We all know about the ill-fated history of the Titanic, but few know that this tragedy was only the third largest loss in the history of shipping. Today we suggest you familiarize yourself with the list of the 10 most terrible disasters that occurred on the water.
1. MV Wilhelm Gustloff.
In January 1945 this german ship was hit by three torpedoes in the Baltic Sea while participating in the evacuation of civilians, military personnel and Nazi officials who were surrounded by the Red Army in East Prussia. The ship sank in less than 45 minutes. More than 9,400 people are estimated to have died.
2. MV Dona Paz.
This Philippine ferry sank after colliding with the oil tanker MT Vector on December 20, 1987. More than 4300 people died. The collision happened late at night and resulted in a fire, and life jackets were locked, forcing passengers to jump into the burning water, which was also infested with sharks.
3. RMS Lusitania.
This British liner sailed on the Liverpool-New York route. During World War I, the ship was hit by German torpedoes on 7 May 1915 and sank within only 18 minutes of impact. The crash killed 1,198 people out of 1,959 on board.
4. RMS Lancastria.
This British ocean liner was requisitioned by the government during World War II. She sank on June 17, 1940, taking 4,000 lives with her. This disaster caused the death of more people than the sinking of the Titanic and the Lusitania combined.
5. RMS Empress of Ireland.
This Canadian liner sank in the St. Lawrence River after colliding with a Norwegian bulk carrier on May 29, 1914 due to heavy fog. 1012 people died (840 passengers and 172 crew members).
6. MV Goya.
The German transport ship MV Goya was carrying 6,100 passengers when it was sunk by a Soviet submarine in the Baltic Sea on April 16, 1945. The ship sank just 7 minutes after the impact. Almost all the people on board died. Only 183 people survived.
7. USS Indianapolis (CA-35).
On July 30, 1945, Indianapolis was torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-58 and sank 12 minutes later. Out of 1196 people, only 300 survived.
8. MV Le Joola.
A Senegalese ferry capsized off the Gambian coast on September 26, 2002, killing at least 1,863 people. As it became known, the ferry was overloaded, therefore, faced with a storm, it capsized after 5 minutes. Only 64 people survived.
9. SS Mont-Blanc.
This French ammunition freighter exploded in Halifax Harbor on December 6, 1917. The explosion caused the death of 2,000 people, including residents of the city. The explosion was triggered by a collision with the Norwegian ship SS Imo. The fire that resulted from the collision caused an explosion of ammunition that destroyed the harbor and the city.
10. RMS Titanic.
This is perhaps the most famous maritime tragedy of all time. The Titanic was a passenger liner that sank in the northern part of Atlantic Ocean April 15, 1912, after colliding with an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. The sinking of the Titanic claimed 1,514 human lives.
The wreck of ships... Such an incident is always shrouded in a halo of secrets, myths and legends. famous shipwrecks- these are the black pages of history, which can be read only by looking into the depths of the sea. Sadly, majestic giant liners very often become victims of the raging waters of the seas and oceans.
The most famous shipwrecks became public knowledge. To date, there are many secret lists that name the most impressive ship disasters in the history of mankind. Below are just a few of those that have entered world history.
Ships that have been wrecked
For many, the first thing that comes to mind is a story that shocked the whole world with its tragedy. It eclipsed every other shipwreck. This is the story of the "Titanic" ... Although this story has grown over time with a lot of conjecture and conjecture, everyone is still interested in learning about what really happened. The crew were so blinded by the majesty of their ship and its superiority over other ships that for a time everyone became overconfident.
Possible causes of the tragedy
At that time, many said that a ship had finally been built that could not be sunk. But reality turned out to be unpredictable. One night, the ship was moving at full speed along its route, and only at the very last moment the sailors were able to notice the top of a huge block of ice rising above the surface of the water. Urgent attempts were made to move the ship aside, but it was too late: the ship was wrecked. Almost at full speed, the Titanic hit an iceberg with its starboard side.
