The world is familiar with many major shipwrecks, shocking in their scale and horror of what happened. Russian history knows a lot of terrible shipwrecks that resulted in significant human casualties.
Top worst shipwrecks of the 20th century
As known, modern ships equipped with means designed to save a person's life. However, this was not always the case. Especially many major shipwrecks occurred in the last century. Some water disasters have occurred far out to sea, and some have occurred in the coastal zone, when the cause of their death was rocks or reefs.Disasters on the water began to occur from the moment people began to go to the high seas. The number of voyages is constantly growing, in large part due to fierce competition, overshadowing the safety of those on board. The implications of all of this are clear. Let's take a look at some of the worst shipwrecks below.
Ferry "Donja Paz"
One of the largest shipwrecks of the 20th century happened in 1987. We are talking about the passenger ferry "Donja Paz". For more than two decades, he regularly transported people, cruising along the coast of the Philippines and Japan.
The crash of the ferry "Donya pass" became one of the worst shipwrecks Having collided with a tanker, the ferry literally broke in half. There was a fire, passengers were killed in the fire. The number of victims of this terrible shipwreck is four thousand three hundred seventy-five people.
Liner "Wilhelm Gustloff"
Cruise ship " Wilhelm Gustloff"Belonged to one of the largest tour operator companies of the Third Reich. It was launched in 1937. The ship had fifty cruises, and the ticket prices were so low that even the working class could afford to travel on board.
The disaster with the liner "Wilhelm Gustloff" happened during the Second World War. During the Second World War, the liner played the role of a hospital, and later became a barracks for submariners. In early 1945, the ship was torpedoed by a Soviet submarine. According to official figures, five thousand three hundred forty-eight people died in that shipwreck. Historians also call a different number of victims - at least nine thousand people.
The sinking of the Titanic
Who doesn't know about the Titanic? It seems that everyone knows about this sensational shipwreck. The ship managed to make only one voyage, which was both the first and the last for him. The disaster happened on an April day in 1912, when this luxurious ship went on a cruise.
The sinking of the Titanic became the most famous disaster on the water The victims of the shipwreck were one thousand five hundred and thirteen people. Only seven hundred and eleven passengers were saved. The Titanic disappeared underwater in one hundred and sixty minutes. By the way, the Titanic, according to uznayvse.ru, is included in the rating of the largest ships.
The worst shipwrecks in Russian history
Russian history also knows several major shipwrecks. All of them resulted in huge human sacrifices. One cannot but recall the crash of "Armenia", "Admiral Nakhimov", "Novorossiysk" and "Estonia". A terrible tragedy for our country and the whole world was the crash of the Kursk submarine, the shipwreck of the Bulgar and Komsomolets. "Armenia" sank in the fall of 1941 near the Crimea in just four minutes. The vessel transported evacuated residents and wounded Red Army soldiers. Five thousand people died. Only eight passengers were able to survive.
The crash of the motor ship "Armenia" happened swiftly One of the largest disasters on the water in the USSR was the crash of the "Admiral Nakhimov". He went from Novorossiysk to Sochi, transporting one thousand two hundred and forty-three people. Due to the fact that the steamer rammed the grain carrier, it had a hole. He sank in seven minutes. Four hundred twenty-three people were killed. This shipwreck occurred at the end of August 1986. The name "Novorossiysk" in the USSR was given to a ship that had previously belonged to the Italian Navy. At the end of October 1955, an explosion occurred in the nose, causing a hole of one hundred and fifty square meters. "Novorossiysk" sank. Six hundred and four people died.
The sinking of the ferry "Estonia" became a tragedy of modern times The ferry "Estonia" in September 1994, leaving the port of Talin, got into a storm and collided with the ferry "Mriella". When rescuing, the situation was complicated by a storm. Missing and killed eight hundred and fifty-two people. All our contemporaries know about the tragedy that happened with the Kursk nuclear submarine. The crash happened in August 2000 due to explosions on board. The crew consisted of one hundred and eighteen people. They all died. More recently, in July 2011, there was another terrible shipwreck in Russian history. We are talking about the motor ship "Bulgaria", making a cruise along the Volga. With a capacity of one hundred and forty people, there were two hundred and eight passengers on board. The dead were about one hundred and twenty people, among them many children.
