the ship was sailing through the Drake Passage – a traverse between the southern tip of South America and Antarctica known for its rough waters. 

Waves are seen crashing alongside the Viking Polaris cruise ship while it recently was sailing in the Drake Passage. (Ann Clark Mah)

Argentine authorities said the woman who died was hit by broken glass when the wave broke cabin windows. The ship suffered limited damage and arrived in Ushuaia, 1,926 miles south of Buenos Aires, the next day. 

"It is with great sadness that we confirmed a guest passed away following the incident," Viking Cruises said in a statement. "We have notified the guest’s family and shared our deepest sympathies." 

The Norwegian-flagged cruise ship Viking Polaris, left, and MV World Explorer ship, chartered by Quark Expeditions, are seen anchored in waters of the Atlantic Ocean in Ushuaia, southern Argentina, on Dec. 1, 2022. (ALEXIS DELELISI/AFP via Getty Images)

Four passengers who were injured were treated onboard the ship by a doctor and medical staff for non-life-threatening injuries, the company said.

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Rogue waves, also known as "extreme storm waves" by scientists, are greater than twice the size of surrounding waves and often come unexpectedly from directions other than prevailing wind and waves, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

Fox News’ Louis Casiano and the Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Greg Norman is a reporter at Fox News Digital.

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Terrifying videos show norwegian cruise ship rocked by massive waves ahead of power outage that knocked out navigation.

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A Norwegian cruise liner carrying hundreds of passengers weathered a “terrifying” storm before a rogue wave temporarily took out its power, stomach-churning footage showed.

Tour operator Thorsten Hansen shared a video of the foamy waves battering the hull of the MS Maud, which made headlines Thursday when its electricity failed mid-voyage.

“A few of my guests are not so happy. But most of them are very brave and find it very interesting,” he wrote on Facebook.

“We’re watching films in our room. Every time we move we nearly go flying,” one passenger commented under Hansen’s post.

Another clip shared on X showed the view of the terrifying swells from the glamorous windows of an on-board suit, which tilted precariously toward the water between each wave.

“No fun on the Maud just now,” the person behind the camera captioned the footage.

The vessel carrying 266 passengers and 131 crew suffered shattered windows on its bridge when it encountered a powerful storm in the North Sea late Thursday, Danish authorities said.

Everyone on board was marked safe, and the ship is being towed to Bremerhaven in Germany, officials with the Danish Joint Rescue Coordination Centre said.

The ship’s main engine is still functioning, so the vessel can be steered from the engine room.

One passenger, Elizabeth Lawrence, wrote on X that the storm was a “terrifying experience.”

I’ll be honest, there was about 20 minutes yesterday where I thought the ship might capsize, it was rolling so heavily and we didn’t have any idea what had happened. It really hit home when they started handing out orange survival suits to everyone (2) — Elizabeth Lawrence (@eclairelaw) December 22, 2023

“I’ll be honest, there was about 20 minutes yesterday where I thought the ship might capsize, it was rolling so heavily and we didn’t have any idea what had happened,” she said.

“It really hit home when they started handing out orange survival suits to everyone,” Lawrence explained.

Lawrence said her group took shelter between buffet tables to avoid “flying chairs and furniture.”

The MS Maud, which is run by the cruise company HX, a unit of Norway’s Hurtigruten Group, left Floroe in Norway on Thursday and was scheduled to arrive in Tilbury in Great Britain on Friday.

The ship was named after a famous polar ship from the 20th century, the cruise line’s website explained .

The MS Maud’s on-board technology makes her “exceptionally well-suited” to trips through Norway and the British Isles, the company boasted.

A trip on the Maud can cost up to $10,000, according to the website.

With Post wires

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Rogue Wave Strikes Cruise Ship, Killing a Passenger and Injuring 4 Others

The passengers were hurt after a large, unpredictable wave hit the ship, which was traveling toward the Antarctic, Viking Cruises said.

By Amanda Holpuch

A passenger died and four others were injured after a large, unexpected wave hit a cruise ship traveling toward a popular launching point for expeditions to Antarctica, Viking Cruises said.

The ship, the Viking Polaris, was struck by a “rogue wave” on Tuesday at 10:40 p.m. local time while traveling toward Ushuaia, Argentina, which is on the southern tip of South America, Viking Cruises said in a statement .