The ship breaks in half
Gradually, the lower tiers in the forward compartment of the ship begin to flood. Almost half of the vessel is filled with the cold water of the Atlantic Ocean. A counterweight is created on the ship, as a result of which it is half immersed in water. The body can not withstand the monstrous load and breaks in half. Both parts of the broken ship lose power and sink. Eyewitnesses of the tragedy recall that terrible day with trepidation, but still some facts remain in the shadows. For example, class discrimination of passengers.
Could more have been saved?
Some witnesses claim that individual lifeboats were only half full of passengers. Only a few people sat in them, who set sail as soon as possible, in fear that the boat would overflow and sink. As a result, far fewer passengers were saved than could have been. However, do not forget that heroic deeds also took place that night. Many risked their lives to help others escape. Be that as it may, this disaster has become a symbol of arrogance.
complicated story
Another, no less tragic collision occurred with the steamer "Admiral Nakhimov". It became the big sensation of the twentieth century. The warm day of August began with the arrival at the port cruise ship. The city of Novorossiysk said goodbye to passengers who were soon to go on an exciting trip. Around the same time, a ship called "Pyotr Vasev" was planning to enter the port. The crews of both ships were warned about each other and had to act carefully, no one had any idea that the ships would soon crash.
Who is guilty and does it make sense to find out now?
As a result of short negotiations, it was decided to disperse on the right sides at the exit from the port. However, something went wrong, namely, the automatic course setting system failed. Technique is imperfect, this should never be forgotten. Shipwrecks are clear evidence of this. When it was noticed that the ship was moving at full speed directly towards the Admiral Nakhimov, the situation almost completely got out of control.
Dry cargo ship "Pyotr Vasev" crashed into a passenger liner and made a hole in its board measuring eight by ten meters. in eight minutes. Some of the circumstances under which the ship was wrecked raised questions among many. Why did a passenger ship sink to the bottom like a stone, if, according to the rules, it must have sufficient buoyancy to survive on the surface of the water for at least an hour after the crash? In addition, information was received that the captain had complied with the order of the port dispatcher and changed the route of the vessel. There will be many gaps and white spots in this story.
However, the most inconsolable fact is the death of almost half a thousand people. Perhaps the scale of the disaster would not have been so terrible if it had been possible to launch lifeboats. But what could be done in just eight minutes? It takes at least half an hour to organize the boarding of people in one boat. And this is under favorable conditions.
In the case when the crash of the ship "Nakhimov" took place, there was neither time nor factors allowing people to escape in boats. Time after the disaster, it becomes increasingly difficult to find out the true circumstances of the crash. Surely the true facts lie in the depths of the water, so it makes no sense to speculate, because time, like human lives, cannot be returned back.
These are just two stories, but they are not the only ones. The following list of the most famous shipwrecks will show that the wrecks of the largest liners are far from uncommon.
- SS America.
- "Pioneer of the World"
- "Mediterranean sky".
- MB Captayannis.
- BOS 400.
- Fort Shevchenko.
- "Evangelia".
- "SS Maheno".
- "Santa Maria".
- "Dimitrios".
- "Olympia".
The ships were built over the years, solemnly left their native ports against the wind and eventually sank, ran aground, leaving only fragments and piles of iron in memory of themselves.
For hundreds of years of sailing on various ships, sailboats and barges across the expanses of the seas and oceans, there have been many kinds of accidents and shipwrecks. Films have even been made about some of them, the most popular of which, of course, is the Titanic. But which shipwrecks were the largest in terms of the size of the ship and the number of victims? In this ranking, we answer this question by presenting the biggest maritime disasters.
11
The rating opens with a British passenger liner that was torpedoed by the German submarine U-20 on May 7, 1915, in a zone designated by the Kaiser government as a zone of submarine warfare. The ship, sailing with a painted over name and not raising any flag above it, sank in 18 minutes, 13 kilometers from the coast of Ireland. 1198 people died out of 1959 who were on board. The destruction of this ship turned the public opinion of many countries against Germany and contributed to the entry of the United States into the First World War two years later.
