Meteotsunami of 29 August 1916 at Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic - analysis of the destruction of the USS Memphis
Official revised records of a U.S. Navy Court of Inquiry concluded that the 29 August 1916 destruction of the armored cruiser USS Memphis anchored off Santo Domingo (Ciudad Trujillo) harbor of the Dominican Republic, Island of Hispaniola, was probably caused by a “tropical disturbance”, a “seismic storm”, or a “tsunami”. However, the present analysis of this naval disaster documents that the loss of the ship was not due to any of these causes, but to rogue waves of a meteotsunami generated from a rapid, significant and progressive drop in atmospheric pressure which begun in the area around August 22 and was associated with a passing hurricane which at its closest point was about 250 nautical miles to the south. Also, storm waves from this hurricane moved towards Santo Domingo refracting in resonance near shore and were further amplified and transformed by the low barometric pressure, the shallow continental shelf and the local coastal features and bathymetry of the bay. The present analysis is based on careful examination of the ship’s log, and on observations of events by the crew and people on the shore. Given the limited meteorological data of that time period, the present analysis used an empirical approach to roughly evaluate the Rayleigh distribution function, the upper limit of storm wave height variability away from the most intense wind fetches, as well as the maximum period, wavelength and deep-water heights of generated storm waves. Based on Airy and cnoidal wave theories, the deep water period and celerity of the most significant extreme wave was of meteorological origin which was transformed in shallower water by the resonant and superimposed arrival of two other waves which created a three step plateau on the face of a huge single rogue wave of the meteotsunami, estimated to be about 70 feet in height, with three distinct steps, two plateaus on its forward face, and a preceding trough estimated to be 300 ft. long. Based on this analysis, the present study concluded that it was this significant meteotsunami/rogue wave, in combination with concurrently arriving storm swells, that engulfed the USS Memphis at 1640 hour in the afternoon of 29 August 1916 - breaking the chains of its anchors and wrecking it on the rocks of Santo Domingo.