Viking Cruises did not say how the passenger was killed or provide the passenger’s name. The four passengers who were injured were treated by onboard medical staff and had non-life-threatening injuries, Viking Cruises said.

A State Department official said that a U.S. citizen died and that the department was offering consular assistance to the person’s family.

Rogue waves are unpredictable, typically twice the size of surrounding waves and often come from a different direction than the surrounding wind and waves, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration . Scientists are still trying to figure out how and when these uncommon waves form.

Ann Mah, of Topeka, Kan., told the news station WIBW that she and her husband were on the ship when it was hit by the wave and that it was “just like your whole house got shook really hard.”

“I mean, it was just a thud,” Ms. Mah said.

The Viking Polaris was launched this year and was designed for travel to remote destinations such as the Antarctic Peninsula. The ship is 665 feet long and can carry 378 passengers and 256 crew members.

The ship sustained “limited damage” from the wave and arrived in Ushuaia the day after it was struck, Viking Cruises said.

The cruise company canceled the Viking Polaris’s next scheduled trip, a 13-day cruise to the Antarctic Peninsula.

“We are investigating the facts surrounding this incident and will offer our support to the relevant authorities,” the company said.

Tourism to the Antarctic has steadily increased in the last 30 years, with 74,401 people traveling there in the 2019-20 season, according to the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators. Roughly 6,700 people traveled there in the 1992-93 season, according to the association.

In recent years, some observers have warned that the increase in tourism may not be sustainable and that it could threaten visitor safety or disrupt the fragile environment, which is already straining under the effects of climate change.

It is the beginning of the Antarctic tourism season, which coincides with its summer, beginning in late October or early November and usually lasting until March.

The death on the Viking Cruises ship this week comes after the death of two other cruise ship passengers in the Antarctic last month. Two Quark Expeditions cruise ship passengers died after one of the ship’s heavy duty inflatable Zodiac boats overturned near shore, Seatrade Cruise News reported .

Amanda Holpuch is a general assignment reporter. More about Amanda Holpuch

'Rogue wave' strikes Antarctic cruise ship, leaves 1 dead and 4 injured

The Viking Polaris ship was sailing toward Ushuaia, Argentina, at the time.

An American passenger on an Antarctic cruise died and four other guests were injured after their Viking ship was struck by a "rogue wave," officials said.

The incident happened on Tuesday around 10:40 p.m. local time while the Viking Polaris ship was sailing toward Ushuaia, Argentina, Viking said.

MORE: Carnival cruise passenger who went overboard was 'dead set' on surviving

A guest died following the incident, Viking said, though did not share further details on the cause of death. The victim's family has been notified, the company said.

The passenger killed was a U.S. citizen, a State Department spokesperson confirmed to ABC News Friday.

"We are offering all appropriate consular assistance. Out of respect for the family during this difficult time, we have no further comment," the spokesperson said.

The victim was confirmed as Sheri Zhu, 62, by Secretary of the Ushuaia Federal Court Melina Rodriguez.

Four other guests sustained non-life-threatening injuries during the incident and were treated by the ship's doctor and medical staff, Viking said.

"We are investigating the facts surrounding this incident and will offer our support to the relevant authorities," Viking said in a statement Thursday. "Our focus remains on the safety and wellbeing of our guests and crew, and we are working directly with them to arrange return travel."

The ship sustained "limited damage" from the rogue wave and arrived in Ushuaia on Wednesday "without further incident," Viking said. Images taken of the docked ship showed several damaged windows.

Passengers on board the ship described choppy conditions leading up to the incident.

Californian Beverly Spiker told ABC News that a "huge smash" against the window of her and her husband's cabin caused her window frame to break.

"Clearly something big had happened," she said. "A lot of water came shooting in."

"Luckily, our windows did hold," she added, though said other rooms on their side of the ship were "washed out."

Spiker's cousin, Suzie Gooding, of North Carolina, told ABC News that at the time, the ship was going through the Drake Passage, "which is well-known for having turbulent seas."

Gooding said despite the conditions outside looking "horrible," the inside was "like a normal cruise ship" leading up to the incident. She said she felt a "sudden shudder" that caused cabinets to open.