The collapse of "Bulgaria" - a terrible tragedy on the Volga The submarine "Komsomolets" was wrecked in the Norwegian Sea. It happened in April 1989. The cause was a fire in the aft compartment. The crew consisted of sixty-nine people, only twenty-seven crew members managed to survive.
The worst water disaster in human history
Perhaps the most terrible disaster on the water in the entire history of mankind was the shipwreck of the German ship "Goya" in 1945. Its victims were about seven thousand people.
The disaster with the ship "Goya" is recognized as the most terrible shipwreck. The wreck of the "Goya" is called the bloodiest. It happened during the Second World War. The ship was used as an evacuation ship. At night, a Soviet submarine overtook the Goya and attacked the ship. Ten minutes later, the ship "Goya", together with all the passengers, went under water.
The sinking of the Titanic is mistakenly considered the shipwreck of the century. The reason for this misconception is understandable. This ocean-going vessel was built with unprecedented glamor for first class passengers. Swimming pool, promenades, Turkish baths, tennis court ... The cabins have been decorated in different art styles- from antiquity to modern. The most luxurious ones included a living room, two bedrooms, a dressing room, a bathroom, a toilet, and a personal promenade deck 15 meters long.
Millionaires, actors, diplomats, bankers and other cream of high society floated in this class. Thanks to these circumstances, the crash of the liner was presented as a universal tragedy, more terrible than which there was nothing and could not be. Let us recall that in this disaster, 1,495 passengers and crew members were killed.
It makes no sense to give details of this disaster. Thanks to the film and an endless stream of publications on this topic for more than a century, they are known better than Newton's Third Law.
However, there are much more horrifying shipwrecks in terms of the number of victims. So, on the German ship "Goya" killed about 7 thousand people. The ship was torpedoed during the Second World War. And the bloodiest sea tragedies are also associated with military operations. But we will not consider them, since in this case we are not talking about the arbitrariness of the elements or navigation errors, but about the deliberate destruction of enemy ships.
Help came too late
The second most fatal peacetime shipwreck occurred on September 26, 2002, when the Senegalese state ferry Joola capsized off the coast of the Gambia. 1,863 people died. A total of 551 bodies were found. Of these, 93 were identified. The rest were buried in a specially organized cemetery on the coast of the Gambia.
Only 64 passengers managed to escape. But this is not the merit of the rescue services, which did not go to the aid of drowning people for a criminally long time. The overturned ferry went under water for 4 hours, sank at 15.00. And all this time people, fighting for life, clung to the ship's hull. A few lucky ones were rescued by fishermen, whose boats were nearby. Rescuers showed up only the next morning.
On September 26, 2002, the Senegalese state ferry Joola capsized off the coast of the Gambia (Photo: youtube.com)
The ferry, built in Germany in 1990, was designed to sail in coastal waters, but not in the open sea. As a result of intensive exploitation and poor maintenance, the vessel was badly worn out.
And, finally, the main cause of the disaster was the more than three-fold congestion of the ferry, designed for 550 passengers and 30 crew members. On Joola, there were more than 1800 only legal passengers who had tickets. About a hundred more free riders were secretly planted by team members.
Since at the lower levels of the ferry, due to its congestion, it was hot and stuffy, passengers tried to get to upper deck... This caused the ship's center of gravity to rise significantly above the waterline. Together with the strong sea roughness, this led to the overturning of the vessel.
The government, by hook or by crook, disoriented the Senegalese about the real reasons for the death of their compatriots. The number of casualties and the number of passengers were deliberately underestimated, of which there were supposedly only 612. No conclusions were drawn about the inaction of rescuers from the Senegal Navy. This led to massive expressions of discontent. In addition, the French government put pressure on the president of the country, demanding an objective investigation, since there were 10 Frenchmen among the victims.
A government crisis erupted in the country. The president Abdoulaye Wad dismissed the prime minister Mame Boye. Also, most of the ministers were dismissed, primarily the security officials, who were accused of inactivity. However, Paris was not reassured, the French Court of Appeal in 2008 issued an arrest warrant for Boye. However, a year later the order was canceled.
New Prime Minister Idrissa Sek has launched a new investigation. It was it that indicated the death of 1,863 people in a shipwreck.
Passengers jumped into the burning sea
The most major shipwreck happened on December 20, 1987. The Philippine ferry "Dona Paz", en route from Tacloban to Manila, collided in the Tablas Strait with the tanker "Vector", carrying more than a thousand cubic meters of gasoline. 4386 people died, 26 were saved.
