Big Wave Smacks Ship Off Oregon Coast

A container ship sought refuge and repairs at Coos Bay after a rogue wave reported to be about 70 feet high smacked into it, knocking out windows and electronics. A distress call prompted the U.S. Coast Guard to send an aircraft to make sure the Westwood Pomona was faring well. Westwood Pomona docked at the Roseburg Lumber Company dock on the North Spit at Coos Bay. The ship arrived damaged from a large rogue wave, which took out windows and equipment in the bridge."They apparently took a pretty good-size wave, and it came up high enough that it knocked out some of the windows of the bridge," said Bob Rogers, the manager of the Roseburg Forest Product's woodchip facility, where the ship docked for repairs. The 440-foot-long ship makes round trips between Canada and California biweekly, said Martin Callery of the Coos Bay port. It is owned by Westwood Shipping Lines, a division of Weyerhaeuser Co. He said one of the 22 crew members was slightly injured.