Terrible shipwrecks. The largest shipwrecks in history
On April 16, 1945, exactly 117 years after the death of Francisco Goya, the ship Goya was sunk by a torpedo attack by a Soviet submarine. This disaster, which claimed 7,000 lives, became the largest shipwreck in world history.
"Goya"
"Goya" was Norwegian cargo ship, requisitioned by the Germans. On April 16, 1945, things didn’t go well in the morning. A gloomy omen of the coming disaster was the bombardment to which the ship was subjected. Despite the defense, during the fourth raid a shell still hit the bow of the Goya. Several people were injured, but the ship remained afloat and they decided not to cancel the flight.
For Goya, this was the fifth evacuation flight from the advancing units of the Red Army. During four previous campaigns, almost 20,000 refugees, wounded and soldiers were evacuated.
Goya set off on its last voyage loaded to capacity. Passengers were in the passages, on the stairs, in the holds. Not everyone had documents, so the exact number of passengers has not yet been established, from 6000 to 7000. They all believed that the war was over for them, they made plans and were full of hope...
The ships (Goya was accompanied by a convoy) were already at sea when at 22:30 surveillance noticed an unidentified silhouette on the right side. Everyone was ordered to put on life-saving clothing. There were only 1,500 of them on board the Goya. In addition, one of the ships of the group, the Kronenfels, suffered a breakdown in the engine room. While waiting for the completion of repair work, the ships began to drift. An hour later the ships continued their journey.
At 23:45, Goya shuddered from a powerful torpedo attack. The Soviet submarine L-3, which was following the ships, began to operate.
Panic began at Goya. Jochen Hannema, a German tankman who became one of the few survivors, recalled: “Water rushed noisily from the huge holes created by the torpedoes. The ship broke into two parts and began to rapidly sink. All that was heard was the terrible roar of a huge mass of water.”
The huge ship, devoid of partitions, sank in just 20 minutes. Only 178 people survived.
"Wilhelm Gustlow"
On January 30, 1945, at 21:15, the S-13 submarine discovered in the Baltic waters the German transport "Wilhelm Gustlow", accompanied by an escort, on board which, according to modern estimates, was over 10 thousand people, most of whom were refugees from East Prussia : old people, children, women. But there were also German submarine cadets, crew members and other military personnel on the Gustlov.
Submarine captain Alexander Marinesko began the hunt. For almost three hours, the Soviet submarine followed the giant transport ship (the displacement of the Gustlov was over 25 thousand tons. For comparison, the steamship Titanic and the battleship Bismarck had a displacement of about 50 thousand tons).
Having chosen the moment, Marinesko attacked the Gustlov with three torpedoes, each of which hit the target. The fourth torpedo with the inscription “For Stalin” got stuck. The submariners miraculously managed to avoid an explosion on the boat.
While escaping pursuit from a German military escort, the C-13 was bombed by over 200 depth charges.
The sinking of the Wilhelm Gustlov is considered one of the largest disasters in maritime history. According to official data, 5,348 people died in it; according to some historians, real losses could exceed 9,000.
Junyo Maru
They were called "Ships of Hell." These were Japanese merchant ships used to transport prisoners of war and workers (actually slaves, who were called "romushi") to Japanese-occupied territories during World War II. The “ships of hell” were not officially part of the Japanese navy and had no identification marks, but the Allied forces sank them no less violently. Only war time 9 “Ships of Hell” were sunk, on which almost 25 thousand people died.
It is worth saying that the British and Americans could not help but know about the “cargo” that was transported on the ships, since the Japanese codes were deciphered.
The largest disaster occurred on September 18, 1944. The British submarine Tradewind torpedoed the Japanese ship Junyo Maru. Among the rescue equipment on the ship, filled to capacity with prisoners of war, there were two lifeboats and several rafts. On board were 4.2 thousand workers, 2.3 thousand prisoners of war, Americans, Australians, British, Dutch and Indonesians.
The conditions in which slaves had to survive on ships were simply terrifying. Many went crazy and died from exhaustion and stuffiness. When the torpedoed ship began to sink, the captives of the ship had no chance of salvation. The boats accompanying the “ship of hell” brought on board only the Japanese and a small part of the prisoners. In total, 680 prisoners of war and 200 romushi remained alive.
This was a case where the living envied the dead. The prisoners who miraculously escaped were sent to their destination - to construction railway to Sumatra. The chances of surviving there were not much greater than on the ill-fated ship.
