Here are 7 sunken cruise ships. These hellish stories will make you reconsider your next
vacation at sea. Number 7: The MS Explorer
The MS Explorer had sailed the Antarctic region for almost 40 years before meeting its end
on November 11, 2007. After its expeditionary voyage in 1969, the Little Red Ship, as it
was nicknamed, had been considered the pioneer of maritime tourism in the Antarctic region.
It was the first cruise ship purposefully designed for sailing the Antarctic Ocean.
On November 11, 2007, the ship met the end of its long career during a cruise which aimed
to follow the route of famous 20th century explorer Ernest Shackleton. The 154 souls
on board were startled by a loud bang as the ship hit an iceberg shortly after it had departed
from the Falkland Islands. The impact caused a 10-by-4 inch gash in the ship’s hull after
which the vessel started to take on water. The ship’s crew sent out a mayday call which
was picked up by the Argentinean coast guard and the Chilean Navy. As the ship began to
list, the crew and passengers managed to escape to the life boats. MS Nordnorge was among
the ships that responded to the distress signal issued by the MS Explorer. The rescued passengers
were taken aboard the Nordnorge after they had drifted in the lifeboats for approximately
five hours. Although they had endured freezing temperatures in the rescue operation, all
of the crew and passengers survived without sustaining any injuries. The official report
stated the main cause of the incident “He (the Master of the vessel) was under the mistaken
im8pression that he was encountering first year ice when in fact, as the Chilean Navy
Report indicated, it was much harder land ice.” Around 20 hours after the initial
impact, the MS Explorer was lost under the waves.
Number 6: The MTS Oceanos On the 3rd of August, 1991 the Oceanos was
en course to Durban from East London, South Africa. Before long the ship started facing
harsh weather conditions. The 40-knot winds and 30 feet swells brought about by the storm
started to roll the ship from side to side. A muffled explosion was heard and then the
Oceanos lost its power. Captain Yiannis Avranas was informed by one of his chief engineers
that the generator room was in danger of being flooded. The generators were shut down as
the crew feared they would short circuit. The vessel was left adrift. The explosion
had caused a 3.9 inch hole in the bulkhead and the water levels soon began to rise. The
water flowed through the drainage installation, rose through the ship and started to spill
out of showers and toilets. The captain and his crew did not raise the alarm and eye witness
reports claimed that they were ready to leave the ship by the time the lower levels had
showed the first signs of being flooded. The passengers were left behind to fend for themselves.
Luckily the ship’s SOS signals were picked up by nearby vessels. 16 helicopters were
deployed by South African Air Forces to aid in the rescue operation. A harness was used
to hoist 225 passengers by helicopter, one by one, from the deck of the sinking ship.
The others had managed to get to the life boats. Amazingly, all of the 571 people on
board were successfully rescued. The captain and crew were criticized for failing to meet
their duties. The next day, the MTS Oceanos sank completely and its wreck lies at a depth
of between 92 and 95 meters. Number 5: The Costa Concordia
Over 4000 crew and passengers were on board the Costa Concordia when it crashed on January
12, 2012, due to a critical error made by its captain, Francesco Schettino. The incident
happened only hours after the Costa Concordia left the Italian port of Civitavecchia. The
ship’s initial course was a week-long cruise on the Mediterranean. As it made its way along
the Italian coastline, Schettino ordered the steering of the ship closer to the island
of Giglio, as a ‘salute’ to the locals. After the ship’s ‘black box’ was recovered
a recording was found in which Schettino had warned his helmsman ‘or else we go on the
rocks’ as he gave him the coordinates. At 9:45 pm, the ship hit a reef outcrop at a
speed of around 16 knots. The impact produced a 230-foot hole on the left side of the ship.
As it took on more water the ship started to tilt. It lost power and the engine room
was flooded. The passengers were told that the ship had only suffered a ‘blackout’
and that the situation was under control. Some of them had called the local police to
report the problem. When the coastguard contacted the ship at 22:12 pm, Schettino told them
‘We have a blackout and we are checking the conditions on board.’ By this time the
ship had drifted towards the island’s port. Soon afterwards it began to tilt in the opposite
direction. At 22:22 the captain ordered his crew to report a ‘failure’ to the coastguard
and request the assistance of tugboats. The order to abandon ship was given at 22:54 pm.
