text: In 1826, French scientist and naval officer Captain Jules Dumont dUrville reported waves as high as  in the Indian Ocean with three colleagues as witnesses, yet he was publicly ridiculed by fellow scientist François Arago. In that era, the thought was widely held that no wave could exceed . Author Susan Casey wrote that much of that disbelief came because there were very few people who had seen a rogue wave and survived; until the advent of steel double-hulled ships of the 20th century, "people who encountered  rogue waves generally werent coming back to tell people about it."