10
Single-screw steamer, had a capacity of 7142 register tons, a length of 132 meters, a beam of 17 meters, a maximum speed of 11 knots. On April 12, 1944, a steamship with explosives with a total mass of more than 1,500 tons stood up for unloading at the pier of the port of Bombay. There were other cargoes on board - 8,700 tons of cotton, 128 ingots of gold, sulfur, wood, engine oil, etc. The ship was loaded in violation of safety regulations. At about 2 p.m. a fire broke out on board, and no actions contributed to its elimination. At 16:06 there was an explosion, which generated a tidal wave of such force that the Jalampada ship, with a displacement of almost 4,000 tons, ended up on the roof of a 17-meter warehouse. After 34 min. there was a second explosion.
Burning cotton scattered within a radius of 900 meters from the epicenter and set fire to everything: ships, warehouses, houses. A strong wind from the sea drove a wall of fire to the city. The fires were extinguished only after 2 weeks. It took about 7 months to restore the port. Official statistics announced 1376 deaths, 2408 people were admitted to hospitals. The fire destroyed 55,000 tons of grain, thousands of tons of seeds, oil, oil; a huge amount of military equipment and almost one square mile of city blocks. 6 thousand firms went bankrupt, 50 thousand people lost their jobs. Many small and 4 large ships, dozens were destroyed.
9
It was with this ship that the most famous disaster on the water occurred. The British White Star Line steamer was the second of three Olympic-class twin steamers and the largest passenger liner in the world at the time of construction. Gross tonnage 46,328 register tons, displacement 66,000 tons. The ship is 269 meters long, 28 meters wide and 52 meters high. The engine room had 29 boilers and 159 coal fireboxes. Maximum speed 25 knots. On its maiden voyage on April 14, 1912, it collided with an iceberg and sank 2 hours and 40 minutes later. There were 2224 people on board. Of these, 711 people were saved, 1513 died. The Titanic disaster became legendary, several feature films were shot based on its plot.
8
In the harbor of the Canadian city of Halifax on December 6, 1917, the French military cargo ship Mont Blanc, which was fully loaded with one explosive - TNT, pyroxylin and picric acid, collided with the Norwegian ship Imo. As a result of the strongest explosion, the port and a significant part of the city were completely destroyed. About 2,000 people died as a result of an explosion under the rubble of buildings and because of the fires that arose after the explosion. Approximately 9,000 people were injured, 400 people lost their sight. The explosion in Halifax is one of the strongest explosions arranged by mankind, this explosion is considered the most powerful explosion of the pre-nuclear era.
7
This French auxiliary cruiser served as a flagship and participated in the neutralization of the Greek fleet. Displacement - 25,000 tons, length - 166 meters, width - 27 meters, power - 29,000 horsepower, speed - 20 knots, cruising range - 4,700 miles at 10 knots. She sank in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Greece on February 26, 1916 after a torpedo attack by the German submarine U-35. Of the 4,000 people on board, 3,130 died, 870 escaped.
6
After 1944, this German passenger ocean liner was converted into a floating hospital, participated in the evacuation of mostly wounded soldiers and refugees from East Prussia from the advancing Red Army. The liner left the port of Pillau on February 9, 1945 and headed for Kiel, there were more than 4,000 people on board - wounded military personnel, soldiers, refugees, medical staff and crew members. On the night of February 10 at 00:55, the Soviet submarine S-13 torpedoed the liner with two torpedoes. The ship sank 15 minutes later, killing 3,608 and saving 659 people. When the liner was torpedoed, the submarine commander was convinced that in front of him was not a passenger liner, but a military cruiser.
5
The passenger ferry Dona Paz, registered in the Philippines, sank on December 20, 1987 at about 10 p.m. near the island of Marinduque after a collision with the tanker Vector. Approximately 4,375 people died in the process, making this the largest maritime disaster in peacetime.
