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My late father was in the Atlantic convoys during WWII and stayed with the British Merchant Marine until '52. He didn't worry about wave height, as bad weather deterred the U-boats. He did worry about the length between wave crests, because a lot of the rapidly built freighters of the time would "hog" if suspended between them: they would essentially break their backs, tear in half and go straight to the bottom. All in a day's work.
He said the Murmansk run was the worst, because the whole crew had to chip off tons of frozen spray off the decks and upper works, or the ship would capsize just from weight aloft. He said the worst gales were on the way to and from Antarctica, but once there, it was generally just very "swelly" and only occasionally would gales interrupt the whaling.
He disliked the whaling.
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