"Armenia"
The cargo-passenger ship "Armenia" was built in Leningrad and was used on the Odessa-Batumi line. During the Great Patriotic War in August 1941, "Armenia" was converted into a medical transport ship. The side and deck began to be “decorated” with large red crosses, which, in theory, were supposed to protect the ship from attacks, but...
During the defense of Odessa, "Armenia" made 15 flights to the besieged city, from where more than 16 thousand people were taken on board. Last flight“Armenia” began a campaign from Sevastopol to Tuapse in November 1941. On November 6, having taken on board the wounded, almost the entire medical personnel of the Black Sea Fleet and civilians, the Armenia left Sevastopol.
At night the ship arrived in Yalta. The captain of the "Armenia" was forbidden to make the transition to Tuapse during daylight hours, but the military situation dictated otherwise. The port of Yalta did not have cover to protect against German air raids, and there were already German troops on the near approaches to the city. And there was practically no choice left...
At 8 o'clock in the morning on November 7, "Armenia" left Yalta and headed for Tuapse. At 11:25 the ship was attacked by a German torpedo bomber He-111 and sank less than 5 minutes after the torpedo hit the bow. Together with “Armenia”, from 4,000 to 7,500 people died, and only eight managed to escape. The causes of this terrible tragedy are still controversial.
"Dona Paz"
The death of the ferry "Donya Paz" is the largest shipwreck that occurred in peacetime. This tragedy became a cruel lesson exposing greed, unprofessionalism and sloppiness. The sea, as we know, does not forgive mistakes, and in the case of the "Danya Paz" mistakes followed one after another .
The ferry was built in Japan in 1963. At that time it was called "Himeuri Maru". In 1975, it was profitably sold to the Philippines. Since then he has been exploited even more than mercilessly. Designed to carry a maximum of 608 passengers, it was usually packed to capacity, accommodating between 1,500 and 4,500 people.
Twice a week the ferry carried out Passenger Transportation along the route Manila - Tacloban - Catbalogan - Manila - Catbalogan - Tacloban - Manila. On December 20, 1987, “Dona Paz” went into its own last voyage from Tacloban to Manila. This flight was packed with maximum passengers - Filipinos were rushing to the capital for the New Year.
At ten in the evening of the same day, the ferry collided with the huge tanker Vector. The collision literally broke both ships in half, and thousands of tons of oil spilled across the ocean. The explosion caused a fire. The chances of salvation were reduced to almost zero. The situation was aggravated by the fact that the ocean at the site of the tragedy was swarming with sharks.
One of the survivors, Paquito Osabel, later recalled: " Neither the sailors nor the ship's officers reacted in any way to what was happening. Everyone demanded life jackets and a lifeboat, but there were none. The cabinets in which the vests were stored were locked, and the keys could not be found. The boats were thrown into the water just like that, without any preparation. Panic, chaos, chaos reigned«.
The rescue operation began only eight hours after the tragedy. 26 people were caught from the sea. 24 are passengers of the Donya Paz, two are sailors from the tanker Vector. Official statistics, which cannot be trusted, indicate the death of 1,583 people. More objective, independent experts claim that 4,341 people died in the disaster.
"Cap Arcona"
Cap Arcona was one of the largest passenger ships in Germany, with a displacement of 27,561 tons. Having survived almost the entire war, the Cap Arcona perished after the capture of Berlin by the Allied forces, when on May 3, 1945, the liner was sunk by British bombers.
Benjamin Jacobs, one of the prisoners who were at Cap Arcona, wrote in the book “The Dentist of Auschwitz”: “ Suddenly planes appeared. We could clearly see their identification marks. “These are the British!” Look, we are KaTsetniks! We are prisoners of concentration camps!” we shouted and waved our hands at them. We waved our striped camp caps and pointed to our striped clothes, but there was no compassion for us. The British began to throw napalm at the shaking and burning Cap Arcona. On the next approach, the planes descended, now they were at a distance of 15 m from the deck, we clearly saw the pilot’s face and thought that we had nothing to fear. But then bombs fell from the belly of the plane... Some fell on the deck, others into the water... They shot at us and those who jumped into the water from machine guns. The water around the drowning bodies turned red".
