This year has been filled with one ship disaster after another and culminating with the Costa Concordia and the loss of 32 people. Even though this disaster still makes highlights in the media maritime history has documented cruise ship disasters that took life’s of thousand crew and passengers in a single day. Let’s take a look at some of the disasters who took many lives throughout the maritime history.
1. First place goes to the MV “Wilhelm Gustoff,” which was named after a Swiss Nazi. The German ship was sunk by a Soviet submarine, but what the Soviets did not know at the time was that the ship was not carrying German soldier, but actual refugees among which were children. The ship sunk in only 70 minutes and took with it 9,343 out of the 10,000 passengers never to see the freedom which they sailed towards.
2. Even though most of the maritime disasters do take place in European waters, this next one was recorded in the history of Marion, Arkansas. On April, 27, 1865, three of the four boilers of the SS Sultana exploded, thus ultimately sinking the ship and 1,600 human lives with it. The ship was filled with 2,400 passengers out of which larger percentage were Federal soldiers recently released from Confederate prison. This is yet another unfortunate story of people who never got to see the freedom that they have been going towards.
3. The Swedish warship Kronan saw its last battle on June 1676 at the Battle of Oland. After a hard turn, the ship capsized and its powder magazine exploded making it easy for the waters to claim this ship as its prisoner. The Kronan sank together with 800 men. Only 50 sailors survived to tell the tale.
4. The first battle cruiser that ever sailed the high seas was the British “Invincible,” which did not live up to its name as it hit rock bottom of the North Sea, close to the pier of Denmark. This is yet another ship which exploded due to its powdered magazines. The catastrophic 1916 Battle of Jutland sank this battle ship in amazing 90 seconds taking with it 1,026 and leaving only six survivors.
5. The old saying “communication is the key,” should have been thought around the time when the Mont-Blanc was cruising the waters. In December of 1917, this ship was dispatched with 500,000pounds of TNT. The series of mis-communications with the Norwegian Imo was the death of the Mont-Blanc. But that is not all, once the Mont-Blanc caught fire and exploded, due to the amount of TNT aboard this ship it caused a blast which created an artificial 60 feet high tsunami. In this disaster 1,500 people were killed near the Halifax Harbor and 9,000 were injured with the majority of casualties being on land.
6. It seems that the Spanish Armada is famous in more than one way. The Girona sank off the Irish coast in October 1588 and out of the 1,300 passengers on board, only five survived. Later on, this disaster proved to be a dream come true for the British marine archeologist when he discovered the same in 1967 loaded with the lost treasure.
7. One of the most significant river boats disasters in the maritime history most definitely is the one about the PS General Slocum. In June 1904, this passenger steamboat caught fire in New York’s River between Manhattan and Brooklyn. This disaster would be assigned to the captain, according to the New York Times and its reports on the matter. It seems that the captain “lost his head” and tried to steer the ship to a nearby island instead of grounding her ashore. The ship was loaded with 1,342 passengers, out of who 1,021 never saw the final destination.
8. One of this ships which did not only take many lives during the disaster, but after it as well would be the White Ship which among the precious cargo carried the one William Adelin, the only legitimate son of King Henry I, as well as the heir to the throne of England. This ship sank in the English Channel in 1120 and took many lives with it among whose was the one of the heir to the throne of England. This caused civil war for the crown of England which we know it by “The Anarchy’ in our present day.
9. So far, most of the disasters we mentioned were caused by some act of war, but human error is harder to digest. The Dona Paz sunk just for that very reason, human error. In December 1987, this Philippine ferry collided with a tanker 100 miles south of Manila, which was its final destination. So close to home, yet so far would be a true statement for the 4,351 of the passengers who never got to touch the land of Manila.
10. The last place goes to the Russo-Japanese War in the 20th century. In the May 27 Battle of Tsushima Strait, Japan managed to sank 35 of the 45 Russian ships. This weakened the Russian navy, thus leading it to the decision to surrender in August of 1905.
