Top 10 Deadliest naval disasters

For many people, the image of a maritime disaster calls to mind the sinking of the Titanic, which went down in April 1912 after striking an iceberg. Although the Titanic remains one of the worst naval disasters, it is still 2000 deaths short of being the deadliest. The following naval disasters only include non-war related sinking. The textual descriptions of each tragedy are excerpts from Wikipedia.

10. MS Al-Salam Boccaccio 98 – 2006 The MS al-Salam Boccaccio 98 was an Egyptian Ro/Ro passenger ferry, operated by El Salam Maritime Transport, that sank on 3 February 2006 in the Red Sea en route from Duba, Saudi Arabia, to Safaga in southern Egypt. The ship was carrying 1,312 passengers and 96 crew members, according to Mamdouh Ismail, head of al-Salaam Maritime Transport Company. The ship was also carrying about 220 vehicles. Only 388 people were rescued. Al Salam Boccaccio 98 - 1020 deaths

9. RMS Empress of Ireland – 1914 RMS Empress of Ireland was an ocean liner built in 1905 by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering at Govan on the Clyde in Scotland for Canadian Pacific Steamships. While steaming on the St. Lawrence River in fog, the Empress was struck amidships by the Norwegian coal freighter SS Storstad; and the fatally damaged vessel sank very quickly in the early morning of 29 May 1914. This accident claimed 1,073 lives, making it the deadliest maritime disaster in Canadian history. Empress of Ireland - 1,073 deaths

8. General Slocum – 1904 The PS General Slocum was a paddle steamer, built at Brooklyn, New York in 1891. On June 15, 1904, the General Slocum caught fire and burned to the waterline in New York’s East River. An estimated 1,021 of the 1,342 people on board were killed. The General Slocum disaster was the New York area’s worst disaster in terms of loss of life until the September 11, 2001 attacks. SS General Slocum - 1,021 to 1,342 deaths

7. Toya Maru – 1954 The Toya Maru was a Japanese train ferry constructed by the Japanese National Railways which sank during a typhoon in the Tsugaru Strait between the Japanese islands of Hokkaido and Honshu on September 26, 1954. It is said that 1153 people aboard were killed in the accident, however the exact number of fatalities remains unknown. Toya Maru - Estimated 1153 deaths

6. RMS Titanic – 1912 RMS Titanic was the largest passenger steamship in the world when she set off on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York City on 10 April 1912. Four days into the crossing, at 23:40 on 14 April 1912, she struck an iceberg and sank at 2:20 the following morning, resulting in the deaths of 1,517 people. RMS Titanic - 1,517 deaths

5. SS Sultana – 1865 The SS Sultana was a Mississippi River steamboat paddlewheeler destroyed in an explosion on April 27, 1865. This resulted in the greatest maritime disaster in United States history. An estimated 1,800 of the 2,400 passengers were killed when three of the ship’s four boilers exploded and the Sultana sank near Memphis. SS Sultana - Estimated 1,800 to 2,400 deaths

4. Tek Sing – 1822 The Tek Sing was a large three-masted Chinese ocean-going junk which sank on February 6, 1822. In an area of the South China Sea known as the Belvidere Shoals. The ship was manned by a crew of 200 and had approx. 1600 passengers. The great loss of life associated with the sinking has led to the Tek Sing being referred to in modern times as the “Titanic of the East”. Tek Sing - 1800 deaths

3. MV Le Joola – 2002 MV Le Joola was a Senegalese government-owned ferry that capsized off the coast of The Gambia on September 26, 2002. The disaster resulted in the deaths of at least 1,863 people. MV Le Joola - 1,863 deaths

2. SS Kiangya – 1948 SS Kiangya was a Chinese passenger steamship which blew up, probably after hitting a mine which destroyed her stern, in the mouth of the Huangpu River fifty miles north of Shanghai on 4 December 1948. The exact death toll is unknown. 2,150 passengers were listed on the manifest (her official capacity was 1,186), but she was almost certainly carrying many stowaways. It is thought that between 2,750 and 3,920 died, with 700 to 1,000 survivors being picked up by other vessels. SS Kiangya - Estimated 2,750 to 3,920

1. MV Doña Paz The MV Doña Paz was a Philippine-registered passenger ferry that sank after colliding with the MT Vector on December 20, 1987. With a death toll of at most 4,375 people, the collision resulted in the deadliest ferry disaster in history and is widely cited as the worst ever peace-time maritime disaster. It was traveling from the island Leyte to the capital of Philippines, Manila. Doña Paz - 4375 deaths

Russian submarine 2008

Russia's accident-prone navy has suffered another major blow as 20 sailors and technicians on a nuclear submarine died after inhaling poisonous gas, in the latest naval disaster since the sinking of the Kursk.

