Maritime History

3 Passenger Ships Disasters that Shook the Maritime World

The ocean is an unconquerable domain. Even as man has made it possible to traverse through its boundaries, the ocean has not come under the submission of mankind. Throughout centuries, there have occurred several maritime accidents which make one realise the strength and the might of the ocean along with our vulnerability at its height.

The tragedy of Costa Concordia cruise ship in the start of 2012 reinforced the fact that a single maritime accident can shake the whole marine industry from its roots. It is because of such incidents that several hidden loop holes and drawbacks of the industry come to the surface.

There are three such passenger ships accidents in the history of shipping that shook the maritime world because of the massive loss caused both to human lives and to marine environment. Mentioned below are the three maritime disasters that have gone down the pages of history.

MV Dona Paz

The disaster of Dona Paz is supposed to be known as the deadliest one in maritime history.

The Dona Paz tragedy occurred in the Filipino waters in the year 1987. The tragedy was a result of a colliding accident between the Dona Paz and an oil tanker MT Vector. Since the latter was carrying gasoline, the impact of the collision caused both the ships to explode with the gasoline acting as an additional catalyst. The tragedy caused deaths of over 4,300 people.

Only twenty six survived the deadly accident.

MS Le Joola

The capsizing of MS Le Joola is considered second deadliest maritime accident of the maritime world. A total of 1,863 people lost their lives.

Most of the ships that have met with accidents encountered harsh weather conditions. The Joola was no different. In the year 2002, the MS Joola turned turtle near the coastal waters of the African nation Senegal. Apart from the weather, another cause for the huge loss of life is said to be because of the vessel’s over-packed capacitance. The vessel which was build to accommodate 500 voyagers carried four times that number at the time of its capsizing.

Titanic

Titanic is the most well-known maritime accident recorded in history books.

Supposed to be an unsinkable sink and also the largest passenger steamship of that time, the Titanic sank during her first voyage in the Atlantic Ocean on the 14^th April 1912 after crashing against an ice berg. The sinking resulted in the death of 1,517 people. The incident shook the maritime world to the core, and is still remembered for its high loss of lives and changes it brought to the maritime world.

These are just three of the hundreds of worst maritime accidents that are remembered by the maritime industry. However, the intensity of loss these three generated left the world in great shock.

Do you know of any other maritime incident that has left a great impact on the maritime world?

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