Sea monsters exist. They break ships in half and pull them below the waves. Sometimes they swallow them whole. Most who encounter them never return to tell the tale and those few who do, until very recently, were rarely believed.

I am referring to rogue waves, which until only the last decade or so, have been dismissed as myths, merely sailor’s tall tales. Only in roughly the last ten or fifteen years has the existence of rogue waves been fully documented and accepted by oceanographers.  Scientists are only beginning to gain some understanding of how and where the waves rise up from the oceans to crush the unfortunate and the unlucky.

I am intrigued, fascinated and a bit frightened by rogue waves, so when I saw Susan Casey’s new book, “The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean” I was excited. I want to learn more a about rogue waves and this book looked like it could tell me what I wanted to know. Sadly, was I wrong. Very wrong.

Casey’s book is a hyper-kinetic jumble which primarily focussed on surfing. Yes, surfing.  And not just any surfing but specifically an extreme form of surfing involving jet skis called “tow surfing.” What does this have to do with rouge waves? As far as I can tell, absolutely nothing.

We should first define out terms. From Wikipedia, not Ms. Casey’s book, the following definition: “rouge waves (also known as freak waves, monster waves, killer waves, extreme waves, and abnormal waves) are relatively large and spontaneous ocean surface waves that occur far out in sea, and are a threat even to large ships and ocean liners. In oceanography, they are more precisely defined as waves whose height is more than twice the significant wave height (SWH), which is itself defined as the mean of the largest third of waves in a wave record. Therefore rogue waves are not necessarily the biggest waves found at sea; they are, rather, surprisingly large waves for a given sea state. Rogue waves are not tsunamis, which are set in motion by earthquakes [and] travel at high speed, building up as they approach the shore. Rogue waves seem to occur in deep water or where a number of physical factors such as strong winds and fast currents converge.“

Ms. Casey spends most of her book following around a band of extreme surfers who travel the world looking for those places where ocean swells collide with reefs and generate huge breaking waves. This is all well and good except that breaking waves and crazy surfers have nothing to do with rogue waves. She also spends considerable time on tsunamis, often shifting directly from a discussion of rouge waves to tsunamis, unaware or unconcerned that the two have relatively little to do with one another.

It only gets worse when she starts discussing ships. She seems to know that there are ships called bulk carriers, that they sink frequently and that having hatch covers ripped off in heavy weather is a bad thing. Beyond that things get really fuzzy. She does mention he sinking of the LASH ship MS München, but she calls it a container ship, rather than a barge carrier with a load cargo of steel products stored in her 83 lighters. In this case, the details do matter. It appears highly likely that the München was struck by a rogue wave.  What is known of her sinking is a fascinating if horrifying tale, which Ms. Casey chooses not to tell.

She goes on at greater length regarding the sinking of the MV Derbyshire, which may or may not have been sunk by a rogue wave. A study performed in 2000 suggests the Derbyshire sank due to progressive flooding in a typhoon.  An excellent animation of how the ship is believed to have sunk can be found here for anyone who may be interested.

Ms. Casey also seems to have a touch of xenophobia regarding the ship’s crews. Her repeated references to “third wold crews” do not appear complimentary. In discussing the Derbyshire she notes, “unlike other lost ships, this one wasn’t flying a Liberian flag and manned by Laotian sailors.” Elsewhere she comments on the global crew shortage: “This lack of expertise was especially troubling given the next-generation ships, floating colossi with complex computer navigation systems to master, not always a snap when the manual’s written in German and you speak only Tagalog.” Obviously crew training is important but it is hard to tell if she is making that point or simply insulting Philippine mariners. And like so much else in the book, it has very little to do with rouge or freak waves.

Ms. Casey is the editor of Oprah Winfrey’s magazine “O” and the Wave reflects a certain style of personality driven journalism. Often the book feels like a series of profiles of the surfer dudes who surf huge waves and the scientists who study the huge waves. After several chapters of following the surfers doing insane things on massive breakers, Ms. Casey finally goes to a conference on waves where we meet the scientists, learn that the  math they use is really complicated and very little else.  She never does the hard work of finding someone to translate the scientific jargon and mathematics into language understandable to the layman.   Mostly she appears bored, preferring to be back out with the surfers. “The presentations continued in a blur of wave theory while outside the real waves grew. Surfers streaked past, filling the windows.”

We do get nice little portraits of each scientist and surfer. At the conference we come to know more what the scientists look like and wore more than what they are working on. Just two examples of many:

Peter Janssen was up next, and he unfolded his tall, wiry frame from his chair and strode to the podium. He had wild gray hair, a peppery beard, and a strict, professorial appearance that seemed intimidating until you noticed the sparkle in his eyes.

It was impossible not to like Cavaleri, a whip-smart man in a no-nonsense plaid shirt, his sleeves rolled up, his caterpillar eyebrows jumping around on his face, his hands swimming through the air.

And so on and so on.

In the end “The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean” comes off as primarily a travelog of a journalist hanging with lots of surfer dudes and a few scientists. If you want to learn about the people who do crazy things on surf boards on huge waves, then this is the book for you. If you want to learn anything about rogue or freak waves, you are better off just doing a Google search.