The weather was clear, but the sea was rough. At 22:30, when most of the passengers had already fallen asleep, a collision occurred. At that moment, there was only one crew member on the bridge of the ferry. The other 65 people in the cabins watched TV and drank beer.
Survivors said that immediately after the collision, a fire broke out on the ferry. Spilled oil products blazed on a large body of water. The crew, in a panic, rushed about the ship along with the passengers, not trying to restore at least some order. There were no life jackets, they were locked up.
The ship was doomed, after two hours it sank under the water. And all this time, desperate people jumped overboard, although the chances of escape were ghostly. First, gasoline spilled from the tanker burned around the vessel. Secondly, the strait was teeming with sharks. Thirdly, as it was said, there was a decent excitement at sea.
During the investigation of the causes of the shipwreck, it turned out that the crew was recruited mainly from non-professionals, who, moreover, had a limp in discipline. The huge number of casualties must be attributed to the greed of the shipowners. The Donya Paz, built in Japan in 1963 and repaired at the docks a month before the collision, was designed to carry 1,518 passengers. Shipowners have long tried to hide the truth, claiming that 1,525 tickets were sold. The survivors testified that the ferry was packed to capacity - people were accommodated in all free spaces, in the corridors and on the deck. As a result of a thorough investigation, it was established that there were 4,341 passengers.
Most of the 26 survivors (24 ferry passengers and 2 tanker crew members) received burns from burning fuel. The bodies of thousands of passengers have never been found. Three hundred corpses were washed ashore over the next few days. All of them, according to the Philippine authorities, were partially eaten by sharks.
We all know about the ill-fated story of the Titanic, but few people know that this tragedy was only the third largest casualty in the history of shipping. Today we offer you to familiarize yourself with a list of the 10 most terrible disasters that have 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 Doña Paz.
This Philippine ferry sank after colliding with the MT Vector oil tanker on December 20, 1987. More than 4,300 people died. The collision occurred in the middle of the night and led to 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 from Liverpool to New York. During World War I, the ship was shot down by German torpedoes on May 7, 1915 and sank within just 18 minutes after the impact. The crash killed 1,198 of the 1959 people on board.
4. RMS Lancastria.
This British ocean liner was requisitioned by the government during World War II. It sank on June 17, 1940, claiming 4,000 lives. This disaster caused more deaths than the sinking of the Titanic and 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 were killed (840 passengers and 172 crew members).
6. MV Goya.
The German transport ship MV Goya carried 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 of the people on board were killed. Only 183 people survived.
7. USS Indianapolis (CA-35).
On July 30, 1945, Indianapolis was torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-58 and sank 12 minutes later. Of the 1,196 people, only 300 survived.
8. MV Le Joola.
A Senegalese ferry capsized off the coast of The Gambia on September 26, 2002, killing at least 1,863 people. As it became known, the ferry was overloaded, therefore, when 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 from the collision caused an ammunition explosion that destroyed the harbor and city.
10. RMS Titanic.
This is perhaps the most famous sea tragedy of all times and peoples. Titanic was by passenger liner sunken in the northern part Atlantic Ocean April 15, 1912, after hitting an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. The death of the Titanic claimed 1,514 human lives.
For thousands of years, ships have sunk during wars, natural disasters and in some cases even human error. Identified ten of the largest and most famous shipwrecks that have ever occurred.
The Titanic sailed from Southampton to New York, where it collided with an iceberg and sank after 2 hours and 40 minutes. Its body, divided into two parts, lies on seabed, at a depth of over 3700 meters.
Sultana
Almost forgotten, but one of the deadliest disasters. During the crash of this ship, more than 1,800 people died. It was the greatest maritime disaster in all American history... The explosion of four cauldrons turned the ship into a huge ball of fire, engulfing everyone and everything. The explosion killed 80% of everyone on board. The disaster was in the background in the press, due to the fact that just the day before it was killed by President Lincoln 
... The ship was designed for only 85 passengers, but there were approximately 2,400 people on board. Its wreckage lies near Memphis, Tennessee.
L.R. Doti
This ship was launched in 1894 in the state of Michigan, in western Bay City. She was caught in a terrible storm that caused her to sink, killing all 17 crew members on board. The crash site was found 111 years after the sinking of the ship. It is located at a depth of 92 meters in Lake Michigan; the maize cargo is still intact. This place is considered one of the most dangerous dive sites due to the muddy water.
