Author Topic: Worst Ship Diasters  (Read 10220 times)

Offline michaeljordan

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Worst Ship Diasters
« on: February 13, 2014, 07:34:08 AM »
When you ask people about Worst Ship Disaster ,90% of people says its TITANIC.. Even i thought same some time back.. But shocked to see this

The sinking of

Offline Timsen

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Re: Worst Ship Diasters
« Reply #1 on: February 13, 2014, 08:48:07 AM »
So what's new about this? Anyone dealing seriously with maritime topics will know that the Titanic was far from being the worst desaster, it only became famous because of the various circumstances. For example take the "Do

Offline steffen B

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Re: Worst Ship Diasters
« Reply #2 on: February 13, 2014, 11:56:57 AM »
Here are some of the world's worst ship Disasters.


MV Wilhelm Gustloff , 1945 - German ship that sank after being hit by Soviet torpedoes . 9,000 were killed - greatest number of deaths in history.

Goya 1945 - The German transport ship was shot down by Soviet torpedoes and sank. 7-8,000 civilians and German soldiers died and only 183 were saved.

MV Do

Offline J de Naucl

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Worst Ship Diasters
« Reply #3 on: May 30, 2014, 12:48:42 AM »
WILHELM GUSTLOFF of course - there is Another figure on lost lives: 12 348 - and the large majority consisted of Children, mothers, old people and wounded Soldiers.  It sank in January when the Baltic Sea is around 0 degrees Cold full of ice floating around Before it freeze to a firm flat ice. Most people survived only some 5-10 minutes in that cold icy water.  The guilty criminals for this disaster were of course the fascist dictatorship in Berlin and Gauleiter Koch of K

Offline polsteam

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Re: Worst Ship Diasters
« Reply #4 on: May 30, 2014, 10:32:42 AM »
Wilhelm Gustloff  and  Goya
do not belong to "world's worst ship disasters"
because these have not been "disasters" at all...

disaster is something sudden, with very bad consequences (eg. large loss of life), but something which was caused by accident or a chain or a group of combined unfavorable (but not intended) actions / facts / happenings / circumstances

loss of Gustloff and Goya was NOT ACCIDENTAL, NOT NON-INTENDED

these losses were the result of war, of offensive actions (intentional attacks)


also war losses (unless it is really an accident, like friendly-fire) are NOT ACCIDENTS in general / by rule...

if a warship runs aground because of navigation error and during transit and not in direct connection with war action (not under pressure of ongoing fighting, hostile fire) than it migh be an accident (resulting with disaster perhaps)

but if a warship is hit and sunk in fight (during war operations) - then this is not and accident and not a disaster


disaster is a calamity BY ACCIDENT


Gustloff and Goya losses were not caused BY ACCIDENT


« Last Edit: May 30, 2014, 10:49:56 AM by polsteam »
despite using "polsteam" for my nick I have NO personal (professional) or business connections with the company of the same name

Offline polsteam

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Re: Worst Ship Diasters
« Reply #5 on: May 30, 2014, 10:48:26 AM »
[quote author=J de Naucl
despite using "polsteam" for my nick I have NO personal (professional) or business connections with the company of the same name

Offline steffen B

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Re: Worst Ship Diasters
« Reply #6 on: June 11, 2014, 12:09:47 PM »
Polsteam, in my opinion, is a loss of 7000-9000 human lives a disaster.
« Last Edit: June 11, 2014, 04:48:36 PM by steffen hornsh »

Offline Cavit Ege Tulca

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Re: Worst Ship Diasters
« Reply #7 on: June 11, 2014, 12:45:30 PM »
I found this sad 'ranking' in terms of lost lives: https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/t1.0-9/10373743_257866774399923_8785591991402478829_n.jpg

Though I don't know if the numbers are 100% correct or not.


