Top 20 Most Deadly Shipwrecks of All Time
#20: HMS Victory (1744)
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The HMS Victory, launched in 1737, was the pride of the British Navy and the flagship of the Channel Fleet.The vessel was tremendous for its time, sporting three gun decks and one hundred guns. Unfortunately, she was built with a fatal flaw: her design led to a tendency for the vessel to get pushed downwind. That flaw likely led to her destruction. In 1744, the Channel Fleet was caught in a massive storm. She disappeared until her wreck was discovered in 2008, losing her entire crew of 1,150 men. Scientists and divers did not, however, discover Victory’s greatest secret: she is rumored to have sunk while carrying four tons of gold coins. If so, they are still lost to the sea.
#19: RMS Empress of Ireland (1914)
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The early 1900s was a rough period for accidents at sea. One such accident involved the Canadian ocean liner RMS Empress of Ireland. On a foggy May morning, the Empress was traversing the mouth of the Saint Lawrence river. The fog was so thick that the crew didn’t notice an oncoming Norwegian cargo ship. The SS Storstad and the larger passenger vessel crashed into one another. The Titanic had sunk two years prior, and the world had learned a harsh lesson from the experience: always have enough lifeboats. Unfortunately, the damage from the collision was so severe, the Empress sank in only 14 minutes. By the time the ship went down, 1012 people - about two thirds of the souls aboard - perished.
#18: USS Arizona (1941)
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December 7th, 1941 was a dark day in U.S. military history. In the early hours of that lazy Sunday morning, the imperial Japanese Navy launched a surprise attack on Hawaii. The Pearl Harbor Naval Base was home to dozens of U.S. Navy vessels. By the time the attack was over, 21 ships had been significantly damaged or destroyed. Around 2,400 American civilians and military personnel died that day. Almost half of them were sailors aboard the USS Arizona, a Pennsylvania class battleship. Japanese pilots hit the Arizona with multiple bombs loaded with armor-piercing warheads. One of those bombs hit an ammo magazine, triggering a massive explosion. One thousand one hundred and seventy seven of the over fifteen hundred crewmen were killed.
#17: RMS Lusitania (1915)
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Between 1914 and 1918, German U-boats sank nearly 5000 vessels. One of those, in 1915, was the British ocean liner RMS Lusitania. For a brief three-month period early on in the Lusitania’s life, it was the largest passenger ship on earth. She had traversed the Atlantic Ocean over two hundred times, carrying passengers back and forth between Britain and the U.S. On her 202nd voyage, a German U-boat hit her with a torpedo 11 miles off the coast of Ireland. Almost 1200 passengers and crew members were killed. The sinking caused an uproar in the United States and was later one of several justifications for the U.S. to enter World War I.
#16: HMS Hood (1941)
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The HMS Hood was a battlecruiser in the Royal Navy during World War II. Built during the First World War, the Hood spent twenty years as the largest warship on earth. The Royal Navy was proud of her long, storied service, nicknaming her ‘The Mighty Hood.’ In May of 1941, the Hood partnered with the battleship Prince of Wales to locate and destroy a pair of German warships: the Bismarck and the Prinz Eugen. The Germans were wreaking havoc on convoys in the Atlantic. They found their enemy and engaged. Ten minutes into the Battle of the Denmark Strait, a shell from the Bismarck sparked a massive explosion. The ‘invincible’ British ship sank quickly thereafter. Of the 1,418 crew, only three survived.
#15: SS Castillo de Olite (1939)
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The SS Castillo de Olite spent her 19-year career as a journeyman cargo steamship. She started her life as a Dutch vessel named Zaandijk. She was renamed three times as she was traded between Dutch and Soviet ownership. During the Spanish Civil War in 1938, she was captured by Spanish Nationalists. They renamed her after a royal palace in Navarre. The Spanish repurposed her as a troop transport vessel. Towards the end of the war, Castillo was a part of a convoy making for Cartagena. Unlike the rest of the convoy, Castillo was never informed that Republican forces controlled the port. As a result, she was destroyed by gunfire from shore. Hundreds were wounded and captured. Nearly 1500 crewmen and troops were killed.
#14: Chinese Steamer Ship Taiping (1949)
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The Chinese steamer Taiping is often compared to the Mayflower by Taiwan. After the horrors of World War II, Communist forces gained the upper hand during the Chinese Civil War. In the decade after the Japanese surrender, around one million refugees fled mainland China for Taiwan. Ferries like the Taiping facilitated that journey. They were often overloaded with passengers. The Taiping had a rated capacity of fewer than 600 passengers. On its final voyage, it’s estimated that she carried more than 1,500. Taiping was steaming near the Zhoushan Archipelago without lights to avoid detection. Unfortunately, that decision led to a collision with a small cargo vessel. Only 37 passengers were ultimately rescued.