Oriskani
This ship, nicknamed the Mighty O, was one of 24 huge Essex-class ships ordered by the US Navy. The ship has witnessed many battles in many places, from Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to the Vietnam War. 
... In 2004, the vessel was converted into an artificial reef and has become a very successful home for millions of fish. Today it is considered one of the best places for diving in the world.
Jula
The sinking of this ship is considered the second worst non-war maritime disaster. The disaster claimed at least 1,863 lives. The ship was designed for 500 passengers, but at the time of the accident it was carrying more than 2000 passengers. The ship capsized after being hit by a storm. It sank in just five minutes. Rescue teams arrived only in the morning after the incident, a huge number of victims died in the water while awaiting rescue. The ship is still missing.
Vida Galli
This ship has a very interesting story... It served primarily for the slave trade, but then in late February 1717, a pirate named "Black Sam" Bellamy hijacked the ship and claimed it as his own. During the year he owned the ship, he used the Vida Galli to seize and plunder more than 50 ships. The ship was caught in a violent storm, as a result of which its main mast collapsed, and it capsized, dragging all the pirates under the water. The ship was discovered more than 250 years after it disappeared along with its prey. He was at a depth of only 5 meters. It was the first real pirate ship ever discovered.
Rona
Quite possibly the most beautiful shipwreck in the world. British packet boat wrecks off the coast of Salt Island, British Virgin Islands, October 26, 1867. The ship went straight for the hurricane, which damaged it and killed 123 people. Now this is a place for diving, and, I must say, absolutely stunning in beauty. Wildlife took the ship into its possession, and now it is covered with coral, eels live in it, different types fish and even sharks.
Costa Concordia
The most last crash cruise ship. Although the ship only partially sank, the crash cost 34 passengers their lives. This crash was widely reported in the press. Captain Scettino tried to make a spectacular maneuver to port. To do this, he turned off the ship's navigation system, which reported how close the ship approached the stone shoal. The ship swooped down on big Stone and water began to fill the boat, causing it to capsize. The Costa Concordia is still in the Giglia region of Tuscany and has become a popular tourist attraction; now plans are being developed to lift and tow it.
Mont Blanc
The Mont Blanc became known as the ship that caused the Halifax explosion. The ship was heading for France from New York and was carrying a huge amount of ammunition and explosives. The vessel was not too old, but very slow due to the weight of the cargo carried. It entered Halifax, Nova Scotia to meet a convoy bound for France. When entering the port, the ship crashed into another ship, the Imo. The collision caused a fire, explosives on board ignited. The force of the explosion was 2.9 kilotons, it was the largest non-nuclear explosion in history. More than 2,000 people were killed and 9,000 injured.
Sweepstakes
Sweepstakes is very popular with divers due to wildlife and landscapes that arose at the site of the shipwreck. The ship lies in a large harbor and can be seen at water level. The ship was damaged off Cove Island in August 1885. Fortunately, he was brought back to port by a small tug "Jesse". The schooner was seriously damaged and could not be repaired, so it sank in the port itself. Fortunately, the huge cargo of coal was lifted from the side of the sunken ship.
RIA Novosti has published a reference article dedicated to the anniversary of the sinking of the motor ship Bulgaria at the Kuibyshev reservoir. The tragedy took place 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 catastrophes is growing by water transport recently.
June 27, about 200 kilometers from the Australian Christmas Island in Indian Ocean shipwrecked ship sailing to Australia, on board which were about 150 illegal migrants. 123 people were saved.
The Rabaul Queen ferry operated a passenger flight from Lae on the mainland Papua New Guinea in Kimby - the administrative center of the province of the same name, located on a separate island. On board, according to the owner of Rabaul Shipping, there were 350 passengers and 12 crew members. Managed to save 246 people, the rest were reported 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 missing more than 90. The tragedy took place early in the morning on the Meghna River near the city of Brahmanbaria. On board the ship, according to various sources, there were from 70 to 100 people.
On January 28, in the Sunda Strait at the western tip of the Indonesian island of Java, the Laut Teduh II ferry caught fire, heading from the Javanese port of Merak to Bakoheni in the far south of neighboring Sumatra. The vessel 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 victims of the fire were 27 people, almost 200 were injured.