As the ship continued to tilt and sink, Captain Schettino abandoned the ship at 23:19. The
second-master who had been left in his stead soon left the bridge as well. Many crew members
also left the ship. The vast majority of passengers managed to escape using lifeboats. However,
the ship’s angle complicated the rescue procedures. The coast guard dispatched boats
and helicopters to help the stranded passengers. At 00:42 hours a coast guard commander had
reportedly ordered Schettino to return aboard the ship and assist in the rescue procedures.
He refused. In the end, the incident claimed the lives of 32 people. Francesco Schettino
was arrested and trialed under charges of manslaughter and abandoning ship.
Number 4: The RMS Empress of Ireland May 29, 1914.The Empress of Ireland cruise
liner left Canada's Quebec Harbor on a course for Liverpool, England. Not long after the
ship had left the port, the crew saw the masthead lights of Storstad, a Norwegian collier, several
miles in the distance. The initial sighting took place in clear weather conditions from
the ship's starboard side. However, a dense curtain of fog soon fell upon the two ships.
Crews from both vessels made extensive use of their fog whistles. The desperate warning
attempt did little to prevent the tragedy that followed. At 02:00 local time, the two
ships collided. The collier crashed bow-first into the cruise liner's starboard side. Although
the Storstad remained afloat, the Empress of Ireland had taken heavy damage. It soon
began to list on its starboard side. The impact was so sudden and violent that the crew did
not have time to close the watertight doors. Water started to flood the lower decks. The
crew and passengers that were housed in the lower levels quickly drowned. Some of the
people in the upper decks began making their way to the lifeboats. Unfortunately, the angle
at which the ship had listed made launching the lifeboats nearly impossible.
Number 3: The MS Estonia In September 1994, in what was considered
one of the worst maritime disasters of the 20th century, the MS Estonia, previously known
as Viking Sally, sank in the Baltic Sea. The ship was travelling to Stockholm, Sweden from
Tallinn, Estonia. There have been many speculations throughout the years as to what truly caused
the shipwreck. Some experts have cited the turbulent conditions of the Baltic Sea as
being a factor, with the ship having been hit repeatedly be heavy gales. This reportedly
made steering difficult. Others blame the structural integrity of the ship as it was
designed for coastal waters and not the Baltic’s open regions. The official report stated that
the locks on the bow door had snapped under the pressure of the waves separating the door
from the rest of the ship. This meant that water could flood the ship. The crew was also
criticized in the official report for not reducing the speed of the ship before investigating
the sounds coming from the bow and for their delay in sounding the alarm. The MS Estonia
started to heel onto its starboard side, before ultimately sinking completely. Even though
communications were down after the incident, intermittent distress messages made their
way through the radio. The harsh weather conditions increased the difficulty of air and naval
rescue operations. Out of the 989 people on board, only 138 were rescued alive. Some drowned
while others died due to hypothermia caused by the water’s cold temperature (10-11 degrees
Celsius). There were no reported survivors under the age of twelve. Many died as they
were unable to reach the surface and were trapped inside the sinking ship. It is believed
that the MS Estonia was what some refer to as the ‘watery grave’ for approximately
650 of the missing persons. A decision was made by the Swedish government to consider
the shipwreck a memorial site. In the year that followed, several European nations ratified
what would come to be known as the Estonia Agreement. Out of respect for the victims,
the citizens and officials of these nations were barred from the underwater exploration
of the wreck. Number 2: The RMS Lusitania
On February 18, 1915, during World War I, luxury liner RMS Lusitania sank after being
hit by torpedoes launched by a German submarine. In response to the blockade imposed on Germany
and the Central Powers by Great Britain and its allies, Germany announced that its naval
forces would operate under a policy of ‘unrestricted submarine warfare’. At the time of its maiden
voyage, in 1907, the 32.000 ton heavy, 240 meter long RMS Lusitania had been considered
the largest, fastest and most luxurious passenger liner in the world. As it set off from New
York with a course for Liverpool, in May 1915, passengers could read a warning issued by
the Imperial German Embassy which said ‘Vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, or any of
her allies, are liable to destruction in those waters and that travelers sailing in the
war zone on ships of Great Britain or her allies do so at their own risk.’ Many believed
that the ship’s 21-knots per hour speed could outpace that of a German U-boat with
ease. Others doubted that the Germans would take action against the civilian liner. Among
the skeptics were also Winston Churchill and even W. T. Turner, captain of the Lusitania,
who told a reporter [“IT’S THE BEST JOKE I’VE HEARD IN MANY DAYS, THIS TALK OF TORPEDOING.”--W.T.
