Boat battered by waves in the North Sea

Footage filmed 100 miles out in the North Sea shows how scary it is to be on a boat during a big storm.

The video was taken 100 miles northeast of Lerwick in the Shetland Islands off Scotland on 29 January during Storm Gertrude.


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Graeme Hatley, chief officer aboard the ERRV (Emergency Response & rescue Vessel), captured footage from the bridge of the 150ft-long, 1,100 tonne ship as it was being battered by the rough seas.

Waves crash against the ship as it sways from side to side. Deadline News reports that the video shows the vessel at 45 degrees to the horizon as it is hit by winds so strong they blew away the equipment used to measure wind speed.

According to the Daily Telegraph, Mr Hatley played it down, saying: "We were, for the first time ever, given the chance to run for shelter but didn't take it, since most of us have been in worse weather and for a longer time.

"We were expecting the ferocity and the wave height and had gusts of over 100 knots before we lost our anemometer."

"A couple of years ago there was something similar. It was the biggest wave I had filmed but lots of people were thinking it was CGI. Some people don't believe it."

According to the Mirror, the ERRV has a crew on board that is responsible for looking after oil platforms and the people that work on them.

They are on duty 24 hours all year round, and have rescued 558 people since 1986.