On November 27, near the island of Bhola in the south of Bangladesh, the ferry Coco 4, on board of which there were more than 1.5 thousand people, crashed. As a result of the disaster, 75 passengers and crew members were killed. The accident occurred due to the congestion of the vessel, designed to carry no more than a thousand passengers.
On January 11, in the Makassar Strait in Indonesia, the Teratai Prima ferry capsized and sank, carrying 250 passengers and 17 crew members. As a result of the shipwreck, 41 people survived, including the captain of the ship. The cause of the accident was a severe storm that turned the ferry over.
On June 22, the Princess of Stars ferry, carrying 862 passengers and a crew member, crashed off Sibuyan Island in the Philippine archipelago. As a result of the disaster, only 52 people survived, the rest died or disappeared. Also, the Philippine authorities revealed the fact of illegal transportation by the ship of 10 tons of endosulfan, the ingress of which into the sea could provoke an ecological disaster. The containers with the toxic substance were removed from the vessel by the efforts of the divers.
On April 8, in Ghana on the Volta River, a ship with 150 people on board was wrecked, but only 30 were saved.
On April 6, in the Red Sea near the port of Djibouti, the passenger ferry al Baraqua 2 capsized, on board which, according to various estimates, were from 250 to 400 people. Despite the fact that rescue boats immediately departed from the shore, only 113 people were saved, the rest of the passengers were killed or were reported missing. Most probable cause Crash was called the displacement of the center of mass, which occurred as a result of incorrect placement of the load.
On February 3, 88 kilometers from the city of Safaga (Egypt), the Egyptian ferry al Salam Boccaccio 98 sank, with 1,414 passengers and crew on board. 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 with seawater, which led to the list of the vessel. The ferry tilted 25 degrees and then sank into the water.
On July 7, off the coast of the Indonesian province of Papua, the ferry Digul sank, with over 200 people on board. Only two crew members and 13 passengers managed to escape, the rest were found dead or reported missing.
On May 18, in the Aricha region (Bangladesh), the Rajpur ferry sank with about 250 passengers and crew on board. Only 50 people were saved, the rest of the passengers died or went missing. The cause of the shipwreck was the congestion of the vessel, which was not adapted for the carriage of such a number of passengers.
On February 19, the Maharaj ferry sank on the Buriganga River (Bangladesh), carrying about 200 passengers. Only 23 people were saved, the rest of the passengers and crew members were killed. The shipwreck came as a result of the outbreak of a tropical storm.
On July 8, the Bangladeshi ferry Nasreen 2, carrying 750 people, sank near the city of Chandpur (Bangladesh) on the Meghna River. As a result of the rescue operation, 220 people were pulled out of the water alive. The rest were found dead, or reported missing.
The cause of the accident was the congestion of the vessel, which was designed to carry only 350 people.
On November 29, the Dieu Merci ferry, carrying about 450 people, crashed in the waters of Lake Mai Ndombe in the Congo. Rescuers managed to extract about 200 survivors from the water, 163 people were found dead, and 222 were declared missing. The shipwreck was the result of a storm.
On March 24, in the Congo, in the waters of Lake Taganyika, the Qashovge ferry, carrying about 200 people, was wrecked. The shipwreck killed about 150 passengers and crew members, 43 managed to escape. The vessel was adapted to carry no more than 67 passengers and could not withstand the load in the conditions of the onset of the storm.
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 disappeared. The reasons for the catastrophe were the congestion of the vessel, designed to carry no more than 550 passengers, the malfunction of the radio equipment and the lack of a ferry. lifeboats... The small number of survivors was due to the inaction of the Senegal army formations, 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 started on the river and turned the ferry over.
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, who were taken ashore with various fractures. The cause of the accident was the overcrowding of the vessel, 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 rest of the passengers and crew members were killed or were reported missing.
On September 26, in the Aegean Sea, near the island of Paros, the Greek ferry Express Samina, carrying 511 people, crashed into a reef. The shipwreck killed 82 passengers and crew members due to the negligence of the ship's crew, leaving the ferry uncontrolled, causing the ship to hit the rock marked on all shipping charts.
On June 29, the Cahaya Bahari ferry sank in the waters of the Moluccan archipelago (Indonesia), on board of which there were about 500 Christian refugees fleeing Muslims who staged pogroms on the Moluccan Islands on religious grounds. With the exception of 10 people who managed to escape, all of the ship's passengers were killed.
The shipwreck was the result of a storm when an overcrowded ship, designed to carry no more than 200 passengers, leaked.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources
