Shipwrecks Worse Than The Titanic

On the evening of 14th April 1912, the Titanic, a colossal cruise liner measuring 882 feet long, glided across the Atlantic Ocean. It was a freezing cold night, and though the crew were aware of icebergs in the area, they didn’t reduce the ship’s speed. Instead, they chose to race on at a pace of 22 knots, until, at 11:40 pm, an almighty crack was heard on the Titanic’s starboard side.

The super ship had been stopped in its tracks by a colossal iceberg. The enormous chunk of ice carved a 300-foot gash into the vast vessel, leading water to pour in at a rate of 7.1 tons per second! Despite that, the 2,240 on-board weren’t concerned. After all, the Titanic had been declared unsinkable! The ship could reportedly stay afloat if as many as 4 compartments were breached. However, on this occasion 6 compartments were ruptured.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the Titanic only had 20 lifeboats, accommodating 1,178 people, barely half the ship’s capacity. That’s despite the Titanic’s original design housing 64 lifeboats, enough to hold all the passengers on-board. However, the ship’s owners cut the number down, as they felt too many lifeboats would clutter the deck and obscure the First Class passengers’ view.

If that wasn’t negligent enough, the 20 lifeboats they did have, weren’t even filled properly! Officers didn’t know how many people could safely be carried in the lifeboats, so they erred on the side of caution, costing at least 500 more lives. Those that weren’t taken down with the ship, were claimed by the icy cold water. The sudden immersion into the freezing Atlantic was the end for many, passing from cardiac arrest or hypothermia within 15 minutes.

Horrifically, just 712, or a mere 32% of those on-board, survived the "unsinkable" ship’s sinking. And yet, disastrous as the Titanic’s demise was, there are some lesser-known shipwrecks from history that are far, far more tragic. Let's dive down to discover some shipwrecks that were even worse than the Titanic.

SS Kiangya

In late 1948, a fierce Civil War was raging in China, with Communist forces beginning to seize power in large parts of the country. In response, thousands fled the Nationalist stronghold of Shanghai before Communist forces arrived. Their savior? The SS Kiangya.

On December 4th 1948, she set off, officially carrying 2,150 refugees, nearly double her capacity. In reality, several thousand more had crowded onto the steamer before it left the dock. Initially, things were going as smoothly as they could on the jam-packed vessel.

However, 50 miles south of Shanghai in the mouth of the Huangpu River, disaster struck, literally! The steamship was suddenly rocked by a large explosion towards the stern, suspected to be a Japanese naval mine left from World War 2. Due to the shallowness of the river, the ship didn’t sink entirely. The hull settled upright on the riverbed, with what was left of the upper deck remaining above water.

Unfortunately, anyone that survived the blast quickly met their end, as water flooded through the rest of the ship. Crucially, the radio room, which was also on the lower decks, became flooded too, putting it out of action before a distress call could be made. 3 hours later, distress flares that survivors sent up were spotted. Numerous small boats came to the rescue. But by this point, there were sadly very few survivors.

Whether taken by the blast, the ship’s sinking, or the effects of hypothermia, the Kiangya shipwreck is estimated to have lost close to 3 times as many passengers as the Titanic. In all, as many as 3,920 sadly perished, making the Kiangya China’s worst maritime disaster.

MV Doña Paz

In December 1987, passengers in the Philippines were clambering onto the ferry MV Doña Paz, excited to head home for the holidays. The 305-foot-long ferry was authorized to carry 1,518 passengers, yet bribed officials let about 4,400 people onto the seriously overcrowded vessel.

At 6:30am on December 20th, Doña Paz left the island of Leyte, expecting to arrive at Manila at 4:00am the next day. Regardless of the claustrophobic conditions, the journey was smooth. And, as night fell, most of the passengers slept. They’d soon be woken, though.

Around 10:30pm, the Doña Paz collided with another ship, the MT Vector. Despite clear visibility and calm seas, neither ship gave any indication it was aware of the other. It was later revealed, the Doña Paz’s captain was watching a movie, while officers were drinking beer in the crew’s recreation quarters.

To top it off, neither ship had a working radio! That’d be a big mistake, considering the MT Vector wasn’t any old ship, but a 170-foot-long oil tanker carrying over 1,000 tons of gasoline products. As the ships collided, the MT Vector’s cargo ignited, causing an explosion and a fire that rapidly spread to the Doña Paz.

