Terrifying moment cruise ship slams into enormous 40ft waves with passengers falling into walls during voyage through notorious Drake Passage
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Passengers aboard a cruise ship endured massive 40ft waves as they travelled through the rough waters of the notorious Drake Passage.
Lesley Ann Murphy, a travel blogger aboard Quark Expeditions' Ocean Explorer ship, captured heart-stopping footage of the vessel making its way through the giant waves and crashing water.
Murphy estimated some of the waves were between 30 to 40 feet, and her video showed them towering up over the ship and smashing into the paneled windows.
In her clip, which was posted to Instagram, several passengers could be seen gathering at the large windows as the blue waves rose up before violently hitting the viewing platform.
The foamy white water crashed against the walls, sending the boat rocking back and forth as people lost their balance and fell over.
In one shot, a group of passengers can be seen running from side to side as the boat swayed in the currents, and a TV was seen swinging from a wall due to the force of the waves.
One man challenged the ferocious swells and attempted to balance on the floor of the ship like a surfboard as a gigantic wave formed in front of the vessel.
In her video caption, Murphy described the experience sailing through the waters located between the tip of the South American continent and Antarctica, as being on a '48-hour rollercoaster'.
'I am proud to say we survived not one but two Drake Shakes! For context, the Drake Passage is the body of water between the tip of Argentina and Antarctica. It’s infamous for its extremely rough seas,' she wrote.
'If you’re lucky, you get the Drake Lake. If you’re like us, you get the Drake Shake with 35 ft waves.
'Yes, we were safe and it was insane…and at times, even fun? 1000% worth it for this trip of a lifetime!,' she added.
'We were told to stay in our cabins for an entire afternoon yesterday, and there were definitely some silver linings amongst this whole ordeal…we got some down time, we laughed *a lot*, I processed some of this amazing voyage, I FaceTimed my girls and I learned that wildly enough…I don’t get seasick!'
But Murphy is not the first to have come face-to-face with the terrifying waves.
Last year footage emerged from a luxury cruise liner negotiating a ferocious storm off Antarctica, capturing the moment waves measuring almost 100ft smashed the vessel and swamped the deck with freezing seawater.
The Atlas World Voyager cruise ship was traversing the Drake Passage when it was caught in a punishing tempest.
Winds of up to 115mph whipped the sea into a frenzy and sent 30 metre (93ft) waves slamming into the luxury yacht during the perilous journey.
The heart-pounding clip taken from the deck shows how the yacht was lifted to the top of massive waves before angling over and plunging several storeys down.
Tables, chairs, sunloungers and all sorts of other detritus were seen floating about after the deck was overrun by the deluge.
Fortunately, the crew managed to expertly navigate the treacherous waters and the yacht reached its destination - Ushuaia in southern Argentina - without suffering major damage.
Despite the unforgiving environment, the yacht was able to traverse the Drake Passage without incident.
The same cannot be said for MS Maud, a Norwegian cruise liner that was sailing through the North Sea just days before Christmas 2023 when a freak wave battered the ship with such force that it lost power and was left adrift.
MS Maud was sailing some 162 miles off Denmark's west coast and about 217 miles off Britain's east coast when the monster wave shattered its windows on the bridge.
The ship, which was carrying 400 passengers and crew, had started a 14-day Northern Lights expedition sailing from Tilbury on December 9 and was due to return to the Essex port on December 23.
Dramatic footage obtained by MailOnline shows the exact moment the rogue wave hit, leaving the ship impossible to navigate and requiring a tow to Germany.
The passenger who filmed the moment said: '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.'
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