4
This passenger-cargo ship of the "Adzharia" type was built at the Baltic Shipyard in Leningrad in 1928, and on November 7, 1941, it was sunk by the Germans near the Crimean coast. The death toll was, according to various estimates, from 3,000 to 4,500 people. On the ship were several thousand wounded soldiers and evacuated citizens, including the staff of 23 military and civilian hospitals, the leadership of the pioneer camp and part of the party leadership of the Crimea. The loading of the evacuees was in a hurry, and their exact number is not known. There is a version that the cause of this maritime disaster was the criminal mistakes of the Black Sea Fleet command. The crowded motor ship, instead of making the transition to the Caucasian, was sent by the command to Yalta.
3
A cargo ship built in Oslo, Norway, launched on 4 April 1940. It was confiscated by the Germans after Norway was occupied by Germany. At first it was used as a conditional target for training the crews of German submarines. Later, the ship took part in the evacuation of people by sea from the advancing Red Army. It was armed with cannons. This ship managed to make four trips, in which 19,785 people were evacuated. On the night of April 16, 1945, the ship making the fifth trip was torpedoed by the Soviet submarine L-3, after which the Goya sank in the Baltic Sea. More than 6,900 people died in the disaster.
2
On May 3, 1945, a tragedy occurred in the Baltic Sea, the victims of which were approximately 8,000 people. The German liner "Cap Arkona" and the cargo ship "Tilbek", transporting prisoners from the evacuating concentration camps, were fired upon by British aircraft. As a result, more than 5,000 people died on the Cap Arkon, and about 2,800 on the Tilbeck. According to one version, this raid was a mistake on the part of the British Air Force, who believed that German troops were on the ships, according to another, the pilots were ordered to destroy everything enemy ships in the area.
1
The most on the water happened with this German passenger liner, which since 1940 has been converted into a floating hospital. During the Second World War, it was used as an infirmary, a hostel for the 2nd training brigade of submariners. The death of the ship, torpedoed on January 30, 1945 by the Soviet submarine S-13 under the command of A. I. Marinesko, is considered the largest disaster in maritime history- according to some historians, the real losses could be more than 9,000 people.
At 21:16 the first torpedo hit the bow of the ship, later the second blew up the empty pool where the women of the naval auxiliary battalion were, and the last one hit the engine room. By the joint efforts of the crew and passengers, some lifeboats were launched, and yet in ice water turned out to be a lot of people. From the strong roll of the ship, an anti-aircraft gun came off the deck and crushed one of the boats full of people. About an hour after the attack Wilhelm Gustloff” completely sunk.
The top 10 lists only civilian shipwrecks that occurred in peacetime or in neutral waters, during wars more terrible shipwrecks were recorded, for example, the sinking of the Armenia liner, which was transporting more than 9,000 refugees from Sevastopol.
1. Ferry Dona Paz, Philippines, December 20, 1987 (4,386 people)
The worst maritime disaster in which more than 4,000 people died, this terrible shipwreck happened on December 20, 1987, when the Philippine ferry Doña Paz collided with the oil tanker Vector in the Tablas Strait, 180 kilometers south of Manila.The ferry was full of passengers eager to get to their destination before the start of the Christmas holidays.Although the sea was calm and visibility was perfect, the lack of crew competence on both ships led to this disaster.As soon as the ships collided, 8,800 barrels of oil and gasoline from the tanker ignited and almost no one survived this terrible fire.
2. Steamship Kiangiya, China, December 3, 1948 (3,335 people)
The Chinese passenger steamer Qiyangiya was shipwrecked on 3 December 1948 while sailing from Shanghai to Ningbo. The ship was carrying refugees from China, officially 2,000 people were registered on it, but as it turned out later, the number of passengers was about 2 times more than declared. During the transition, he ran into a Japanese mine and began to sink rapidly, approximately3,335 people died in the shipwreck and only about 700 were able to escape.