"It was just unbelievable," she said. "At the time that it happened, we personally wondered if, you know, we knew that we weren't by any icebergs, but it's like, did we hit an iceberg? It just was so sudden."

Spiker said she and other passengers were "shook up" afterward.

"No matter what side of the boat you're on, it was felt throughout the ship that clearly something bad had happened," she said. "So everybody was pretty shook up."

MORE: Passengers hurt aboard Norwegian cruise ship after unexpected wind strikes: I felt 'like we're going to die'

The ship is docked as passengers await further travel plans from Viking, according to Gooding, who said that two other ships in their bay in Ushuaia were also damaged, possibly by rogue waves.

The Viking Polaris ship's next departure for the Antarctic, scheduled for Dec. 5, has been canceled "after careful consideration," the cruise line said.

Rogue, or extreme storm, waves are "greater than twice the size of surrounding waves" and are "very unpredictable," according to the National Ocean Service .

Ushuaia, at the southernmost tip of South America, is a common starting point for cruises to Antarctica.

ABC News' Matthew Seyler contributed to this report.

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Massive rogue wave smashes cruise ship windows, kills U.S. passenger

• Updated: Dec. 03, 2022, 8:57 a.m. |
• Published: Dec. 03, 2022, 8:11 a.m.

The damage to the Viking Polaris ship shows as it is anchored in waters of the Atlantic Ocean in Ushuaia, southern Argentina, on December 1, 2022. (Photo by Alexis Delelisi / AFP) (Photo by ALEXIS DELELISI/AFP via Getty Images) AFP via Getty Images

• The Associated Press

A U.S. woman was killed and four other passengers injured when a massive wave struck the Viking Polaris cruise ship while the 231-foot long vessel was sailing in southern Argentina on an Antarctic cruise, authorities said.

The 62-year-old woman was hit by broken glass when the wave broke cabin windows late Tuesday during a storm as the ship sailed toward the port of Ushuaia, Argentine authorities said. The ship suffered limited damage and arrived in Ushuaia, 1,926 miles south of Buenos Aires, the next day.

“It is with great sadness that we confirmed a guest passed away following the incident,” Viking said in statement. “We have notified the guest’s family and shared our deepest sympathies.”

Neither the statement nor the Argentine Naval Prefecture identified the woman or her hometown.

Viking called it a “rogue wave incident” and said the four other passengers’ injuries were not life-threatening.

The cruise ship was anchored near Ushuaia, where a federal court has opened a case to determine what happened.

The company indicated on its website that to explore remote regions of the world they have “two purpose-built, state-of-the-art small expedition-class ships: Viking Octantis and Viking Polaris.”

The Viking Polaris, a vessel that has luxury facilities and was built in 2022, has capacity for 378 passengers and 256 crew members.

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Deadly 'rogue wave' smashes into cruise ship near Antarctica — but where did it come from?

A suspected rogue wave recently crashed into a cruise ship near Antarctica killing one and injuring four others. Where did it come from?

A suspected "rogue wave" recently smashed into a cruise ship sailing from Antarctica to Argentina. The freak event killed one person and injured four others. But where do these freakishly tall waves come from? And is climate change expected to make them more common or extreme? 

On the night of Nov. 29, an unusually massive wave hit the cruise ship Viking Polaris as it was sailing through the Drake Passage in Antarctica's Southern Ocean toward Ushuaia, a port in Argentina where many Antarctic cruises start and end, French news agency AFP reported. 

The force of the massive wall of water sent passengers flying and smashed several exterior windows, which flooded some rooms and caused further structural damage inside. A 62-year-old American woman, Sheri Zhu, was killed by injuries sustained from the broken glass and four other people received non-life-threatening injuries, according to Australian news site ABC News . 

"This wave hit and came over and literally broke through windows and just washed into these rooms," Tom Trusdale, a passenger aboard the Viking Polaris when the incident happened, told ABC News. "Not only did it wash into the rooms, but it [also] broke walls down."

Related: What's the tallest wave ever recorded on Earth?

Viking, the travel company that owns the Viking Polaris, announced on Dec. 1 that the tragic event was a suspected "rogue wave incident." Upcoming cruises have been canceled until the ship can be fully repaired and a proper investigation into what happened has been carried out. 

