In 1988, a full-scale laser wave probe was developed and installed on an SL-7 containership. The probe was mounted on the bow and looked forward at an angle of 120 forward of the vertical. The purpose of the probe was to measure the incident wave amplitude. This was accomplished by subtracting from the absolute amplitude measured by the probe the relevant ship motions. No corrections were made for the steady wave system or the unsteady radiated and diffracted waves. After reviewing the results, questions arose as to possible contamination by the steady and unsteady ship-generated waves in front of the bow. To begin to investigate these questions, model tests were conducted in the Ship Hydrodynamics Laboratory using the art existing model of the SL-7 and as a test matrix.