3. Ferry Le Joola, Senegal, September 26, 2002 (1,863 people)
One of the worst disasters at sea in the history of the world. The ferry was carrying more than 2,000 passengers from the port of Senegal when, 35 kilometers from the coast of the Gambia on September 26, 2002, it capsized in 5 minutes. The reason for the death of the ferry was overload, if it was possible to take on board no more than 550 passengers, the ferry took on board more than 2,000 people.
4. Steamer Hoi Chu, China, November 8, 1945 (1,800 people)
The mass death of 1,800 people occurred when the Chinese steamer Hoi Chu, bound for Hong Kong from Canton and carrying about 2,000 troops, 100 civilians and crew members, sank in the Bocca Tigris at the mouth of the Canton River. The cause of death, which remained after the war, was a mine, only 300 people survived the disaster.
5. Steamboat Sultan, USA, April 27, 1865 (1,600 people)
The Sultan explosion, which killed nearly 1,600 passengers, was perhaps the worst maritime disaster in United States history.The Sultan was carrying about 2,300 POWs down the Mississippi River from Vicksburg, as well as a few civilian passengers and crew.Literally a couple of hours after midnight on April 27, 1865, one of the three boilers of the Sultan exploded, after which the ship quickly sank.
6. Liner "Titanic", UK / USA, April 15, 1912 (1,514 people)
The tragedy of the 20th century involving the superliner Titanic has inspired writers and filmmakers for decades, dozens of books and films have been written and filmed on this disaster. One of the largest and most luxurious liners of its time, she made her maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York, USA on April 10, 1912. Many believed that the Titanic, built using the most advanced technologies of its time, was unsinkable. However, nothing is guaranteed on the high seas, and on April 14, the ship collided with an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland. As a result of the collision, its hull was damaged and the liner sank, 1,514 people died in this disaster.
7. Steamer Taiping, China, January 27, 1949 (1,500 people)
Nearly 1,500 passengers, mostly Chinese migrants who had gathered in Taiwan, sailed from Shanghai aboard the Taiping steamer in search of a better life. All of them died on the fateful day of January 27, 1949, when the ferry was rammed by another Chinese ship.
8. Ferry Toya Maru, Japan, September 26, 1954 (1,153 people)
The most severe Typhoon, referred to as No. 15' in Japan, without any name just a number, claimed the lives of almost 1,153 passengers aboard the commercial ferry Toya Maru on September 26, 1954. The event is presented as the worst civilian shipwreck in Japanese history. The ferry ran between Hakodate on the island of Hokkaido and Aomori on the island of Honshu. A previously scheduled ferry departure was canceled pending a typhoon approach. However, the captain decided to go in the evening, believing that the worst part of the storm had already passed. It was a serious mistake, after leaving the harbor, the team lost control of the ship and it sank off the coast of Japan. 1,153 passengers and crew members went into the abyss of the ocean.
9. General Slocum, 1021 dead
June 15, 1904, marked as a black day in the history of New York, this day happened largest shipwreck in the waters of the city. General Slocum, a passenger steamer that took people on a tour of New York, was carrying 1,342 passengers, mostly members of the Lutheran church community, to a church picnic in the city of Locust Grove on Long Island. The passengers were mostly Germans from little Germany, the Manhattan area, including a large group of women and children.
The reason for the death of the ship was the disgusting preparation of the crew and the captain of the ship, when leaving the port, after 20 minutes old furniture began to smolder in one of the premises of the ship, the fire was noticed in time, the crew quickly rolled out the fire hose, but when the water was started up, the hose broke in several places, because of which it was not possible to extinguish the fire, as a result of which the vessel was flooded. It took only half an hour for the fire to destroy the ship.
10. Salam-98, 1,101 people died
On February 3, 2006, Salam 98, a ship carrying over 1,300 passengers and another 103 crew members, sank in the Red Sea, killing 1,101 people. ship from Saudi Arabia, the port of Duba went to Egypt, the port of Safaga. Most of the passengers were Egyptians working in Saudi Arabia and returning home from work.
