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A maritime disaster is an event which usually involves a ship or ships and can involve military action. Because of the nature of maritime travel, there is often a substantial loss of life. The term maritime disaster can refer to both commercial ships and military naval ships.
The list of maritime disasters is a link page for maritime disasters by century. For a unified list of peacetime disasters by death toll, see List of accidents and disasters by death toll § Peacetime Maritime.
YearCountryDescriptionLives Lost256 BC 253 BCSinking of the Roman fleet in the First ...90,000+1274 1281Kamikaze – The Mongol fleet destroyed by ...100,000+1588Spanish Armada – On 8 August, Philip II ...15,000–20,0001589English Armada – Also known as the ...11,000–15,000- Overview
- SS Eastland
- The White Ship
- SS Kiangya
- SS Sultana
- RMS Lusitania
- MV Doña Paz
- MV Wilhelm Gustloff
Travel by sea has always carried an element of risk. Accidents, human error, harsh weather, and actions during wartime are among the things that could send a ship to the bottom. While some nautical disasters such as the sinking of the Titanic have captured the popular imagination, others—some of which involved a significantly greater loss of life—h...
One of the worst maritime disasters in U.S. history occurred on July 24, 1915, when the SS Eastland capsized on the Chicago River. Packed with Western Electric employees on their way to a company picnic, the Eastland sank within yards of shore. Of the estimated 2,500 people on board at the time, more than 800 were killed.
In the 21st century, crossing the English Channel is a matter of routine. A high-speed ferry can make the trip in 90 minutes, and a rail journey through the Channel Tunnel takes only a half hour or so. This was not the case in the early 12th century, when the crossing was a much more-hazardous affair. On November 25, 1120, some 300 people were drow...
In late 1948 communist forces had gained the initiative in the Chinese Civil War, and thousands fled the Nationalist stronghold of Shanghai before the advancing People’s Liberation Army. On December 4, 1948, the SS Kiangya was officially carrying 2,150 refugees—almost double its rated capacity—but several thousand more had crowded onto the steamer ...
On April 27, 1865, the deadliest maritime disaster in U.S. history occurred when the side-wheel steamship SS Sultana exploded on the Mississippi River just north of Memphis, Tennessee. The American Civil War had ended just weeks before, and repatriated Union prisoners of war, having endured hellish conditions in Confederate military prisons, were e...
Perhaps the highest-profile casualty of Germany’s policy of unrestricted submarine warfare during World War I, the RMS Lusitania was attacked by a German U-boat on May 7, 1915, and sank in just 18 minutes. The ship was regarded as a legitimate target by the Germans, as they believed that it was being used to transport war matériel (evidence has sin...
Maritime traffic has played a vital role in the growth and development of Southeast Asia, and ferries transport hundreds of millions of people throughout the region each year. Accidents have been far too common an occurrence, however; in the 21st century alone, international regulatory agencies documented some 17,000 fatalities as a result of ferry...
The MV Wilhelm Gustloff was the pride of the Nazi Kraft durch Freude (“Strength Through Joy”) program, which provided leisure activities for German workers and served as an important propaganda tool for the Third Reich. The ocean liner carried holidaymakers on cruises of the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean, and, with the outbreak of World War ...
- MV Doña Paz. Called the greatest peacetime maritime disaster in history, in 1987 the sinking of the MV Doña Paz led to 4,341 deaths with only 24 survivors.
- SS Kiangya. This Chinese steamship exploded upon striking a mine (probably left by the Japanese navy) on the Huangpu River in 1948. It was packed with refugees from the Chinese Civil War, so the exact death toll is not known, but some estimates put it near 4,000.
- SS Mont-Blanc. Responsible for the infamous Halifax Explosion of 1917, this French ammunition freighter exploded in Halifax Harbor, Nova Scotia, after colliding with another ship.
- MV Le Joola. This Senegalese government-owned ferry capsized off the coast of Gambia on September 26, 2002. The Capsizing occurred when the ship went too far away from the coast and right into a storm.
- Elizabeth Nix
- The Wilhelm Gustloff (1945): The deadliest shipwreck in history. On January 30, 1945, some 9,000 people perished aboard this German ocean liner after it was torpedoed by a Soviet submarine and sank in the frigid waters of the Baltic Sea.
- Mont Blanc (1917): A massive explosion devastates a city. On December 6, 1917, in Nova Scotia’s busy Halifax Harbor, the Mont Blanc, a French ship loaded with explosives and headed for Europe, where World War I raged, collided with the Imo, which was traveling to New York to pick up relief supplies for war-ravaged Belgium.
- The Sultana (1865): Catastrophe on the Mississippi River. On April 27, 1865, some 1,700 people—many of them Union soldiers recently freed from Confederate prison camps—perished after this side-wheel steamboat exploded, burned and sank in the Mississippi River.
- The Arctic (1854): Women and children last. The 284-foot-long, 2,856-ton Arctic, which made its maiden transatlantic voyage in 1850, was known for its speed and could cross the Atlantic in nine days.
Jun 6, 2024 · Some maritime disasters are caused by natural factors, while others are due to human carelessness. Others resulted from naval stand-offs, especially during the two World Wars. In this article, we will discuss the 10 Biggest Disasters at Sea.
A maritime disaster is an accident involving vessels at sea which causes significant damage, injury or loss of life. This list covers notable maritime disasters of the 21st century.