Aboard the blazing Cap Arcona, more than 4,000 prisoners were burned alive or suffocated by smoke. Some prisoners managed to escape and jump into the sea. Those who managed to escape the sharks were picked up by trawlers. 350 prisoners, many of whom suffered from burns, managed to escape before the liner capsized. They swam ashore, but became victims of the SS men. A total of 5,594 people died on Cap Arcona.
"Lancasteria"
Western historiography prefers to remain silent about the tragedy that occurred on June 17, 1940. Moreover, a veil of oblivion covered this terrible catastrophe on the day it happened. This is due to the fact that on the same day France surrendered to Nazi troops, and Winston Churchill decided not to report anything about the death of the ship, as this could break the morale of the British. This is not surprising: the Lancastrian disaster was the largest mass death of the British during the entire Second World War, the number of victims exceeded the sum of the victims of the sinking of the Titanic and Luisitania. Headline
The Lancastria liner was built in 1920 and was used as a military vessel after the outbreak of World War II. On June 17, he evacuated troops from Norway. A German Junkers 88 bomber spotted the ship and began bombing. The liner was hit by 10 bombs. According to official figures, there were 4,500 soldiers and 200 crew on board. About 700 people were saved. According to unofficial data published in Brian Crabb's book about the disaster, it is said that the number of victims is deliberately downplayed.
The RIA Novosti agency published a background article dedicated to the anniversary of the sinking of the motor ship Bulgaria on the Kuibyshev Reservoir. The tragedy occurred on July 10, 2011. This is not the only major accident with passenger ships and ferries since 2000. Now we have the opportunity to compare how the number of major disasters in water transport has been growing recently.
June 27, approximately 200 kilometers from the Australian Christmas Island in Indian Ocean A ship en route to Australia was shipwrecked with about 150 illegal migrants on board. 123 people were saved.
The Rabaul Queen ferry was operating a passenger flight from the city of Lae on the mainland Papua New Guinea in Kimbi - administrative center the province of the same name, located on a separate island. According to the owner company Rabaul Shipping, there were 350 passengers and 12 crew members on board. 246 people were rescued, the rest were declared missing. The shipwreck was caused by bad weather conditions.
On April 21, a passenger ship capsized and sank in eastern Bangladesh, killing at least four people and leaving more than 90 missing. The tragedy occurred early in the morning on the Meghna River near the city of Brahmanbaria. According to various sources, there were from 70 to 100 people on board the ship.
On January 28, the ferry Laut Teduh II, en route from the Javanese port of Merak to Bakoheni in the far south of neighboring Sumatra, caught fire in the Sunda Strait off the western tip of the Indonesian island of Java. The ship was three miles from Merak near Tempurung Island when a fire broke out on it for unknown reasons. According to various sources, there were up to 550 people on board. The fire killed 27 people and injured almost 200.
On November 27, the ferry Coco 4, with more than 1.5 thousand people on board, crashed near Bhola Island in southern Bangladesh. As a result of the disaster, 75 passengers and crew members died. The accident occurred due to the overload of the ship, designed to carry no more than a thousand passengers.
On January 11, the ferry Teratai Prima, carrying 250 passengers and 17 crew members, capsized and sank in the Makassar Strait in Indonesia. As a result of the shipwreck, 41 people survived, including the ship's captain. The cause of the accident was heavy storm, which capsized the ferry.
On June 22, the ferry Princess of Stars, carrying 862 passengers and crew, sank off Sibuyan Island in the Philippine archipelago. As a result of the disaster, only 52 people survived, the rest died or went missing. Also, the Philippine authorities revealed the fact that the ship was illegally transporting 10 tons of endosulfan, the release of which into the sea could provoke ecological disaster. Containers with a toxic substance were removed from the vessel by the efforts of divers.
On April 8, a ship sank on the Volta River in Ghana with 150 people on board, but only 30 were saved.
On April 6, the passenger ferry al Baraqua 2 capsized in the Red Sea near the port of Djibouti, carrying, according to various estimates, from 250 to 400 people. Despite the fact that rescue boats were immediately dispatched from the shore, only 113 people were saved; the rest of the passengers died or were declared missing. The most likely cause of the crash was said to be a shift in the center of mass resulting from improper load placement.
On February 3, 88 kilometers from the city of Safaga (Egypt), the Egyptian ferry al Salam Boccaccio 98 sank, carrying 1,414 passengers and crew members. Of this number, only 387 people were saved. The cause of the crash was a fire in the hold of the ferry, which was extinguished using sea water, which led to the ship listing. The ferry tilted 25 degrees and then went under water.