Many were taken by the initial explosion, but the chances for those who’d survived the blast weren’t good either. The oil-slicken waters were ablaze with fire from the explosion. Even worse, life jackets on the Doña Paz had been locked away. Anyone left alive had to risk plunging into the flaming waters, with nothing to keep them afloat.

Around an hour after the collision, a passing ship spotted the flaming vessels, and helped 26 survivors to safety. That’s right! Just 26 survived out of the original 4,400 or so on-board. In all, this shocking shipwreck claimed some 2,800 more fatalities than the Titanic, in what is now known as the world’s worst peacetime maritime disaster!

MV Wilhelm Gustloff

As World War Two drew to a close, and Soviet forces drove westwards, Germany devised Operation Hannibal. It was a naval evacuation plan, transporting German troops and civilians from eastern Europe back to Germany. By January 1945, hundreds of thousands of German refugees streamed into the port of modern-day Gdynia in Poland, hoping to secure a place on the Wilhelm Gustloff; a giant 684-foot-long military transport ship.

On January 30th, the ship set sail for Kiel in northern Germany. She had a 1,465-person capacity, but on this day she was carrying 10,000?! Sources all estimate some 10,000 passengers were onboard, putting her more than 6 ½ times over capacity.

Unbeknownst to all those on-board though, a S-13 Soviet submarine was stalking the ship underwater. At 9pm that night, the submarine fired three torpedoes, striking the Wilhelm Gustloff on the stern, bow, and center. Those who survived the initial impacts rushed to the deck to avoid the rising water, but most of the lifeboats were frozen to the side of the ship.

If that wasn’t hellish enough, the Wilhelm Gustloff soon began to list, sinking towards the port side, making the lifeboats on the starboard side inaccessible. In the end, just 9 lifeboats could be lowered, before the ship sunk, leading the vast majority of survivors to jump into the icy Baltic Sea. Sadly, they wouldn’t be survivors for long.

The water temperatures dropped below 39°F, meaning they’d lose consciousness in mere minutes. Anyone lucky enough to land a lifeboat was picked up by rescue vessels. But there were so few. By the time rescue attempts were called off, there were only around 1,200 survivors. Tragically, the Wilhelm Gustloff had close to 6 times the amount of casualties as the Titanic, with some 9,000 passengers meeting their end in the Baltic Sea. That’s one sizeable shipwreck!

MV Le Joola

In September 2002, Le Joola, a modest 260-foot-long ferry, set off from the port of Ziguinchor in southern Senegal, West Africa, to the capital Dakar in the north. Usually, Le Joola would make the 300-mile trip twice a week.

However, by 2002, the ship had been out of service for almost a year, undergoing repairs on its portside engine. By the end of 2002, Le Joola returned to service, but she was only capable of making one trip per week, so the new port engine could be run-in properly.

But this single weekly trip led to a huge demand for tickets. When Le Joola set sail again on 26th September, she was carrying 1,863 passengers, more than triple her 580-person capacity. The vessel was so overcrowded, people reported her listing as she left the port.

Despite all that, there was a good atmosphere on-board. That was until 11pm, when Le Joola sailed into a storm halfway into her journey. Normally, she would’ve withstood the weather, but the ship was hopelessly top-heavy, with many passengers sleeping on the upper deck. Just 5 minutes after sailing into the storm, Le Joola rolled over, with the bottom of the boat poking above the water’s surface.

Many survived the initial capsizing but were horrifyingly trapped in tiny air pockets in the upturned ship. To their despair help wasn’t on the way. The crew were caught off guard by how quickly the ship tipped, so no rescue message was sent. It wasn’t until one of the survivors released flares into the sky, that small fishing boats came to help.

While these pulled some survivors from the water, government rescue teams didn’t arrive at the scene until the following morning. Even when they arrived there was nothing they could do to rescue those stuck under the upturned ship. 16 hours after Le Joola capsized, she sank completely. Regrettably, just 64 out of Le Joola’s 1,863 passengers lived to tell the tale of Africa’s deadliest shipwreck.

