Unusual waves have been studied scientifically for many years (for example, John Scott Russells wave of translation, an 1834 study of a soliton wave). Still, these were not linked conceptually to sailors stories of encounters with giant rogue ocean waves, as the latter were believed to be scientifically implausible.
Since the 19th century, oceanographers, meteorologists, engineers, and ship designers have used a statistical model known as the Gaussian function (or Gaussian Sea or standard linear model) to predict wave height, on the assumption that wave heights in any given sea are tightly grouped around a central value equal to the average of the largest third, known as the significant wave height (SWH). In a storm sea with an SWH of , the model suggests hardly ever would a wave higher than  occur. It suggests one of  could indeed happen, but only once in 10,000 years. This basic assumption was well accepted, though acknowledged to be an approximation. Using a Gaussian form to model waves has been the sole basis of virtually every text on that topic for the past 100 years.
The first known scientific article on "freak waves" was written by Professor Laurence Draper in 1964. In that paper, he documented the efforts of the National Institute of Oceanography in the early 1960s to record wave height, and the highest wave recorded at that time, which was about . Draper also described freak wave holes.
Even as late as the mid-1990s, though, most popular texts on oceanography such as that by Pirie did not contain any mention of rogue or freak waves. Even after the 1995 Draupner wave, the popular text on Oceanography by Gross (1996) only gave rogue waves a mention and simply stated, "Under extraordinary circumstances, unusually large waves called rogue waves can form" without providing any further detail.