Offline steffen B

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Re: Worst Ship Diasters
« Reply #8 on: June 11, 2014, 03:48:09 PM »
@ Polsteam, I have searched a bit about Wilhelm Gustloff, and I found out that it was sunk by a torpedo from a Russian submarine not a German:)

And thanks to you Cavit Ege Tul

Offline Richard Paton

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Re: Worst Ship Diasters
« Reply #9 on: June 11, 2014, 07:59:21 PM »
SS General von Steuben was torpedoed in the Baltic in February 1945 with the loss of some 3,500+ souls - i found out whilst identifying her on the Shetland Museum's images page, when she visited Lerwick in peacetime.

Here's some links with many ships still unidentified.

http://photos.shetland-museum.org.uk/index.php?a=wordsearch&s=item&key=Wczo1OiJsaW5lciI7&pg=60

http://photos.shetland-museum.org.uk/index.php?a=wordsearch&s=gallery&key=Wczo1OiJsaW5lciI7&pg=1

Richard

Offline Kyle Stubbs

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Re: Worst Ship Diasters
« Reply #10 on: June 11, 2014, 11:49:14 PM »
Unmentioned so far, but likely the worst single maritime disaster of the 19th Century was the loss of the Mississippi River sidewheel steamer SS Sultana on April 27th, 1865 near Memphis, Tennessee.

Lost due to a likely explosion of the boilers, of the 2,427 aboard, mostly prisoners of war returning north, the official US Government loss of life stands at approximately 1800. While the number of dead has never been accurately totaled, it is known that 791 were from the state of Ohio alone, with another 491 from Indiana and 194 from Kentucky. Occurring less than two weeks after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, the event has long been an overshadowed part of both American and maritime history.

More information here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Sultana
"Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often." -Mark Twain

Offline SteKrueBe

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Re: Worst Ship Diasters
« Reply #11 on: June 12, 2014, 09:25:13 AM »
Hi there!
By definition, disasters can also be triggered by war, terrorism or similar events. A general listing of the events with the greatest numbers of losses is in so far quite common. It is nevertheless useful to divide maritime disasters for more accurate classification in civilian disasters and war events.
Against this background, the 'Wilhelm Gustloff' with a loss of 9000-12000 souls is the worst event of a single ship at all - followed by the also war related sinkings of the 'Goya', the 'Junyo Maru', the 'Toyama Maru', the 'Armenija', the 'Ryusei Maru', the 'Tamatsu Maru' and the 'Cap Arcona '.
The worst civilian single event of one vessel is still the sinking of the 'Do
« Last Edit: June 12, 2014, 09:32:17 AM by SteKrueBe »

Offline SteKrueBe

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Re: Worst Ship Diasters
« Reply #12 on: June 12, 2014, 10:47:59 AM »
@Kyle: since the number of casualties of the 'Sultana' ranges from 1300 to 1900 one more 19th century maritime desaster with similar high losses should be mentioned - the Chinese junk 'Tek Sing'. She struck a reef in January 1822 on her way from Amoy towards Java. More then 1600 persons died.

Further info at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tek_Sing

Offline Jean Hemond

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Re: Worst Ship Diasters
« Reply #13 on: June 12, 2014, 05:59:31 PM »
 Most of those are the consequences of an act of war! War is a disaster all by itself but there is a human will to  kill thousands of people.

I want to put in evidence the 100th anniversary of one of the major "navigation" error disaster.  That of The Empress of Ireland  was not  under a very large publication for it happened slightly before the 1914 war declaration:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Empress_of_Ireland
 :'(

Offline SteKrueBe

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Re: Worst Ship Diasters
« Reply #14 on: June 13, 2014, 12:19:52 AM »
Hi Jean!
The assumption that the definition of a disaster excludes intentionally caused events such as acts of war, in my opinion is not true. Although there are different definitions and one could argue about which one applies - it seems to me the appropriate literature is decisive. For example, Charles Hocking's standard work 'Dictionary of Disasters at Sea During the Age of Steam' published by Lloyd's Register, lists both civilian and wartime shipping losses.
By the way - it seems to me that the reason for michaeljordans threads is mainly to link to various internet sites from a particular vendor, but maybe it's only a coincidence ;-)
« Last Edit: June 13, 2014, 10:06:38 AM by SteKrueBe »

 

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