Rogue waves in the Atlantic 16th March 2007 Words by Ben Matson The 'Chinese Whisper' effect has never been quite as pronounced as it has since the advent of the internet, with suspect weather events cropping up regularly amongst email lists and blogs. Take for instance the alleged "Australian Tornadoes" in May 2005 (pic at right), which were actually taken by Mike Hollingshead in Nebraska and Kansas in 2002 and 2004. In this instance, nine images circulated the internet under a series of different headings, ranging from "Severe storms in southern Alberta", "Severe storms and tornadoes in Ontario", "Australian Tornadoes" and "Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast". Check out the images below of the MV Selkirk Settler, a 34 tonne, 730ft long bulk carrier that sailed under the flag of the Isle of Man between 1987 until 1991 (although it was originally registered in Canada). Recent emails have attributed the location of these photos to a number of places, including "Coal ship off the coast of Mackay last week in the storms" and "Lake Superior (North America)". In actual fact, these images were taken by Capt. George Ianiev (Second Mate at the time) on February 13th, 1987 during an eastbound passage from Tampa, Florida to Ghent, Belgium. According to Boatnerd.com, the first image shows the largest wave encountered by the ship during the storm - just to put things into perspective, the ship's dimensions are 222.54m (length), 23.08m (beam) and 14.63m (depth). The last photo shows the ship after it was bought by Canada Steamship Lines and renamed the "Spruceglen (2)" in December 2002.