A jaw-dropping video of a cruise ship getting hammered by 40-foot waves has taken the internet by storm on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. Shot aboard Quark Expeditions’ Ocean Explorer as it crossed the notorious Drake Passage, the clip shows passengers sliding, falling, and clinging to walls while giant swells crash against the ship’s windows. The footage—first posted Tuesday—has racked up millions of views, with people calling it “terrifying,” “unreal,” and even questioning if it’s fake. Spoiler: it’s very real, and it’s got everyone talking.
Cruise Ship Smashed by 40ft Waves in Drake Passage#cruise #cruiseship #wave pic.twitter.com/XehqZuht7J
The video comes from travel blogger Lesley Ann Murphy, who was on the ship heading from Argentina’s southern tip to Antarctica. She posted it to Instagram Tuesday morning, April 1, captioning it a “48-hour rollercoaster” through the Drake Passage—the wild stretch of ocean between South America and Antarctica known for some of the roughest seas on Earth. “I’m proud to say we survived not one but two Drake Shakes!” she wrote, estimating waves at 30 to 40 feet. The clip shows blue walls of water towering over the ship, smashing into the big windows of the observation deck, sending foamy white spray everywhere. Passengers gasp and stumble—one group runs side to side as the ship rocks hard, and a TV swings loose from a wall.
It’s chaos on screen. One guy even tries to “surf” the floor, balancing like it’s a board as a massive wave looms—then bam, the ship lurches, and he’s down. Murphy’s footage catches passengers gathered at the windows, some laughing nervously, others gripping rails as the boat sways like a toy in a bathtub. “The waves were unreal,” she told. “You could feel the whole ship shudder.” The Ocean Explorer, a 342-foot expedition vessel built for tough trips, held about 150 passengers and crew—no serious injuries reported, says Quark Expeditions in a statement, but plenty of bruised egos and rattled nerves.
The Drake Passage is no stranger to drama. Stretching 500 miles wide, it’s where the Atlantic and Pacific slam together, whipping up storms with winds over 60 miles an hour and waves that can top 60 feet in bad weather, National Geographic. Tuesday’s storm wasn’t record-breaking—winds hit 50-60 mph,—but it was enough to churn up 35- to 40-foot swells, big even for this infamous spot. “If you’re lucky, you get the Drake Lake,” Murphy quipped online, meaning calm seas. “We got the full shake instead.” Last year, the Atlas World Voyager took 100-foot waves here, swamping decks with freezing water—proof this passage doesn’t mess around.
Quark Expeditions says the ship’s fine—built in 2021, it’s got stabilizers and a tough hull for polar runs, and the captain slowed to ride it out. “Safety’s our priority,” they posted. “Everyone’s secure, and we’re on course.” Still, it’s not the first cruise to get rocked—Carnival Sunshine hit 40-footers off South Carolina in 2023, flooding cabins, and Anthem of the Seas took 30-foot waves in 2016. Big ships—think 180,000-ton behemoths—handle this better, but the Ocean Explorer’s smaller size (8,400 tons) made it a wilder ride.