#13: Haitian Ferry Neptune (1993)
The 1990s were a tumultuous time for the Caribbean island nation of Haiti. In 1991, a military coup unseated the democratically elected president. Three years later, the U.S. intervened on behalf of the United Nations. That three-year period of military dictatorship was a chaotic one, with human rights falling by the wayside. Infrastructure was not top of mind, leading to lax rules and regulations. The passenger ferry Neptune was on a routine trip from Port-au-Prince to Jeremie, overloaded with five times its rated capacity of 400. Rough seas led to uncontrollable flooding. The passengers fled to the upper deck, which collapsed under their collective weight. The ship capsized, and nearly 1500 are estimated to have died.
#12: RMS Titanic (1912)
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The RMS Titanic was the second of three Olympic-class luxury liners built for the White Star Line. At the time, she was the largest passenger ship in the world. After loading up with an estimated 2,224 passengers in Southampton England, she set course for New York City. Millionaires and socialites populated her luxury cabins. Her steerage was filled with working class immigrants, hearts set on America. Five days later, in the wee hours of April 15th, Titanic sank after striking an iceberg. She was built to hold 48 lifeboats, but was only equipped with twenty. Those that were lowered were only filled to sixty percent capacity. As a result, 1,517 souls were lost including both the ship’s captain Edward Smith and her architect, Thomas Andrews.
#11: SS Sultana (1865)
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The sinking of the SS Sultana is the greatest American shipwreck you’ve never heard of. The Sultana was a side-wheel steamboat and a vital part of the Mississippi River cotton trade. During the Civil War, she was often contracted as a troop transport ship. It was in this capacity, the day after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, that Sultana sank near Memphis, Tennessee. Sultana was overloaded with six times her passenger maximum. Three of her four boilers were leaking, repaired with a slapdash job that led to their explosion. Officials recorded the death toll at 1,547, but modern historians put that number closer to 1,800. It was the worst civilian maritime disaster in American history.
#10: MV Le Joola (2002)
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Cars, trucks, and other wheeled vehicles drive onto roll-on boats, are secured, and drive out when they reach their destination. In Senegal, such ferries were owned and operated by the government. In September of 2002, one such ship, the MV Le Joola, was enroute to the Senegalese capital of Dakar. The Le Joola was not a deep sea vessel, and was caught unprepared when she hit a storm too far from shore. As with other ships on this list, corruption and foolishness left the Le Joola overloaded with passengers. There were literally people sleeping on her decks, many of whom didn’t have tickets. The ship capsized, and a rescue didn’t come for hours. Between 1800 and 1900 souls were lost at sea.
#9: SS Mont-Blanc (1917)
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The Halifax Explosion of 1917 is one of the most infamous disasters in Canadian History. It was a cold, December morning when the French cargo ship SS Mont-Blanc entered Halifax Harbor. What made this Thursday morning unusual was the Mont-Blanc’s cargo: she was fully laden with over 2,800 tons of volatile cargo. She was traversing a narrow section of the harbor when she collided with a Norwegian steamer. The collision sparked a fire, which soon hit the tons of TNT, picric acid, and guncotton below. The resultant explosion virtually destroyed the Richmond district of Halifax. The toll on the ship and the city was devastating. Around nine thousand people were injured, and approximately two thousand died.
#8: German Battleship Bismarck (1941)
In 1940, Nazi Germany’s Kriegsmarine were so proud of their shiny new battleship that they named it after former Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. She was the largest Germany ever built. For a year and a half, the Bismarck terrorized Atlantic shipping lanes. Eventually, the British sent a pair of warships after her: the Hood and the Prince of Wales. Utilizing her superior, modern firepower, Bismarck sank the Hood and forced the Prince of Wales to withdraw. Unfortunately, Bismarck suffered significant damage during the fight. She limped towards France, seeking repairs. Before she could get there, she was pursued by a vengeful British battle group. They encountered and destroyed the Bismarck. Twenty two hundred men were killed. There were only 114 survivors.