What are rogue waves?

Rogue waves are freak waves that are at least twice as high as the surrounding sea state — the average height of the waves for a given area at a given time, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The massive walls of water come from seemingly out of nowhere and without warning.

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The exact mechanisms behind the rogue waves are still unknown, but researchers think the freakish crests are formed when smaller waves merge into larger ones, either due to high surface winds or changes in ocean currents caused by storms, according to NOAA. 

It is currently unclear if the wave that hit the Viking Polaris qualifies as an official rogue wave because there is no accurate data on the wave height or the surrounding sea state. A storm was raging when the wave hit, CNN reported, which could have provided the necessary conditions for a rogue wave to form. But the Drake Passage is also a notoriously treacherous part of the Southern Ocean, with deep waters that are fed by the powerful Antarctic Circumpolar Current, which makes it capable of producing very large non-rogue waves as well, according to Britannica . 

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On Dec. 2, a passenger onboard another cruise ship in the Drake Passage shared a video of another massive, but less destructive, wave on Twitter .

The largest rogue wave ever recorded was the Draupner wave, an 84-foot-tall (25.6 meters) wave that was observed near Norway in 1995. However, the most extreme rogue wave ever recorded was the Ucluelet wave, a 58-foot-tall (17.7 m) wave that was detected by an ocean buoy off the coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia in November 2020. The Ucluelet wave is regarded as the most extreme rogue wave because it was around three times higher than surrounding waves, while the Draupner wave was only around twice as tall compared with the surrounding sea state.

In 2019, a study published in the journal Scientific Reports predicted that rogue waves could become less frequent but more extreme in the future due to the effects of human-caused climate change. 

Harry is a U.K.-based senior staff writer at Live Science. He studied marine biology at the University of Exeter before training to become a journalist. He covers a wide range of topics including space exploration, planetary science, space weather, climate change, animal behavior, evolution and paleontology. His feature on the upcoming solar maximum was shortlisted in the "top scoop" category at the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) Awards for Excellence in 2023. 

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"Rogue wave" kills American woman, injures four others on Antarctic cruise ship

Updated on: December 2, 2022 / 7:15 PM EST / CBS/AFP

A U.S. woman died and four other passengers were injured when a massive wave smashed into an Antarctic cruise ship during a storm as it sailed off the southernmost tip of South America, officials said Friday. The 62-year-old woman was hit by broken glass when the wave broke cabin windows late Tuesday, Argentine authorities said.

The Viking Polaris cruise ship was sailing toward Ushuaia in Argentina — the main starting point for expeditions to Antarctica — when there was "a rogue wave incident," a representative of the Viking cruise company said in a statement .

"It is with great sadness that we confirmed a guest passed away following the incident. We have notified the guest's family and shared our deepest sympathies," the statement said.

Neither the Viking statement nor the Argentine Naval Prefecture identified the woman or her hometown.  

In a statement to CBS News, a U.S. State Department spokesperson confirmed the death and offered condolences to the family.

"We are offering all appropriate consular assistance," the spokesperson said. "Out of respect for the family during this difficult time, we have no further comment."

Four other tourists "sustained non-life-threatening injuries" and were treated onboard, the cruise line said.

"We wondered if we hit an iceberg," Suzie Gooding, a passenger from North Carolina,  told WRAL-TV . "And there are no icebergs out here, but that's how it felt."

Gooding told the station that the impact of the wave was "shocking."

"Everything was fine until the rogue wave hit, and it was just sudden. Shocking," Gooding said. "We didn't know if we should get our gear ready for abandoning ship."

Durham couple on board cruise ship struck by enormous wave, killing 1, injuring 4 https://t.co/6FIvbmV0dT — WRAL NEWS in NC (@WRAL) December 2, 2022

The ship suffered minor damage and was anchored off Ushuaia, 3,200 kilometers (nearly 2,000 miles) from the capital Buenos Aires, with several windows smashed on the side, AFP journalists reported.

Viking said it was "investigating the facts surrounding this incident."

Scientists often refer to rogue waves as extreme storm waves that surge out of nowhere, often in an unpredictable direction, and can look like a steep wall of water, up to twice the size of surrounding waves.

These rare killer waves were once seen as a myth reported by mariners or explorers. The polar explorer Ernest Shackleton wrote in his book of a "gigantic" freak wave he encountered in Antarctica in 1916.

However, scientists have learned more about them in recent decades, studying how they emerge and how to predict the wall of water that can surge up even in calm seas.

The Viking Polaris was launched in 2022 and is the newest ship in the company's fleet.

The incident comes two weeks after two tourists died on another Antarctic cruise. The two men, aged 76 and 80, had left the World Explorer ship for an excursion on an inflatable zodiac boat which overturned near the shore.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Nauseating video shows cruise ship tossed about in storm before wave kills power

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This is the terrifying moment a UK-bound cruise ship was smashed by a wave strong enough to knock its power out and send passengers sliding around.

MS Maud was in the middle of the North Sea at the tail end of a 14-day cruise to see the Northern Lights when it was caught in a fierce storm on Thursday.

After rocking up and down more and more ferociously, the ship was finally struck across the bow by an enormous wave.

CCTV from the deck shows the feed going dark immediately afterwards.

MS Maud #hurtigruten now pic.twitter.com/i5m2qSJIrr — Sea & son (@OnDeepWater) December 22, 2023

The loss of navigational functions meant a Danish rescue ship had to come and tow the Maud to Germany at low speed – potentially ruining Christmas plans for many passengers.

It’s thought there were dozens of Brits on board as the vessel sailed out from Tilbury in Essex and was due to return to the same port on Saturday.

The ship’s operator, HX, said is working to arrange ‘onward travel’ for passengers after they disembark in Germany.

The passenger who filmed the moment told MailOnline : ‘I had the bridge camera showing on the TV to try to stop dizziness and just randomly decided to film it! 

‘As soon as the wave struck, the TV screen went blank and the ship’s horn distress signal sounded so I knew something was wrong.’

As well as passengers, tables and chairs slid across the floor while pictures showed items from gift shops strewn across the ground after falling from shelves.

The ship’s 266 passengers and 131 crew members were safe, Danish rescuers have confirmed.

A spokesperson for HX said: ‘Yesterday afternoon, December 21, MS Maud reported a temporary loss of power after encountering a rogue wave. The ship was sailing towards Tilbury, UK from Florø, Norway when the incident occurred.

‘At this time, the ship has confirmed that no serious guest or crew injuries have been sustained as a result of the incident. The condition of the ship remains stable and the crew are able to sail under their own power.

‘Following ongoing safety checks and technical assessments, given the weather conditions, we decided to amend the planned sailing route. Across the fleet, there are thorough operational protocols in place and we always prioritise the safety of those onboard. 

‘The ship is currently sailing to Bremerhaven, Germany for disembarkation. Our team are working to arrange onward travel back home for guests onboard.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected] .

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'water was coming in': massachusetts woman on board viking ship hit by deadly 'rogue wave'.

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A Massachusetts woman is safe and sound after the Viking cruise ship she was on was struck by a massive wave, resulting in the death of an American woman.

According to Viking, the "rogue wave incident" happened late Tuesday while the Viking Polaris was sailing toward the port Ushuaia in southern Argentina on an Antarctic cruise.

"The water was in our cabin and it was all wet. My friend that I'm with, he said, 'I never got dressed so fast in my life,' because the water was coming in," said Marlene Herlihy, a Winchester resident.

Argentine authorities said the 62-year-old woman who died was hit by broken glass when the wave broke cabin windows during a storm.

"One of (the windows) landed on the bed of this woman and she died," Herlihy said.

Neither Viking nor the Argentine Naval Prefecture identified the woman or her hometown.

"It is with great sadness that we confirmed a guest passed away following the incident," Viking said in statement . "We have notified the guest’s family and shared our deepest sympathies."

Four other passengers suffered non-life-threatening injuries when the wave struck the Polaris, according to Viking.

"There were other people who had stitches on their heads," Herlihy said. "No hospital facilities in Antarctica, so we had to turn around and go back to Ushuaia in Argentina."

The ship suffered limited damage and arrived in Ushuaia, 1,926 miles (3100 kilometers) south of Buenos Aires, the next day.

"I'm not positive about how many broken windows there were, but at least four or five," Herlihy said.

Viking indicated on its website that to explore remote regions of the world they have “two purpose-built, state-of-the-art small expedition-class ships: Viking Octantis and Viking Polaris.”

"Drake's Passage, if you ever read anything about it, the water is treacherous," Herlihy said. "But from what I've heard, they've never had broken windows before."

The Viking Polaris, a vessel that has luxury facilities and was built in 2022, has capacity for 378 passengers and 256 crew members.

Herlihy, 86, is a mother of four and a longtime Somerville school teacher who has traveled to six continents. Due to the "rogue wave," she was not able to step foot on Antarctica — which would have been her seventh continent — but was able to see it from the ship.

She said she is saddened for the family of the woman who died, but said she still has passion for travel and does not think this experience will diminish her strong desire to travel.

"We were on Deck 2, and God didn't want us," Herlihy said.

Herlihy and the other passengers of the Viking Polaris are now off the ship and traveling back to Buenos Aires, where she will then return home to Massachusetts.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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American passenger killed when ‘rogue’ wave hits cruise ship in Antarctic

This 2020 photo provided by the British Antarctic Survey shows the Thwaites glacier in Antarctica. (David Vaughan/British Antarctic Survey via AP)

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — A U.S. woman was killed and four other passengers injured when a massive wave struck the Viking Polaris cruise ship while it was sailing toward the port of Ushuaia in southern Argentina on an Antarctic cruise, authorities said.

The 62-year-old woman was hit by broken glass when the wave broke cabin windows late Tuesday during a storm, Argentine authorities said. The ship suffered limited damage and arrived in Ushuaia, 1,926 miles south of Buenos Aires, the next day.

“It is with great sadness that we confirmed a guest passed away following the incident,” Viking said in statement. “We have notified the guest’s family and shared our deepest sympathies.”

Neither the statement nor the Argentine Naval Prefecture identified the woman or her hometown.

Viking called it a “rogue wave incident” and said the four other passengers’ injuries were non-life threatening.

The cruise ship was anchored near Ushuaia, where a federal court has opened a case to determine what happened.

The company indicated on its website that to explore remote regions of the world they have “two purpose-built, state-of-the-art small expedition-class ships: Viking Octantis and Viking Polaris.”

The Viking Polaris, a vessel that has luxury facilities and was built in 2022, has capacity for 378 passengers and 256 crew members.

Cruise passenger describes the moment their ship was hit by a rogue wave: 'You could just see a wall of water, no sky or anything'

• A rogue wave smashed into a cruise ship on Thursday, causing it to lose power, Reuters reported .
• The wave struck the Norwegian ship, the MS Maud, and knocked out its navigation abilities.
• A passenger on board said that at one point, she could just see "a wall of water, no sky or anything."

The MS Maud, a Norwegian cruise ship, lost its ability to navigate after a rogue wave knocked out its power on Thursday.

The ship, operated by HX, a cruise company owned by Norway's Hurtigruten Group, was about 120 miles from Denmark's west coast when the wave struck, Reuters reported . The wave's force shattered some of the ship's windows and caused it to tilt "pretty violently," passenger Elizabeth Lawrence told Business Insider. She was one of 266 passengers and 131 crew members.

Lawrence, who had picked the cruise to see the Northern Lights, said the day started out with fairly big waves but that the captain had let passengers know to expect that. But as the day went on, the waves got bigger until they were large enough to spray her window on the sixth deck, she said.

"The situation started with the ship's horn sounding for an extremely long time, then the PA system came on, and we just heard scuffling and general moving around noises," Lawrence said. Then, passengers heard the alarm that meant they should head to their muster stations — the place on board where guests gather in case of an emergency.

"I only had to go down a nearby flight of stairs to get to my muster station in the main restaurant, but the ship was tilting pretty violently. When it was all the way over to one side, you could just see a wall of water, no sky or anything," she told BI.

Lawrence added that while in their muster stations, passengers were given "survival suits" — or suits that "dramatically extend survival times" with insulation, per the Coast Guard .

She said they didn't get an update for about 20 minutes but that, during that time, crew members helped guests put on their suits, reassured nervous passengers, and brought out water and snacks once things had calmed down.

According to Reuters, a tow boat arrived to help the ship Thursday night. Hurtigruten told the outlet in a statement that no serious injuries resulted from the rogue wave.

"At this time, the ship has confirmed that no serious passenger or crew injuries have been sustained as a result of the incident and the condition of the ship remains stable," the statement said.

Lawrence told BI that while she probably won't head to the North Sea in the winter again, she would still cruise with HX in the future.

"The whole thing was very scary at the time, but I think everything was handled as well as possible, considering the circumstances," she said.

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Norwegian cruise ship loses power after it was hit by rogue wave in North Sea

A Norwegian cruise ship with more than 250 passengers on board lost power on Thursday, Dec. 21, after the vessel encountered a rogue wave during a storm, the cruise company HX said.

The MS Maud sustained a temporary loss of power while sailing to Tilbury, England, from Florø, Norway, HX said in a statement to NBC News. No serious injuries were reported among the 266 passengers and 131 crew members, according to HX.

"The condition of the ship remains stable and the crew are able to sail under their own power," a spokesperson for HX said.

The Danish Joint Rescue Coordination Centre said in a statement to NBC News the ship's crew is navigating the vessel manually via emergency systems, and that two civilian support ships are helping to navigate the waters in the North Sea .

HX said after following ongoing safety checks and technical assessments, the company amended the ship's planned route to sail to Bremerhaven, Germany, for disembarkation.

"Our team are working to arrange onward travel back home for guests onboard," a spokesperson for the company said.

The storm's hurricane-force winds smashed windows on the MS Maud, and passengers aboard described the frightening situation.

Dorothy Hallam, a passenger on board, wrote on social media, "We've been sat on the floor in our muster stations for hours wearing our safety suits and life jackets and there's no sign of us being allowed up any time soon. We were thrown about a lot."

Ian Roberts, another passenger, wrote on Facebook about the unexpected change in holiday plans.

"Sorry for those whose Christmas treat has been spoiled. However, crew on board Maud have been exemplary in looking after us in what was initially quite a tricky situation," Roberts said.

The MS Maud isn't the first ship to encounter rough seas in the North Sea — dramatic videos of huge waves crashing in the area have become a source of fascination on TikTok.

While the waters of the North Sea can be turbulent, marine experts said it's generally safe for the hundreds of thousands of ships that pass through every year.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com

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Expedition cruise ship loses power after being hit by rogue wave

An expedition cruise ship temporarily lost power after it was hit by a rogue wave on Thursday.

There were no serious injuries among guests or crew members aboard the MS Maud vessel, operated by HX, formerly Hurtigruten Expeditions . The ship was on its way from Florø, Norway, to Tilbury, England, at the time, according to a spokesperson.

The ship’s condition “remains stable and the crew are able to sail under their own power,” they said in an emailed statement. MS Maud is carrying 266 passengers and 131 crew.

“Following ongoing safety checks and technical assessments, given the weather conditions, we decided to amend the planned sailing route,” the spokesperson added. “Across the fleet, there are thorough operational protocols in place and we always prioritise the safety of those onboard.” 

The ship is now sailing to Bremerhaven, Germany, where those on board will disembark. The company’s team is working to make travel arrangements home for guests.

Rogue waves, also called “extreme storm waves,” are more than twice the size of other waves nearby, according to the National Ocean Service . They are uncommon and unpredictable, and “often come unexpectedly from directions other than prevailing wind and waves.”

Cruise ship medical facilities: What happens if you get sick or injured (or bitten by a monkey)

"We work closely with health and safety experts, maintain highly trained crew members, and collaborate with third-party suppliers and maritime authorities to ensure rigorous measures are in place to prevent and manage any potential crises," the HX spokesperson said.

A similar incident occurred on Viking Polaris last year, killing one passenger and injuring four others.

“Cruise ships and their home offices are constantly reviewing weather conditions to ensure safest and smoothest courses,” Stewart Chiron, a cruise industry expert known as The Cruise Guy, told USA TODAY in an email. “Unfortunately, Mother Nature doesn't always cooperate and ships are forced to react at the moment.“

He said rogue waves rarely hit cruise ships, but it’s possible depending on the location and time of year.

Nathan Diller is a consumer travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Nashville. You can reach him at [email protected].