Ever since people realized that wood floats history has been filled with an immeasurable number of shipwrecks. This is the list of 10 greatest maritime disasters in history.
1. MV Doña Paz
Called the greatest peace time maritime disaster in history, in 1987 the sinking of the MV Doña Paz led to 4,341 deaths with only 24 survivors.
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2. SS Kiangya
This Chinese steamship exploded upon striking a mine 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.
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3. 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. The blast killed over 2,000 people and injured 9,000 more.
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4. MV Le Joola
This Senegalese government-owned ferry capsized off the coast of Gambia on September 26, 2002 and led to a death toll of nearly 4,000.
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5. SS Sultana
The SS Sultana was a steamboat paddlewheeler that exploded on April 27, 1865 and has been called the greatest American maritime disaster in history with over 1,600 lives lost.
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6. Tek Sing
Referred to as the “Titanic of the East” this Chinese junk struck a reef near Indonesia and sank on 6 February 1822, leaving an estimated 1,600 dead.
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7. RMS Titanic
Possibly the most well known maritime accident in history, the RMS Titanic was supposedly unsinkable but after striking an iceberg en route to New York City it left 1,523 people dead.
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8. Scilly naval disaster of 1707
On an October night in 1707 a Royal Navy fleet made several fatal miscalculations as they attempted to sail through dangerous reefs west of the Isles of Scilly. Overall four ships sank leaving nearly 2,000 sailors dead.
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9. Tōya Maru
This Japanese passenger ferry that sank during Typhoon Marie in the Tsugaru Strait between the Japanese islands of Hokkaido and Honshu on 26 September 1954 lead to an estimated 1,500 deaths.
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10. RMS Empress of Ireland
On 29 May 1914, the Empress of Ireland sank after colliding with SS Storstad on the Saint Lawrence River claiming 1,012 lives.
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