SS Eastland

In the years after the Titanic disaster, stricter laws were put in place to ensure greater protection for those traveling at sea. The federal Seamen’s Act, for example, was passed in 1915 and required passenger vessels to hold more lifeboats. One such vessel was the SS Eastland, a 265-foot passenger ship known as the "Speed Queen of the Great Lakes". But what she had in speed and style, she lacked in practicality, being top-heavy and unstable.

Ironically, the federal Seamen’s Act only worsened the Eastland’s stability. Despite being designed to carry 6 lifeboats, she now held 11, as well as 37 life rafts and around 2,500 lifejackets, most of which were stowed on the ship’s upper deck. Experts warned that adding extra-weight to an already wobbly vessel would cause it to capsize. And, predictably, their fears came true on the fateful morning of 24th July 1915.

The Eastland was tied to a dock on the Chicago River, filling up with employees of an electron tube company, on their way to a work picnic. At 6:41 am, while the vessel was still tied to the dock, it began listing to the starboard side. Panicked, the crew let water into the ship’s ballast tanks to try and balance her out. Although righted, the Eastland soon began listing to the port side, eventually tipping down 25 degrees. Just minutes later, the vessel had completely rolled onto its side.

Those on the upper decks were able to clamber over the starboard railing and walk across the hull to safety, while others were flung into the water. Those below deck were less fortunate. Some were injured by heavy furniture which slid across the tilted decks, others failed to escape the ship as water gushed in.

Of the 2,500 on-board, 844 passengers and crew sadly perished, with most meeting their end just feet away from the shoreline, making the Eastland one of the cruelest shipwrecks in history. Who knew lifeboats could be so deadly?

White Ship Disaster

800 years before the Eastland shipwreck, the White Ship, a vessel resembling a Viking longship was setting sail across the English Channel, transporting English nobles from France to England. Thomas FitzStephen, the ship’s captain, offered his vessel to the King of England, Henry I, but he’d already made other arrangements. Instead, the King allowed his entourage, including his heir, William Adelin, to board the White Ship.

While crossing the choppy Channel waters, excited revelers on-board ordered FitzStephen to overtake the King’s ship. In fairness, the White Ship was fast, and considered the best in its class, making the captain and crew extremely confident they’d reach England first. But that confidence didn’t last long.

While zipping across the Channel in the dark of night, the White Ship’s port side struck a submerged rock off the coast of Barfleur in Normandy, capsizing the vessel. All but one of its 300-odd crew sunk down into the depths of the Channel with it. Among those was William Adelin. Yes, the heir to the English throne!

Not only was Adelin’s passing a personal tragedy for the King, it also unleashed chaos in his kingdom. When Henry passed away 15 years later, the lack of a rightful heir led to a civil war, as claimants tried to bully their way to power. Chroniclers of the time reveal that, in addition to those lost in battle, thousands starved as a result of the unrest. And to think, all that could’ve been avoided if some nobles didn’t think they were playing Need for Speed!

SS Central America

In the mid-19th century, the U.S was gripped by gold fever. Most notably, the Californian Gold Rush, brought with it hopeful miners to the west coast looking to pick up some precious metal. When it came to moving the shiny stuff, the transport of choice tended to be steamships, like the 278-foot-long vessel SS Central America.

On September 3rd 1857, the sizeable ship, laden with over 9 tons of gold, left the port of Colon, Panama, heading for New York in what’d be her 44th round trip in 4 years. 6 days later, while sailing off the coast of the Carolinas, the steamship was caught up in a hurricane. The wild 105 mph winds and wicked waves tore her sails, and before long she started taking on water.

By the 11th of September, the ship’s boiler failed. Now without power, the Central America was stationary and at the mercy of the storm. In a last-ditch attempt, the ship’s captain, William Herndon, raised the vessel’s U.S flag upside down as a signal of distress, but still no ships came. Luckily, two ships were eventually spotted and 153 of those on-board escaped to them on lifeboats.

Astonishingly, most of the men agreed to stay on-board the Central America, making every effort to keep the ship and her precious cargo afloat until rescue. But sadly, rescue never came, and at around 8pm on 12th September the SS Central America sank, taking a heart-stopping 425 souls with her.

Yet, the loss of life wasn’t the only anguish felt after the wreck. The estimated value of the gold on-board was equivalent to $300 million today! So great was the financial loss, news of the sinking caused hysteria among investors, leading to the Panic of 1857, the first worldwide economic crisis! The SS Central America shipwreck certainly had a seismic impact.