On July 7, the ferry Digul sank off the coast of the Indonesian province of Papua, with over 200 people on board. Only two crew members and 13 passengers managed to escape; the rest were found dead or declared missing.
On May 18, the ferry Rajpur sank near Aricha (Bangladesh), carrying about 250 passengers and crew members. Only 50 people were saved; the rest of the passengers died or went missing. The cause of the shipwreck was the overload of the ship, which was not suitable for carrying such a number of passengers.
On February 19, the ferry Maharaj sank on the Buriganga River (Bangladesh), carrying about 200 passengers. Only 23 people were saved; the rest of the passengers and crew died. The shipwreck was the result of a tropical storm.
On July 8, near the city of Chandpur (Bangladesh) on the Meghna River, the Bangladeshi ferry Nasreen 2 sank with 750 people on board. As a result of the rescue operation, 220 people were pulled out of the water alive. The rest were found dead or declared missing.
The cause of the accident was the overload of the ship, designed to transport only 350 people.
On November 29, the ferry Dieu Merci, carrying about 450 people, crashed in the waters of Lake Mai Ndombe in the Congo. Rescuers managed to pull about 200 survivors from the water, 163 people were found dead, and 222 were declared missing. The shipwreck was caused by a storm.
On March 24, the ferry Qashovge, carrying about 200 people on board, crashed in the waters of Lake Taganika in the Congo. About 150 passengers and crew members died in the shipwreck, 43 managed to escape. The ship was designed to carry no more than 67 passengers and could not withstand the load in the conditions of the storm that began.
On September 26, the Senegalese ferry Joola sank off the coast of Gambia, carrying about 1,200 people. Only 64 of them managed to escape, the rest died or went missing. The causes of the disaster were cited as overloading of the ship, designed to carry no more than 550 passengers, malfunction of radio equipment and a lack of lifeboats on the ferry. The small number of survivors was due to the inaction of the Senegalese army, which delayed the start of the rescue operation.
On May 4, the Bangladeshi ferry Salahuddin, carrying about 500 passengers, sank on the Meghna River (Bangladesh). As a result of the sinking of the ship, over 300 people died. The cause of the shipwreck was a storm that began on the river and capsized the ferry.
On October 19, an Indonesian fishing vessel carrying illegal migrants from Muslim countries to Australia sank off the coast of Java (Indonesia). Of the 421 passengers on board, 44 survived and were taken ashore with various fractures. The cause of the accident was the overcrowding of the ship, which was designed to carry no more than 150 passengers.
On July 26, a passenger ferry carrying about 150 passengers sank in the waters of Lake Tanganyika. Rescuers managed to extract 24 survivors from the water. The remaining passengers and crew died or were declared missing.
On September 26, in the Aegean Sea, near the island of Paros, the Greek ferry Express Samina, with 511 people on board, hit a reef. As a result of the shipwreck, 82 passengers and crew members died. The accident occurred due to the negligence of the ship's crew, who left the ferry without control, as a result of which the ship hit a rock marked on all shipping charts.
On June 29, in the waters of the Moluccas archipelago (Indonesia), the ferry Cahaya Bahari sank, carrying about 500 Christian refugees fleeing Muslims who staged pogroms on religious grounds in the Moluccas. With the exception of 10 people who managed to escape, all passengers on the ship died.
The shipwreck occurred as a result of a storm when the overcrowded ship, designed to carry no more than 200 passengers, developed a leak.
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
11/07/2011
The sinking of the motor ship "Bulgaria" claimed the lives of dozens of people, and made us think once again about the safety of river and sea transport. Most people are only familiar with the tragedy of the Titanic, about which many films have been made and many stories have been told.
N oh, strangely enough, it wasn’t the Titanic that took the most to the bottom a large number of human lives. This ranking lists the worst shipwrecks in history and is based on those killed in these disasters. It is worth noting that all these disasters occurred in peacetime.
1. Dona Paz - 4,375 dead
Passenger ferry registered in the Philippines. Sank on December 20, 1987 after a collision with the tanker Vector. An estimated 4,375 people were killed, making it the worst peacetime maritime disaster. The ferry was built in 1963 at the Japanese shipyard Onomichi Zosen, Onomichi, and was named Himeuri Maru. The Himeuri Maru was owned by the Ryukyu Kaiun Kaisa Company and cruised Japanese waters with a capacity of 608 passengers. In 1975, the ship was sold to Sulpicio Lines, a Philippine passenger ferry operator, and was named Don Sulphico and later Doña Paz. A month before the collision, the ferry was being repaired at the docks. At the time of the collision, Dona Paz was operating passenger services on the Manila-Tacloban-Catbalogan-Manila-Catbalogan-Tacloban-Manila route twice a week.
