as we've talked about many times over on this channel humans are capable of some amazing
feats of engineering building everything from massive structures like dams to powerful rockets
that can take massive payloads into space it is awe-inspiring to sit down and think about what we
are truly capable of but there is always one flaw that exists with each marvel that we build and
that is the humans imperfect and prone to mistakes that build or operate it although planners may
plan and captains may train for years upon years everything can come to a disastrous end in a split
second the sea can be especially treacherous and challenging as there are a multitude of factors
that have to be taken into account that don't exist on land and one lapse in judgment or one
miscalculation can result in millions of dollars lost even worse it can result in the loss of human
life from container ships to cruise ships here are five expensive mistakes that were made at sea
the mv wilhelm gustloff was a german armed military transport ship that operated during
world war ii originally it was constructed as a cruise ship for the nazi organization kraft
deutsche freude but in 1939 she was requisitioned by the german navy to be used as a hospital ship
after the german advance on the soviet union failed many of their troops and
refugees needed to be evacuated from east prussia lithuania latvia poland and estonia
on a very cold january night in 1945 while sailing through the baltic sea the ship was spotted by
soviet submarine s-13 captain alexander marinesco launched torpedoes at the ship
slamming three into the side of the gustloff and sinking her in less than 40 minutes
although 1252 people were rescued over 9 400 people died making this the largest loss of
life in a single ship sinking in history while the acts of captain marinesco seemed incredibly cruel
for firing on a ship with civilians there was a crucial mistake made by the germans during wartime
hospital ships were to be marked as such giving them protection even though the gustloff was
operating as a hospital ship it was not marked additionally it had a couple of anti-aircraft
guns on board which gave it the appearance of a combat ship war is a horrible thing but the
german oversight to identify itself properly cost the lives of thousands of innocent passengers
cruise ships have always been susceptible to disaster as they are always navigating waters that
are dangerous while carrying thousands of people at a time that's why cruise ship captains undergo
rigorous training nearly as much as military captains being a cruise ship captain requires more
than just a knowledge of piloting such a large ship it requires having a very specific knowledge
of the waters in which they sail two notable disasters show what happens when captains fail
to adequately navigate these areas of the sea the first would be the titanic we all know the story
of the famous ship that would cross the atlantic ocean at record speed however the ambition of
captain edward smith won over his caution for the ice fields through which he was sailing this
proved to be the ship's undoing second we have the costa concordia on january 13 2012 this italian
cruise ship was sailing off the coast of isola del gillio in tuscany her captain francesco scattino
deviated from his original course and steered too close to the island in an effort to save
time although he said that he had sailed these waters and navigated this path many times before
a miscalculation on his part caused the ship to strike a shallow reef and come to rest on its side
while it may be easy for us to make assumptions as to what we would do or not do in a situation
it really makes the term better safe than sorry more real the easiest of decisions in either of
these accidents would have been to navigate in a different area it would have saved many lives
some of the largest ships in the ocean are container ships huge barges that transport
thousands of containers between countries tens of thousands of these ships sail every day throughout
the oceans of the world while they are relatively large enough so to be resistant to external forces
such as rough seas or bad weather they are definitely not immune additionally as these
huge ships carry all sorts of cargo there is no telling what types of dangers they pose in and
of themselves take for example the cargo ship mol comfort this ship was a bahamian container
ship that was chartered by a japanese company on june 17 2012 she was sailing about 200 miles off
the coast of yemen and encountered bad weather suddenly her hull suffered a crack amid ships
and eventually broken too salvage efforts proved useless as the two halves eventually sank along
with many of its 4 382 containers another incident of note involved the mv hyundai
fortune a panamanian container ship that was registered to hyundai merchant marine on march
21 2006 the vessel was on route from china to singapore and traveling through the gulf of aden
around noon of that day an explosion occurred below deck quickly spreading throughout the
ship and to other containers although the ship did not sink the fire burned for several days
before being contained and the ship towed to port these disasters illustrate the importance of the
shipping industry and the financial impact that can be felt after such events with the mv hyundai
fortune even though the ship didn't sink and only half the containers destroyed the estimated cost
of the disaster is said to be over 800 million us dollars the cost of the mol comfort was estimated
to be over 1 billion u.s dollars as the ship itself was lost along with much of its cargo
ships are not the only vessels that you'll find in the sea with the oil industry being as strong
as it is many countries have oil rigs set up off the coast of their shores these huge structures
weather everything from rough seas to hurricanes all while drilling deep below the sea floor for
oil but disasters reach a new scale when you mix technology with geology in 2010 41 miles off the
coast of louisiana the oil rig deep water horizon was drilling as normal when a blowout occurred
this is where a large pocket of methane gas rushed from the underground well up through the
pipes causing an explosion and fire on the rig after burning for more than a day the rig sank
11 people died the environmental impact was even more severe with the equivalent of 8
000 barrels spilled into the sea per day this disaster at sea came with a price tag of nearly
65 billion u.s dollars oil spills at sea are always more costly than average rec city
the disaster of the deepwater horizon oil rig was an example of the worst case scenario for
environmental disasters in regards to financial cost luckily the environmental impact was lessened
by the quick actions of the government cleanup efforts had things gone differently the impact
could have been worse than the 1989 wreck of the oil tanker exxon valdez which released 1.5 million
gallons of crude oil into the sea after striking a reef off the coast of alaska in that case over 1
200 miles of coastline were affected of which 200 miles were moderately or heavily covered with oil
the mv dona paz was built in 1963 as a passenger ferry that originally operated in japan
it was a decent sized vessel with a passenger capacity of 608 it saw good use until a fire
on board in june of 1979. the fire did not destroy the ship though after being
refurbished and built to hold more passengers it saw regular use again in the philippines
carrying passengers and cargo between the islands on december 20th 1987 the dona paz departed from
tacloban leyte bound for manila although it was reported that radio contact was made with a ship
around 200 hours other reports have indicated that the dona paz didn't have a radio at all
that night was clear but the sea was choppy at about 22-30 hours the ship collided with the mt
vector an oil tanker that was carrying 1041 metric tons of gasoline and other petroleum products
upon collision the vector's cargo ignited and the fire spread very quickly onto the donopods
two hours later the donopods sank with the vector following suit two hours after that only 25 people
in total survived 24 passengers from the dona paz and one crew from the vector things were
destined for disaster from the beginning the estimated loss of life was over four thousand
three hundred people reports from the survivors of the dona paz showed that the crew were partying at
the time of the accident dancing drinking and watching movies to make matters worse the ship
was very overcrowded with tickets sold illegally although the ship had a capacity for 1 424 people
there were an estimated 4341 people on board of the 24 passengers that survived only five were on
the manifest of the 21 bodies that were recovered and identified only one was on the manifest it was
the perfect storm of reckless decisions disasters at sea come in all shapes and forms we have to
build enormous vessels to match the enormous obstacles that the ocean can throw at us because
of these large scale operations the price tags for anything that goes wrong is greatly multiplied so
countries and companies will have to continue working training their engineers and captains
to get every detail right as often as possible thereby avoiding as many disasters as possible
be sure to click the link on screen now to check out another video just like this one trust me
you won't want to miss it as always thanks for watching and we'll catch you in the next one