I don’t really like ships that much. I mean, I think they’re kinda cool, but ever since I saw Titanic, I don’t think I’ll be getting on anything bigger than a small boat anytime soon. Pretty much ever since ships have been around, they’ve been sinking. This is a list of the top ten deadliest shipwrecks (so far). Although, I guess that isn’t really true, because I only included disasters that happened during peacetime, otherwise the list would include the Spanish Armada and the Sultana.
10. RMS Empress of Ireland
Country: Canada
Date of Disaster (DoD): May 29, 1914
The Empress of Ireland was an ocean liner that was on the St. Lawrence River traveling to Liverpool from Quebec carrying 1,477 passengers and crewmembers. It was a foggy morning, and another ship, the Norwegian SS Storstad, rammed into the side of the Empress. The Storstad didn’t sink, but the Empress started taking on water through open portholes, fell on its side, and did kind of a sideways Titanic. 1,024 people died in the disaster, along with numerous inept scuba-divers trying to see the wreck, which is only in water 130-feet deep.
9. MS al-Salam Boccaccio 98
Country: Egypt
DoD: February 3, 2006
The MS al-Salam Boccaccio 98 was a passenger ferry that was on its way from Saudi Arabia to Egypt when it lost contact with shore. Sometime before midnight, the ferry capsized. No one is quite sure what caused the wreck, but theories are there was a fire somewhere on the ship, or that it had design flaws. Out of 1,312 passengers and 96 crewmembers, 388 people were rescued.
8. Tōya Maru
Country: Japan
DoD: September 26, 1954
Toya Maru was a train ferry. It had come from Aomori to Hakodate, and was supposed to return before a typhoon hit Aomori, but it was delayed when it had to take on the passengers of another ferry. The typhoon hit when it was still in Hakodate, and they decided to cancel the trip back. Then, the weather cleared a little, and the captain thought the storm had passed so they started to head back. Unfortunately, the storm hadn’t really passed, it just slowed down, and when it kicked back up again, Toya Maru tried to anchor, but the wind and waves were too strong, and it capsized. Out of about 1,300 people, 1,159 died.
7. Sicily Naval Disaster of 1707
Country: England
DoD: Depends on what calender you go by; sometime in the fall
So this guy named Cloudesley Shovell (whatever happened to great names like Cloudesley?) was in charge of a small British fleet that helped to attack a French port. Well after that happened, they were all told to go home. Now, due to bad weather and an inability to figure out where they were, the fleet sailed right into the Isles of Sicily, and four of the fifteen ships sank. Somewhere between 1,400 and 2,000 sailors died.
6. RMS Titanic
Country: Great Britain
DoD: April 14-15, 1912
We all know what happened to the Titanic. 2,223 people were onboard. 1,517 people died.
5. Tek Sing
Country: China
DoD: February 6, 1822
The “Titanic of the East”, Tek Sing was a Chinese junk headed from China to Jakarta carrying porcelain and passengers, most of which were immigrants. The crew decided to take a shortcut through Gaspar Strait, and ran aground on a reef and sank. About 1,600 people died.
4. MV Le Joola
Country: Senegal
DoD: September 26, 2002
Yet another ferry, Le Joola was built to hold about 580 passengers. At the time, it was carrying almost 2,000 passengers. It was traveling between southern Senegal and the capital, Dakar, when it ran into a storm. Due to the overcrowding, wind, waves, and the overall condition of the ferry, it capsized and killed at least 1,863 people.
3. The Halifax Explosion
Country: Canada
DoD: December 6, 1917
The ship in this incident didn’t so much sink as it got blown to pieces. In fact, to this day, it’s still the largest man-made accidental explosion in history, according to a 1994 study. The SS Mont-Blanc was carrying wartime explosives (this happened during WWI, but is still on here, because it doesn’t have anything to do with the actual war, it just happened at the same time) in Halifax Harbor when it collided with a Norwegian ship, the SS Imo (what is it with Norwegians and hitting ships in Canada?). The ship caught on fire and exploded with roughly 1/5 the power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The blast caused a tsunami as high as 60 ft, and destroyed many buildings in Halifax and Dartmouth. The explosion killed around 2,000 people and injured as many as 9,000.
2. SS Kiangya
Country: China
DoD: December 4, 1948
The Kiangya was a steamship carrying passengers and many stowaways from Shanghai on the Huangpu River. All of a sudden, the ship blew up and sank. The most likely cause was that it hit an old WWII Japanese mine. Somewhere between 2,750 and 3,920 people were killed.
1. MV Doña Paz
Country: The Philippines
DoD: December 20, 1987
Another ferry, the Dona Paz was headed for Manila, when it collided with an oil tanker, the MT Vector. The Vector caught on fire, which quickly spread to the Dona Paz. Survivors said the sea itself was on fire, and they had to jump in to escape. There were only 26 survivors. The death toll is estimated to be at least 4,375 people.
Most information from Wikipedia and Time.com.
And I found this website. It's weird, but if you aren't doing anything else, look at it.
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Dude. Scary. But I can swim, so it's good.
ReplyDeleteI love the name Cloudesley. I'm totally thinking about naming my future pet Cloudesley. It has a nice ring to it. Anyway, I was really surprised by the ships that have sunk in recent years. I would have figured that engineers would have figured out the problems and fixed them by now, since we are in the 21st century.
ReplyDeleteI love boats, poop decks and dingys ans what not. I want to but a big boat and crash into a ship and try to kill alot of people so I can be in this list.
ReplyDelete