2. Halifax explosion - 1,950 dead
The Halifax Explosion was an explosion that occurred on Thursday, December 6, 1917, in Halifax Harbour. As a result of the strong explosion of the French military transport Mont Blanc, loaded with explosives, which occurred as a result of the collision of the Mont Blanc with the Norwegian ship Imo, the port and a significant part of the city were completely destroyed. About 2 thousand people died as a result of the explosion, under the rubble of buildings, and due to fires that arose after the explosion. Approximately 9 thousand people were injured.
3. Joola - 1,863 dead
A Senegalese government ferry that capsized off the coast of The Gambia on September 26, 2002. The disaster resulted in the deaths of at least 1,863 people. On September 26, 2002, the ferry Yoola sailed from Ziguinchor in the Casamance region on one of its regular trips to the capital of Senegal, Dakar. During the voyage, the ship, designed to carry about 580 passengers, accommodated about 2,000 people. Along the way, the ship capsized due to strong winds off the coast of Gambia. Detailed reports show that this happened in less than five minutes.
4. Sultana - 1,800 dead
The steamship Sultana, sailing along the Mississippi River, was destroyed as a result of the explosion of one of its four boilers on April 27, 1865. This resulted in the greatest maritime disaster in United States history. Approximately 1,800 of the 2,400 passengers on board were killed. The steamship sank near Memphis, Tennessee.
5. Titanic - 1,517 dead
Titanic is a British steamship of the White Star Line, one of three twin ships of the Olympic class. The largest passenger airliner in the world at the time of its construction. During her maiden voyage on April 14, 1912, she collided with an iceberg and sank 2 hours and 40 minutes later. There were 1,316 passengers and 892 crew members on board, for a total of 2,208 people. The Titanic disaster became legendary and was one of the largest shipwrecks in history. Several feature films have been shot based on its plot.
6. Empress of Ireland - 1,012 dead
The Empress of Ireland is a Canadian passenger liner laid down at the Govan shipyard, near Glasgow (Scotland). Launched in January 1906, she underwent sea trials until June 27, 1906. One of the largest ships of its class, owned by the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company. Made flights between England and Canada. The comfortable accommodations, high speed of the vessel, as well as excellent service on board the liner have earned it popularity among those wishing to cross the Atlantic Ocean. During its next voyage on May 29, 1914, the Empress of Ireland collided with the Norwegian coal carrier Storstadt on the St. Lawrence River and sank 14 minutes later at a depth of more than 40 meters. It carried 1,477 people on board (420 crew and 1,057 passengers).
7. Estonia - 852 dead
The ferry Estonia was built in 1979 in Germany at the Meyer Werft shipyard in the city of Papenburg. "Estonia" sank on the night of September 27 to September 28, 1994. In this case, 852 people died out of 1049 on board. The ferry was originally built for the Viking Line and was named Viking Sally. It was supposed to run between Turku, Mariehamn and Stockholm. In 1986 it was sold to Silja Line and renamed Silja Star, keeping it on its original route. In 1991, the ferry was operated by the Wasa Line company, which was wholly owned by Silja Line, and the ferry, now under the name Wasa King, began plying between the Finnish city of Vaasa and Swedish city Umeå. In January 1993, to provide ferry service between Tallinn and Stockholm, the Swedish company Nordström & Thulin and the Estonian state-owned Estonian Shipping Company (“Estonian Shipping Company”, abbreviated as “ESCO”) created a joint venture “Estline” (“Estonian Shipping Company”). EstLine A/S), which acquired the ferry Wasa King, renaming it Estonia.
8. Eastland - 845 dead
It was a passenger ship based in Chicago. It was used for excursions to the Great Lakes. The ship sank on July 24, 1915 as a result of a natural disaster. It became the worst shipwreck disaster in the Great Lakes region.
9. Birkenhead - 460 dead
Birkenhead is a ferry built specifically for the Royal Navy. She was designed as a frigate, but was later intended to transport troops. On February 26, 1852, while transporting troops, the ship crashed off the coast of Cape Town in South Africa.
