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» Travel » TOP 4 NAVAL DISASTERSTOP 4 NAVAL DISASTERS
Images of the lopsided and partly-sunken Costa Concordia cruise ship, which claimed the lives of eleven people so far, left people stunned, recalling the epic film Titanic which told the story of the 1912 tragedy. But several naval disasters have occurred in between; ships drowning without a trace, claiming the lives of thousands. Sundaycircle.com takes a look at the top four naval disasters.
RMS Titanic
RMS Titanic, image taken from www.guardian.co.uk
The luxury RMS Titanic was known for its decadence and modern technology, but resulted in a human tragedy so early in its life of service. At the time of its launch, it was the largest passenger steamship in the world.
It became a legend before even setting sail, attracting a mix of some of the world’s wealthiest people. The Titanic was hailed as ‘unsinkable’ and the safest ship ever built – so safe that the number of lifeboats on board were only able to carry half of the ship’s 2,200 passengers and crew to safety.
It started out on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City in April 1912. Just four days into the trip, before midnight of April 15th, the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank within three hours. The sound of the impact was said to be minimal, but the collision was fatal and water quickly began seeping into the ship.
Although passengers were each given a life jacket, it became obvious that life expectancy would be short when exposed to sub zero water temperatures; the death toll exceeded 1,500. The following morning the liner Carpathia rescued around 700 survivors. The last survivor of the Titanic was Briton Millvina Dean, who was only 9 weeks old when on board the ship. She died in 2009.
The tragedy was immortalised years later in the Oscar-winning film Titanic.
MV Dona Paz
MV Dona Paz, image taken from http://listverse.com
One of the world’s worst ferry disasters involved the Philippine passenger ferry, MV Dona Paz, which left Leyte Island for Manila on December 20, 1987. The ship’s carrying capacity was reported to be around 1,400, but the death toll that night exceeded 4,300 as most of the passengers on board were unregistered.
The ferry collided with an oil tanker carrying thousands of barrels of gasoline. The crash was followed by an explosion, and as surrounding sea was slicked with flammable products, wild fire spread in no time, blazing in every direction and engulfing the ferry and surrounding water.
The Dona Paz sank in about 2 hours and it took hours for the authorities to acknowledge the collision and organize a rescue mission. It is believed that only twenty-six survived the tragedy. The actual number of passengers that perished was never really known, because thousands had boarded without a ticket or record.
Of the 21 bodies recovered after the sinking, only one was registered.
MS Estonia
MS Estonia, image taken from www.titanicnorden.com
The MS Estonia was a cruise ferry built in 1979 and enjoyed its status as the largest Estonian owned ship at the time of its sinking.
On September 28, 1994, the ship left Tallinn, Estonia for Stockholm, crossing the Baltic Sea, with 989 passengers and crew on board.
While the MS Estonia was sailing along the outskirts of the Turku archipelago, a grinding metal sound was heard. A crew member who survived the accident said he had seen a loading bay door open and take in lots of water. The door broke off causing the ship to sink within minutes.
The vessel began sinking so rapidly it made it impossible to move safely inside the ship; hallways and closed rooms became deadly traps. The few that were to survive were well on-deck by the time it began sinking, although freezing temperatures of the Baltic sea guaranteed a high death toll.
Subsequent reports claimed the accident had been a combination of incompetent crew and design faults in the ferry’s ‘visor-type’ front doors. Only 137 survived.
MV Le Joola
MV Le Joola, image taken from www.hoffstrizz.com
Built in 1990, the Senegalese ferry MV Le Joola set out on one of its frequent trips between southern Senegal and the capital Dakar in September 2002.
The ship’s passenger capacity was approximately 580; around 2,000 are believed to have been on board.
The ship sailed into a rough storm off the coast of Gambia. As a result of rough seas and strong winds, the ferry capsized, throwing most of its passengers into the sea. Those who survived the initial disaster are likely to have drowned while waiting for official rescue crews, which arrived the following day. Only one lifeboat was deployed, carrying around 25 people to safety.
An estimated 1,863 people perished that night and only a few dozen survived, only one of which was a woman.
Local fishermen tried to rescue as many people as possible, but some were trapped inside for hours, and drowned when the MV Le Joola finally sank.
Posted by SundayCircle on January 18, 2012. Filed under Travel.
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