SS Sultana

8 years after the SS Central America shipwreck, the U.S was victim to even more maritime misery. After the end of the American Civil War in April 1865, released Union prisoners of war were delighted to discover they could finally return home. Men imprisoned in Vicksburg, Mississippi, gleefully boarded the Sultana, a 260-foot-long wooden steamship designed to fit 375 passengers.

However, the U.S government were paying $2.75, which is around $51, adjusted for inflation, for the transportation of each soldier. This led the ship’s captain, J. Cass Mason, to greedily see some 2,400 people on board, more than 6 times the ship’s capacity.

But the cramped conditions weren’t the Sultana’s only problem. When it was docked at Vicksburg, Mason knew the old steamship had a faulty boiler. Yet, to fulfill the lucrative government contract, he decided to patch the leaky boiler, rather than complete more extensive and time-consuming repairs. A patchy boiler and overcrowded ship don’t sound like the safest combo, do they?

In the early hours of April 27th, 3 days after she left Vicksburg, the Sultana suddenly exploded. Many suspected the ship had been sabotaged by Confederate soldiers. Turns out, the faulty boiler had come back to haunt Mason. The severe overcrowding put increased pressure on the newly-patched boiler, causing it to explode, blowing apart the center of the steamship.

Even worse, its wooden design caused an uncontrollable fire to rip through the vessel. Many were taken instantly in the explosion, while more were trapped when the overloaded decks collapsed. Others awoke to find themselves flying through the air, before crashing down onto the cold Mississippi River.

Anyone fortunate enough to survive did so by floating on pieces of boat until they made it to shore, or were rescued. Sadly though, they were in the minority. Of the approximately 2,300 onboard, only some 700 survived. That means for every 100 passengers on-board, only 30 lived to tell the tale, and Captain Mason wasn’t among them.

Costa Concordia

Speaking of incompetent captains, that brings us onto Francesco Schettino. Back in January 2012, he was in charge of sailing the Costa Concordia, a gigantic 952-foot-long cruise ship, along the Mediterranean Sea. She was carrying 4,229 eager passengers. But their excitement soon turned to dread.

Schettino insisted the ship sail close to shore, so he could perform a sail-by salute to those on land. All while the Costa Concordia was sailing along a poorly lit area of shore at nighttime, travelling at a high speed of 15.5 knots! If that didn’t sound irresponsible enough, it was later revealed Schettino probably performed the stunt to impress a woman he’d been having an affair with, who was on deck!

Surprise surprise, the ship struck an underwater rock off the island, tearing a 174 foot-gash in its port side below the water line. As the Costa Concordia began taking on water it listed on its starboard side. It wasn’t the first large cruiser to list on its side, but rarely have they toppled over due to such incompetence.

You’d think at that point, Schettino would try and make amends. But no. He didn’t immediately alert the Italian Search and Rescue Authority about the accident, and instead tried to downplay it. In the end, it took more than an hour after the impact for the crew to begin evacuating the ship.

By this point the Costa Concordia was already listing. Yet, Schettino was nowhere to be seen! Somehow he’d made it onto a lifeboat before everyone else made it off the ship. He argued that he somehow fell into the lifeboat due to the ship’s listing.

After 6 grueling hours, the evacuation of the Costa Concordia was complete. Yet, by this point the cruise ship was half-sunk! Shamefully, not everyone had made it back to land. 32 people lost their lives in the Costa Concordia shipwreck.

The avoidable atrocity led to a deserved 16-year prison sentence for Schettino. While the cruise line paid out $91 million in compensation to passengers and crew. For reference that’s close to 5 times the amount that White Star Line paid out for the Titanic sinking!

SS Princess Alice

Back in September 1878, passengers aboard the Princess Alice paddle steamer was travelling back up the Thames river after a day out at Sheerness on the Kent coast. The trip was all going to plan until a cargo ship, the SS Bywell Castle, was spotted coming downriver.

At first, no-one took much notice, but as the two vessels got closer, panic ensued. The 890-ton Bywell Castle dwarfed the Princess Alice, and neither had the maneuvering capacity to avoid the other in time. Despite the efforts of the ship’s captain, William Grinstead, to turn the ship, Bywell Castle hit Princess Alice’s center, ripping the vessel in two and sinking her within minutes.