10. Mary Rose - 400 dead
Mary Rose was a three-decker flagship of the English navy under King Henry VIII Tudor. This massive carrack was launched at Portsmouth in 1510. It was probably named after the French queen Mary Tudor (the king's sister) and the rose as the heraldic symbol of the House of Tudor. During the Italian Wars, the Mary Rose was commanded by brother admirals Edward and Thomas Howard. In 1512, the Mary Rose took part in the attack on Brest. In 1528 and 1536 it was modernized: the number of guns was increased to 91, the displacement was increased to 700 tons. In 1545 French king Francis I landed on the Isle of Wight. The British sent 80 ships, led by the Mary Rose, to the Solent to defend the island. Overloaded with artillery, the karakka, which had never been distinguished by stability, suddenly began to list and sank along with Admiral George Carew. Only 35 sailors managed to escape. By the way, the remains of this ship were found, and now they are stored in maritime museum city of Portsmouth .
optopus.ucoz.ru, photo from pajamasmedia.com
Perhaps everyone knows the story of the ill-fated Titanic. But at the same time, few people even suspect that the Titanic case is only the third shipwreck in terms of the number of victims. History has known much larger ocean tragedies. In this review we will talk about the most terrible shipwrecks that came as a real shock to the world.
1. The greatest casualties in wartime
In January 1945, this German ship, which was evacuating civilians 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 on the starboard side by torpedoes, the ship sank in less than 45 minutes. An estimated 9,400 people died, making it the deadliest shipwreck in history.
2. The greatest casualties in non-war times
The Philippine passenger ferry Dona Paz sank after colliding with the tanker Vector on December 20, 1987, killing 4,375 people. The collision with the tanker, which was carrying 1,399,088 liters of gasoline, sparked a huge fire that led to survivors aboard the Dona Paz jumping into the shark-infested waters overboard.
3. Death of 1,198 people in 18 minutes
This British ocean liner sailed between Liverpool, England and New York, USA. During World War I, the ship was hit by a German torpedo on May 7, 1915, and then sank within just 18 minutes of being hit.
The disaster killed 1,198 of the 1,959 people on board. The attack on the passenger airliner turned many countries against Germany and also contributed to the US entry into World War I.
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 June 17, 1940, resulting in the death of more than 4,000 people. It is considered the worst disaster of any British ship. More people died in the sinking of the Lancastria than in the sinking of the Titanic and Lusitania combined.
5. 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 so quickly that it was impossible to lower the lifeboats.
6. Death of 6,000 people in 7 minutes
“The German transport ship was carrying 6,100 documented passengers on board (and possibly more than 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 casualties 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 1,196 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 4 days later).
8. The death of "Le Yola"
A Senegalese ferry capsized off the coast of Gambia on September 26, 2002, killing at least 1,863 people. The sinking of the ferry Le Yola is considered the second deadliest non-military maritime disaster after Dona Paz. The ferry was heavily overloaded, so after hitting a storm it capsized in just 5 minutes.
9. Destroyed the city
This French cargo ship carrying a load of ammunition exploded in Halifax harbor, Canada, on December 6, 1917, killing 2,000 residents of the city and its surrounding area. The explosion was caused by a collision with the Norwegian ship Imo.
10. The most famous shipwreck
This is perhaps the most famous maritime tragedy of all time. "Titanic" was passenger airliner, which sank in the northern part Atlantic Ocean On April 15, 1912, after striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, UK to New York, USA. The Titanic disaster led to the death of 1,514 people.
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The world is familiar with many shipwrecks that shocked us with their scale and horror of what happened. Domestic history knows many terrible shipwrecks that resulted in significant human casualties.
Top most terrible shipwrecks of the 20th century
As you know, modern ships are equipped with means designed to save human life. However, this was not always the case. Especially many large shipwrecks occurred in the last century.Some water disasters occurred far out to sea, and some occurred in coastal areas due to collisions with reefs. The consequences can be frightening. Next, let's look at some of the most terrible shipwrecks in human history.
Steamship "Sultana" (SS Sultana)
Wood paddle steamer The Sultana was built at an American shipyard in Cincinnati and launched in 1863. The ship suffered a disaster on April 27, 1865 on the Mississippi River near Memphis due to the explosion of a steam boiler. 
The ship transported soldiers released from captivity. 1,653 people became victims of the disaster, 741 people were saved. This shipwreck is the largest disaster of the 19th century in terms of the number of victims.
