The North Sea is often described as treacherous. Just south of the Arctic, it separates Britain from Scandinavia. On social media, shocking videos claim that the North Sea is the most dangerous sea in the world. It is often besieged by gigantic waves and storms that batter the ships.
Henk Buitjes Buitjes, 64, and his family have been fishing in the North Sea for 11 generations. “My great-grandfather and one of his sons drowned fishing during a big storm,” he says. Two brothers of his grandmother also died at sea. The uneasy alliance between this family and the North Sea has lasted 400 years, and counting.
Danger at sea
It is a shallow sea, with a depth of only about 30 meters in its southern part. Sometimes during storms, waves kick up sand from the bottom and throw it onto the deck of the ship. This can cause the boat to become unstable. Over the years, ships lost in storms have piled up on the seabed. They are now a danger to boats that drag nets.
According to Lucy Bricheno, a coastal oceanographer at the UK’s National Oceanography Centre, the North Sea is characterized by its upheaval. In part it is because the sea is surrounded by land on many of its sides. The waves do not have much room to spread and form gigantic peaks.
Sometimes the waves become so rough that their white capes are visible from space. But already 1,200 years ago, the Vikings were able to find their way around the North Sea. On their epic voyages they relied on a deep knowledge of ocean currents and weather, as well as visible landmarks.
Force of nature
North Sea tides are unusually large. This can make storm surges especially dangerous if they coincide with high tide. Records of these types of catastrophes go back hundreds of years. A recent example was in 2013. A high tide surge caused two deaths and the flooding of 1,700 homes in England.
Buitjes tells stories of several accidents he has heard in the most dangerous sea in the world. Whenever you navigate here, you have to be alert, he emphasizes. These are some of the most powerful forces in nature. “Be aware of your smallness,” he advises. “When you are aware of it, you will survive.”