12:09AM GMT 10 Nov 2008

The accident highlight the Russian navy's dismal safety record.

April 12, 1970 - Soviet November class nuclear-powered attack submarine sinks with 88 crew members in the Atlantic Ocean off Spain.

Aug 10, 1985 - Explosion on Russian submarine at Chazma Bay sends the lid of the reactor flying hundreds of metres with no trace of the 10 people working in the reactor.

April 7, 1989 - Soviet Mike class attack submarine sinks off northern Norway with the loss of 42 lives after a fire.

Aug 12, 2000 - Russian submarine Kursk sinks to the bottom of the Barents Sea after two explosions on board, killing all 118 crew members.

naval disasters ....did you know?......

History's Little-Known Naval Disasters

Many of those who view "Titanic," the new blockbuster motion picture, may leave the movie theater believing that the April 15, 1912, sinking of the great British liner, with the loss of 1,523 men, women and children, was history's greatest maritime disaster.
Others may perhaps think of the British passenger liner Lusitania, which sank on May 7, 1915, after being hit by a German submarine torpedo, taking 1,198 lives.
But these disasters are dwarfed by the sinkings of the Wilhelm Gustloff, the General Steuben and the Goya, three German ships crowded with evacuated refugees and wounded soldiers that were struck by Soviet submarines during the final months of the Second World War.
As John Ries points out in his essay in the Fall 1992 Journal, "History's Greatest Naval Disasters," more lives were lost in the case of each of these vessels than in the sinkings of either the Lusitania or the Titanic.
The first of these German ships to go down was the Wilhelm Gustloff, a 25,000-ton converted luxury liner that had been serving as a hospital ship. When it left the Baltic harbor of Gydnia (Gotenhafen) on January 30, 1945, it was jammed with nearly 5,000 refugees, mostly women and children, and 1,600 military servicemen. At shortly after nine o'clock in the evening, it was struck by three torpedoes from Soviet submarine S-13. Convoy vessels were able to rescue only about 900 from the sub-freezing Baltic waters. At least 5,400 perished.
Eleven days later, shortly after midnight on February 10, the General Steuben sank with a loss of 3,500 lives, making this the third worst maritime disaster in history. The same Soviet submarine that had attacked the Gustloff, and in almost the same location, sank the Steuben with two torpedoes. Crammed with as many as 5,000 wounded soldiers and refugees, the converted passenger liner sank in just seven minutes.
The sinking of the Goya on April 16, 1945, just three weeks before the end of the war in Europe, is acknowledged as almost certainly the greatest maritime disaster, in terms of lives lost, of all time. The converted 5,230-ton transport ship had set out from Hela near Danzig (Gdansk) with its human cargo of some 7,000 refugees and wounded soldiers.
Just a few minutes before midnight, the Soviet submarine L-3 fired two torpedoes at the Goya, which found their marks amidship and stern. Almost immediately the ship broke in half, her masts crashing down upon the passengers crowding the decks. Before anyone could escape from the holds, the onrushing sea quickly drowned out the anguished screams of the refugees below. The vessel sank in just four minutes, resulting in the loss of nearly 7,000 lives. There were only 183 survivors.
Concluding his essay on this chapter of history, Ries wrote:

Although little known, the sinkings of the Wilhelm Gustloff and the Goya -- with a combined loss of more than 12,000 lives -- remain the greatest maritime catastrophes of all time. Moreover, the deliberate and unnecessary killing of thousands of innocent civilian refugees and helpless wounded men aboard the Gustloff, the Steuben and the Goya -- as well as many other smaller and lesser known vessels -- is unquestionably one of the great atrocities of the Second World War.

Lesser known but also worthy of note is the sinking of the German battleship Bismarck on May 27, 1941. Following intense attack in the Atlantic from British planes and four major British warships, it went under with the loss of some 2,200 men.
Even more tragic is the case of the Cap Arcona, a 27,650-ton converted German passenger ship packed with evacuated concentration camp inmates. On May 3, 1945, just a week before the end of the war, it was sunk by fire from a British fighter-bomber as it was moored in Lübeck harbor. Some 5,000 persons, nearly all of them inmates, lost their lives. Only about 500 could be rescued.
A similar fate befell the Thielbek, a German ship likewise packed with 2,800 inmates who were being evacuated from the Neuengamme concentration camp. Succumbing to intense fire from British war planes, it sank on May 3, 1945, with the loss of all on board.