Although the river was only 1/3 of a mile wide, many of the passengers couldn’t swim. To make matters worse, long, heavy dresses worn by women made it almost impossible for them to stay afloat. But what made this shipwreck so harrowing, was the river water the victims plunged into because the collision happened right next to London’s sewage pumping stations.

Twice a day, 90 million gallons of raw sewage were pumped out into this section of the Thames. As it happened, the latest release occurred just an hour before the shipwreck. The water bubbled with raw detritus, leaving an unbearable stench.

Just 130 out of the 700 or so on-board survived the horrific ordeal. Yet that number of survivors plummeted further, as several of those who initially survived passed away days later due to complications from swallowing the putrid water.

The Essex Whaleship

58 years before the Princess Alice’s dirty demise, a whaling ship known as the Essex was sailing along in the southern Pacific Ocean. The crew were after sperm whales, valued for their blubber and waxy oil.

On November 20th 1820, George Pollard, captain of the ship, joined the whaling crew on whaleboats as they hunted down a pod. Meanwhile, the rest of the crew remained on the Essex, carrying out repairs. In the distance, they spied a huge sperm whale, around 85 feet long, just under the water’s surface, facing directly towards the ship.

Suddenly, the massive mammal headed straight for the Essex, smashing into the ship head-on. The crew barely had time to get to their feet, when they spotted the whale again, this time swimming towards them at an even greater speed! The wicked whale attacked again, crushing into the ship’s bow, before disappearing for good. But the damage was done.

Water rushed into the ship so fast the crew only had time to lower the remaining whaleboats and fill them with navigational instruments, bread, and water, before the Essex sank into the deep blue. All 20 members of the crew were alive. The problem was, they were in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, hundreds of miles from land, with only whaleboats to get them to shore.

Pollard wanted to set off to the Marquesas Islands, the nearest land they could see on their map. But the others were convinced the islands were inhabited by cannibals. Instead, they sailed south in the hopes of being spotted by another whaling ship. Months passed with no sign of hospitable land or ships. By this point those who were still alive had finished their supplies, so they turned to the only food source they had their shipmates!

After around 3 months at sea, surviving on a diet of saltwater, bread and well, each other, two of the whaleboats were spotted by passing ships. In all, just 8 of the 20-man crew survived the months at sea, an experience that’d haunt them forever. While it may not have been the deadliest shipwreck of all time, the Essex certainly goes down as one of the grisliest! Safe to say those sailors didn’t have a whale of a time!

USS Indianapolis

In July 1945, towards the end of World War Two, the USS Indianapolis, a heavy cruiser, set sail on a journey to Leyte Gulf in the very same Pacific waters the Essex sunk in.

The 610-foot-long vessel had completed half of her voyage, carrying 1,195 sailors and marines, when suddenly a blast ripped through the vessel. A Japanese submarine fired two torpedoes into the starboard side of the Indianapolis under her fuel tanks, sparking an explosion that split the ship in two. She sank in 12 minutes, with 300 men trapped inside her. Yet they were the lucky ones.

With few lifeboats or lifejackets available, most of the initial 900 survivors were set adrift in the middle of the Pacific. Some of the initial survivors were engulfed in oil from the ship’s ruptured engines. Others succumbed to the scorching sun in the day, or froze in the unbearably cold waters at night.

If that wasn’t nightmarish enough, this all attracted hundreds of oceanic whitetip and tiger sharks, who feasted on the fallen soldiers. Horrifyingly, with each attack they grew bolder, until they began pulling down any remaining survivors!

At this point, it was days since the USS Indianapolis sunk. You’d think that some sort of help would be on the way. Especially considering multiple distress signals were sent before the ship went down. But, tragically, the three stations that received them failed to act. One commander was drunk, another demanded not to be disturbed during a game of cards, and the third dismissed the message as a Japanese ruse.

It took until four days after the ship’s sinking that salvation finally came, when a U.S naval aircraft spotted the exhausted men. By the time rescue vessels reached the middle of the Pacific, there were just 316 survivors out left of the 1,195 originally on-board. A torpedoed ship, scalding sun, hypothermia, and sharks. That’s certainly enough to justify the USS Indianapolis as one of the worst shipwrecks ever.

I hope you were amazed at the stories of shipwrecks that were even deadlier than the Titanic. Thanks for reading!