TURNER (CAPTAIN), RMS LUSITANIA] ‘It’s the best joke I’ve heard in many days, this
talk of torpedoing.’ [RMS LUSITANIA] Nevertheless, tragedy struck on the 7th of May 1915, when
a German U20 submarine captained by Walter Schweiger fired a torpedo at the Lusitania.
It impacted the ship on its starboard side. A second explosion soon followed. Many of
the terrified crew and passengers thought it had been a second torpedo, but history
has proven this had not been the case. Down in its hold the ship was carrying more than
4000 small fire-arms and around four million American manufactured bullets. The American
government denied the allegations. After the torpedo strike, the cargo essentially became
a bomb, ignited by the blast. The second explosion sealed the fate of the Lusitania. Schweiger
noted his accounts of the events in the log of the U20 “Torpedo hits starboard side
right behind the bridge. An unusually heavy detonation takes place with a very strong
explosive cloud. The explosion of the torpedo must have been followed by a second one [boiler
or coal or powder?]... The ship stops immediately and heels over to starboard very quickly,
immersing simultaneously at the bow... the name Lusitania becomes visible in golden letters.”
The Lusitania sank in approximately 18 minutes in 90 meters of water. By the time its bow
reached the bottom of the sea, the stern was still above water. Out of the 1.959 souls
on board, 1.198 lost their lives. Following the incident several nations turned their
opinion against Germany. Historians have cited the sinking of the Lusitania as the main reason
for the United States joining the war, two years later, as 128 of the fallen victims
were American citizens. Some even believe that the Lusitania was allowed to fall into
the German trap intentionally, as a way of persuading the US, under President Woodrow
Wilson, to join the war. Number 1: The MV Wilhelm Gustloff
Initially designed as a Nazi cruise ship for the ‘Strength through joy’ organization
in 1937, the MV Wilhelm Gustloff was ultimately used in 1945 to transport evacuees. As the
Red Army was closing in on East Prusia, the German forces launched Operation Hannibal,
coordinated by Admiral Karl Dönitz. Wilhelm Gustloff was among the ships used to evacuate
German civilians, military personnel, advanced weapon technicians and Nazi officials from
several Baltic areas. After the evacuation was completed, the total number of people
on board the ship was estimated at around 10.582 far exceeding the vessel’s capacity.
5000 of the passengers were reportedly children. Having previously been used for military purposes,
the ship was equipped with anti-aircraft weaponry. As it was also transporting military personnel
at the time, it did not receive protection as a rescue ship, following war-time international
accords. The MV Wilhelm Gustloff was met in the Baltic Sea by the S-13 Soviet submarine,
captained by Alexander Marinesko. Three torpedoes were fired at the vessel’s port side, and
all three of them reached their target. The first torpedo pierced the ship’s bow. The
second hit the living quarters of the women’s naval auxiliary, killing 373 young women.
Finally the third torpedo hit the engine room, cutting off all power and communication. Less
than 45 minutes after it had been struck, the MV Wilhelm Gustloff, once a luxurious
cruise liner for Germany’s elite, sank bow-first into the Baltic Sea. Some of the passengers
died in the panic, crushed on the stairs and deck, or in the torpedo explosion. Many others
drowned or froze to death in the icy Baltic. The vast majority of lifeboats had frozen
in their davits leaving people to fight each other for the few that were left. Several
of the people on board jumped to their deaths, as the boat was sinking. Children drowned
in life-vests that were too big. In one survivor’s report, a German officer shot his wife and
two children but ran out of bullets before trying to turn the pistol on himself. As he
begged for someone to give him a firearm, the officer fell into the sea. Many reports
claim that the incident, which would be known as the greatest maritime disaster in history,
claimed the lives of over 9.600 people. There are historians who debate whether the Soviet
attack on the MV Wilhelm Gustloff was a legitimate war-time decision or a war crime against the
civilians who had found a safe haven aboard the ship.