Ferry Donja Paz
One of the largest shipwrecks of the 20th century occurred in 1987 - we are talking about the passenger ferry Dona Paz. For more than two decades, it regularly transported people, cruising along the coasts of the Philippines and Japan. 
Colliding with the tanker, the ferry literally broke in half. A fire broke out and passengers died in the fire. The number of victims of this terrible shipwreck is 4375 people.
Liner "Wilhelm Gustloff"
The cruise ship Wilhelm Gustloff belonged to one of the largest tour operating companies of the Third Reich. It was launched in 1937. The ship sailed 50 cruises, and the cost of tickets was so low that even the working class could afford to go on a trip on board. 
During the Second World War, the liner served as a hospital, and later became a barracks for submarine sailors. In early 1945, the ship was torpedoed by a Soviet submarine. According to official data, 5,348 people died in that shipwreck. Historians call a different number of victims - at least 9 thousand people.
The wreck of the Titanic
Who doesn't know about the Titanic? It seems that everyone has heard about this sensational shipwreck. The ship made only one voyage, which ended in disaster in 1912. According to the website, Titanic is included in the rating of the largest ships. 
The shipwreck killed 1,513 people. Only 711 passengers were saved. The Titanic disappeared under water in 160 minutes. This terrible disaster was reflected in cinema: in 1997, director James Cameron shot a film of the same name. The main roles in the film were played by Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Cruise ship Costa Concordia
Costa Concordia is one of the largest European ships. A maritime disaster occurred on the night of January 13-14, 2012 in the Tyrrhenian Sea, not far from Italian island Giglio, during a cruise in the Western Mediterranean. There were 4,229 people on board when the ship hit a reef and capsized. The crash killed 32 people.6 people found guilty in the crash of the Costa Concordia
The main culprit was the captain of the liner, Francesco Schettino, who was sentenced to 16 years in prison. After this incident, the rules for maritime navigation and pre-trip instructions for passengers were tightened.
The most terrible shipwrecks in Russian history
Russian history knows several major shipwrecks, and all of them resulted in huge casualties. One cannot help but recall the crash of the “Armenia”, “Admiral Nakhimov” and “Novorossiysk”. The death of the Kursk submarine and the shipwreck of the Bulgaria and Komsomolets became a terrible tragedy for our country and the whole world."Armenia" sank in the fall of 1941 near Crimea in just four minutes. The ship carried evacuated residents and wounded Red Army soldiers. Five thousand people died, and only 8 passengers were able to survive.
One of the largest water disasters in the USSR was the crash of the Admiral Nakhimov. It went from Novorossiysk to Sochi, carrying 1243 people. Due to the fact that the ship rammed a grain carrier, a hole was formed in it, and it sank in 7 minutes. This shipwreck occurred at the end of August 1986, and 423 people died.
The name “Novorossiysk” in the USSR was given to a ship that previously belonged to the Italian Navy. At the end of October 1955, an explosion occurred in the bow of the ship, causing a hole of 150 square meters to form. meters. The Novorossiysk sank with 604 people on board.
In September 1994, the ferry Estonia, leaving the port of Tallinn, was caught in a storm, lost its bow, causing it to fall on its side and drown. Rescue operation complicated by a natural disaster that left 852 people missing and killed.
Our contemporaries know about the tragedy that occurred with the nuclear submarine Kursk. The crash occurred in August 2000 due to explosions on board. The crew consisted of 118 people, there were no survivors.
Another thing happened in July 2011 terrible shipwreck in Russian history - the sinking of the motor ship "Bulgaria", which was cruising along the Volga. With a capacity of 140 people, there were 208 passengers on board. About 120 people were killed, many of them children.
The Komsomolets submarine crashed in the Norwegian Sea. This happened in April 1989 - the cause was a fire in the aft compartment. The crew consisted of 69 people, only 27 crew members managed to survive.
The worst water disaster in human history
Perhaps the worst water disaster in the history of mankind was a shipwreck German ship"Goya" in 1945. About 7 thousand people became its victims. 
The collapse of the Goya is called the bloodiest disaster. It happened during the Second World War. The ship was used as an evacuation ship. At night, a Soviet submarine caught up with the Goya and attacked the ship. After 10 minutes, the Goya ship, along with all its passengers, sank under water. On land, major incidents involving human casualties occurred no less frequently. We invite you to learn more about the worst disasters in history.
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