#7: Japanese Battleship Yamato (1945)
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The Battleship Yamato was both the flagship of the Imperial Japanese navy and, along with her sister ship, the largest battleship ever constructed. Her primary guns were the largest ever used on a warship. But towards the end of the war, the Imperial Navy was in dire straits. Their fleet had been decimated by the U.S. and fuel shortages pervaded their home islands. Knowing the end was near, the Yamato was sent on a one-way trip to Okinawa. She was ordered to beach herself and fight until destroyed. Yamato was intercepted by American bombers before she could make it. The Yamato had a massive crew complement of 3,332 sailors including Vice Admiral Seiichi Itō. All but 277 died in the American attack.
#6: SS Kiangya (1948)
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Toward the end of the Chinese Civil War, tens of thousands fled before the advance of the People’s Liberation Army. Cities like Shanghai emptied themselves as those who could afford passage took steamer ships to the east. Many, ultimately, fled to Taiwan. The SS Kiangya was one such ferry, filled to the brim with panicked refugees. The total number of people aboard isn’t known: there were hundreds of stowaways above and beyond its 2,150 person capacity. On its route at the mouth of the Huangpu River, the Kiangya met disaster. A mine - most likely a remnant of the Japanese invasion - exploded, utterly destroying the ship. Around 700 refugees were rescued, but estimates potentially put the dead at almost 4,000.
#5: MV Doña Paz (1987)
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After 16 years in Japanese service, a ferry was bought, refurbished, and renamed MV Doña Paz in the Philippines. In 1987, enroute to Manila, the ferry was overloaded by thousands of people. Rumors since the disaster claim that the crew had locked away their life jackets and didn’t have a working radio. It was struck by the Vector, an unseaworthy oil tanker in operation without a license. The tanker also lacked a lookout. The sinking of the MV Doña Paz was both a human tragedy and an ecological disaster. Over 1000 tons of gasoline spilled into the ocean. There were only 26 survivors of the collision, with the death toll estimated as approaching 4400. It is the deadliest peacetime disaster in maritime history.
#4: RMS Lancastria (1940)
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The rapid initial advance of Nazi Germany left the Allies in utter chaos. Less than nine months after declaring war on the Nazis, the British were forced to evacuate at Dunkirk. Desperate, they launched Operation Aerial to evacuate all Allied civilians and military personnel from continental Europe. As part of Aerial, the government requisitioned commercial ocean liners for the evacuation. The RMS Lancastria was tasked with evacuating Brits from France two weeks after Dunkirk. While off St. Nazaire, German bombers attacked. Even as the ship was sinking, survivors had to contend with a continued German assault. The total number of fatalities is unknown. Historians believe that anywhere between 4,000 and 7,000 Britons lost their lives when the Lancastria sank.
#3: MV Wilhelm Gustloff (1945)
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The Eastern Front of World War II saw some of the bloodiest battles in human history. By the start of 1945, the Germans were swiftly evacuating the Baltic ahead of the Red Army’s advance. The MV Wilhelm Gustloff was a military transport vessel participating in the evacuation. In January, they were evacuating East Prussia as well as other Baltic States occupied by the Nazis. The Wilhelm Gustloff was discovered and attacked by a Soviet submarine. Passengers died in the explosion, in the stampede to escape the oncoming water, and by drowning. When the Wilhelm Gustloff sank, it resulted in the worst loss of life from a single sinking vessel in history. One estimate places the butcher’s bill at a staggering 9,400 people.
#2: The Spanish Armada (1588)
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The Battle of the Spanish Armada is one of the greatest upsets in military history. A huge fleet of some 130 Spanish galleons and caravels were sent by Philip II to join with an invasion force and conquer England. The Spanish Armada vastly outgunned the English fleet. The combined force totalled near 55,000 men. It was one of the most terrifying military forces the world had ever seen. Along the way, horrible storms wrecked many Spanish ships along the rocky shoals of Scotland and Ireland. When the two forces finally met in battle, the English ships’ speed and maneuverability won the day. Between storm and battle, the Spanish lost 44 ships and anywhere between 11,000 and 20,000 men.
#1: The Lost Fleet of Kublai Khan (1281)
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Kublai Khan realized the dreams of his grandfather, Genghis, by establishing the Yuan Dynasty. Kublai’s own dreams, however, lay further eastward towards the island nation of Japan. In 1274, he sent a fleet of 900 ships to invade. That first invasion was thwarted when river boats met terrible storms at sea. Kublai tried again in 1281. One fleet of 900 ships set sail from Korea and easily conquered Tsushima Island. A second, much larger fleet of 3,500 hastily constructed ships launched from China. That fleet transported 100,000 soldiers ready to conquer all of Japan. They never finished their journey. Their river-made construction couldn’t withstand the overseas journey and were all destroyed along the way. If you’d like to dive into the depths of these maritime disasters together, please comment below!
