The shady phenomenon of freak waves as tall as 10 storey
buildings has finally been proved, the European Space Agency
(Esa) said on Wednesday. Esa tasked two of its Earth-scanning
satellites to monitor the oceans with their radar Sailors often
whisper of monster waves when ships sink mysteriously but, until
now, no one quite believed them. As part of a project called
MaxWave - which was set up to test the rumours - two Esa
satellites surveyed the oceans. During a three week period they
detected 10 giant waves, all of which were over 25m (81ft) high.
Over the last two decades more than 200 super-carriers - cargo
ships over 200m long - have been lost at sea. Eyewitness reports
suggest many were sunk by high and violent walls of water that
rose up out of calm seas. But for years these tales of towering
beasts were written off as fantasy; and many marine scientists
clung to statistical models stating monstrous deviations from
the normal sea state occur once every 1,000 years. "Two large
ships sink every week on a