The captain of the ferry, Syed Omar, is responsible for what happened, because when the fire broke out on the upper deck, the ferry was close to the shore, but the captain decided to go to the Egyptian port anyway, his actions led to the death of more than 1,100 people.
Everyone knows the story of the ill-fated Titanic. But at the same time, few people even suspect that the case of the Titanic is only the third shipwreck in terms of the number of victims. History has also known much larger oceanic tragedies. This review will focus on the most terrible shipwrecks that have become a real shock to the world.
1. The greatest victims in wartime
In January 1945, this German ship, which was evacuating civilian and Nazi troops who were surrounded by the Red Army in East Prussia, sank after being hit by three torpedoes in the Baltic Sea.
After being hit by torpedoes to starboard, the ship sank in less than 45 minutes. An estimated 9,400 people lost their lives, making this the largest shipwreck in terms of loss of life in history.
2. The greatest victims in non-war time
The Philippine passenger ferry Dona Paz sank after colliding with the tanker Vector on December 20, 1987, killing 4,375 people. After a collision with a tanker carrying 1,399,088 liters of gasoline, a huge fire broke out that caused the survivors aboard the Don Paz to jump into the shark-infested waters overboard.
3. The death of 1,198 people in 18 minutes
This British ocean liner traveled between Liverpool, England and New York, USA. During World War I, the ship was hit by a German torpedo on 7 May 1915 and then sank within just 18 minutes of being hit.
The disaster killed 1,198 people out of 1,959 on board. The attack on the passenger liner turned many countries against Germany, and also contributed to the entry of the United States into the First World War.
4. The biggest losses in the British fleet
This British ocean liner was requisitioned by the government during World War II. She was sunk on 17 June 1940 with over 4,000 deaths. It is considered the worst disaster among British ships. More people died in the sinking of the Lancastria than in the sinking of the Titanic and the Lusitania combined.
5. The worst disaster in Canadian history
This Canadian ocean liner sank in the St. Lawrence River after colliding with a Norwegian coal carrier on May 29, 1914. The accident killed 1,012 people (840 passengers and 172 crew members). After the collision, the ship listed on board so quickly that it became impossible to lower the lifeboats.
6. The death of 6,000 people in 7 minutes
“A German transport ship was carrying 6,100 documented passengers on board (and possibly over a hundred undocumented) when it was torpedoed on April 16, 1945 by a Soviet submarine in the Baltic Sea during World War II.
Just seven minutes after the torpedo hit, the ship sank, killing almost all passengers and crew. This shipwreck is considered the second in the history of navigation in terms of the number of victims.
7. The highest number of victims in the US Navy
On July 30, 1945, shortly after delivering critical parts for the first atomic bomb used in combat to the US air base on Tinian Island, the ship was torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-58 and sank in just 12 minutes.
Of the 1196 crew members on board, only 317 survived (about 300 immediately drowned with the ship, and the rest did not wait for help, which arrived only after 4 days).
8. The death of "Le Yola"
A Senegalese ferry capsized off the Gambian coast on 26 September 2002, killing at least 1,863 people. The sinking of the Le Yola ferry is considered the second largest non-military maritime disaster after the Doña Paz. The ferry was heavily overloaded, so after falling into a storm, it capsized in just 5 minutes.
9. Destroyed the city
This French cargo ship loaded with ammunition exploded in the harbor of Halifax (Canada) on December 6, 1917, killing 2,000 residents of the city and its environs. The explosion was caused by a collision with the Norwegian ship Imo.
10 Most Famous Shipwreck
This is perhaps the most famous maritime tragedy of all time. The Titanic was a passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on April 15, 1912 after colliding with an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Southampton, UK to New York, USA. The Titanic disaster resulted in 1,514 deaths.
And in continuation of the topic, we have collected.
