Top 10 Biggest Historical Ship Sinks in History

Ship wrecks are the biggest man made disaster that has taken thousands of life. These ship wrecks are either caused due to the sinking of the ship or due to ship breached. Here we have the list of the top 10 ships that sank in water.

10. SS Eastland

SS Eastland was a ship that took passengers on tours. It was a ship that was built in Chicago. This ship was constructed in the year 1902 by Jenks Ship Building Company. After the ship was built many problems were encountered in it. Ths ship was top heavy. On 24 July 1915 the ship was taken on lease to carry the workers to Michigan City in Indiana. After the RMS disaster an act was passed called Seaman Act. According to this act the ship has to carry sufficient lifeboats to accommodate all its passengers. Due to this load Eastland became more top heavy and dangerous. On the doomsday around 2572 workers a boarded the ship. The ship was filled to its full capacity and hence it drowned in just 20 feet of water. As the ship rolled on one side people got crushed beneath the heavy weight of furniture and many drowned. More than 845 people lost their lives.

9. MS Estonia

MS Estonia was a cruise ferry which was constructed in the year 1979. After sixteen year of use the ship drowned in the Baltic Sea. On 27 September 1994 the ship took on a journey to Stockholm in Sweden. It was revealed that the front opening of the ship, visor got damaged due to the heavy waves and a hinge was not working properly. The visor got completely open and water came inside the ship flooding the ship. As the power in the ship failed crew members were unable to call for help. After some time the ship sank 275 feet in the water. This disaster was one among the biggest disaster and 852people died in it.

8. RMS Empress of Ireland

The Empress of Ireland was an ocean linear that was launched on 27 January, in the year 1906. It was constructed by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering.  It collided with a Norwegian Collier on 29 may 1914.the linear got totally damaged due to this collision and submerged in the Saint Lawrence River. There were 1477 people on the linear out of which 1012 people lost their lives.  Surprisingly, among the people who survived there was a fireman who also survived the Titanic sinking.

7. The General Slocum Paddle Steamer

General Slocum Paddle Steamer was built in Brooklyn in the year 1819. PS General Slocum was a steam boat that was also used as a passenger ship. On June 1905 the ship submerged in East New York River as it caught fire. The ship has 1300 passengers loaded in it. The ship was poorly maintained. The fire hoses were rotten and the lifeboats were not accessible. The fire started first in the Lamp room and it soon stretched over the whole ship. When crew members tried to put out the fire using fire hoses they fell apart. In this dangerous mishap around 1021 people lost their lives.

6. RMS Titanic

RMS titanic was a four funneled liner that was constructed to carry passengers to New York from Southampton. It was launched in the year 1912 and was the biggest Ocean liner of that time. This ship wreck is the most popular ship wreck in the history. On 10^th April 1912 the ship sailed with 2200 people on it. After 4 days i.e. on 14^th April the ship stuck an iceberg and sank in the Atlantic Ocean. The ship had the shortage of lifeboats and hence not many people were saved. Around 1500 people died that day on this ship.

5. MV Doña Paz

 

Mv Dona Paz was a passenger ferry that collided with MT Vector (oil tanker) on 20 December in the year 1987. The ship sailed from Tacloban City to Manila. The tanker with which the ship collided was containing thousand barrels of oil. After the collision the tanker caught fire which spread on the ferry. Around 4375 people died in this ship wreck and only 26 people survived this disaster. Among these 26 people 24 people were the passenger and 2 were crew members of MT Vector. No crew member of Dona Paz survived this mishap.

4. SS Sultana

On 27 April 1865 this Mississippian streamer carrying around 2400 people exploded and it submerged near Memphis, Tennessee. This ship was launched in the year 1863 for promoting the cotton trade in the lower Mississippi. The main reason of this disaster was leaky and ill- repaired boilers. Out of the ship’s four boilers three of them exploded and it took away life of around 1600 people. Many of the people who died were Union Soldiers who were returning home who either died due to hypothermia or due to drowning in the river.

3. Halifax Harbor Explosion

The loss of Halifax Harbor, on 6th December 1917 resulted due to massive explosion of the French cargo ship SS Mont Blanc. The explosion was caused when SS Mont Blanc, which was carrying war ammunition, struck with SS Imo, a Norwegian Ship. this explosion not only killed people onboard but also destroyed Nova Scotia, a city of Halifax. The fire illuminated high in the sky and spread inside the city. More than 2,000 people died and around 9,000 people were injured due to the debris and fires. Many of the people who were killed in this explosion were Canadians. All the houses and building structures collapsed and got destroyed in the range of 55 acres along the shore were the explosion took place. Fire was not the only cause that took so many lives, but the explosion gave rise to tsunami and pressure waves that further caused destruction.

2. SS Kiangya

SS Kiangya was a Chinese Steamship which was carrying refugees of Chinese Civil War. The estimated numbers of people on board were around 5000 while the capacity of the ship was just 1,186. This explosion resulted from the collision of the Chinese Steamship with a Japanese Naval mine left behind since World War II. After the explosion the ship submerged in Huangpu River near Shanghai. The exact estimation of died people is still not known but it is said that around 3,920 people were killed in that explosion.

1. MV Wilhelm Gustloff

MV Wilhelm Gustloff was a German Cruise Liner launched on 5 May 1937. This disaster is not known to many people as it took place in the war time. The ship sank in the water after getting hit by a torpedo launched by Soviet S-13 submarine. The ship was chartered to evacuate troops and German civilians from the Red Army. The ship was struck by 3 Russian torpedoes and it submerged in just 45 minutes in the water. Many people died due to the torpedoes and many died as they were not able to survive the cold water. The estimated death toll is 9,000 which make this disaster the biggest maritime disaster in the human history.

Tags: 27 january, 27 september, baltic sea, colli, crew members, doomsday, eastland, empress of ireland, heavy weight, jenks, lifeboats, man made disaster, michigan city, rms empress, seaman, ship building, ship wrecks, shipbuilding, top heavy, visor