For as long as humans have explored the seas, there have been shipwrecks.
Shipwrecks that have been taken down by storms, icebergs, or even under suspicious circumstances
that the world is still desperately trying to explain.
So today on Top 5 Scary Videos, I’m going to be counting down our list of the Top 5
Scariest Shipwrecks You Should Never Visit.
Before we begin, though, I am very excited to announce the winner of our Stephen King
giveaway.
So, SO many of you entered, telling us what scared you the most and why.
It was an incredibly tough decision, but the winner is @FarrahTrail who said “The thing
that scares me the most?
The slow decline of people having compassion for other humans.
True terror right there!”
-- We couldn’t agree more, Farrah!
Congrats on winning, we’ll be contacting you on twitter very soon!
And with that, let’s jump in.
5 The RMS Lusitania The RM Lusitania was a British ocean liner
that was sunk on May 7th, 1915 by a German U-Boat 11 miles off the southern coast of
Ireland.
The sinking of the Lusitania presaged the United States declaration of war on Germany
just two years later.
This ocean liner currently resides 300 feet below the surface off the coast of County
Cork, and, during her day was the largest ship to set sail, carrying 1,960 people when
it set off for what was not known to be her last voyage.
After being torpedoed by the German U-Boat, it took just 20 minutes for the Lusitania
to sing and killing 1,197 people aboard.
Now, to this day there is controversy surrounding the boat, as the boat was carrying civilians
from nations not embroiled in World War 1, specifically Americans, and the attack in
turn helped change the US opinion against Germany, according to the Lusitania Resource
that is.
Many historians believe that former British naval intelligence deliberately placed the
boat in danger in order to drag the US into the war alongside the Brits.
However, not only that, but the ship was also carrying munitions for the war effort, a detail
which the British government refused to confirm until 2014, a detail which may explain the
source of the mysterious explosion some survivors reported hearing after the initial torpedo
strike.
Now, interesting still, the wreckage of the Lusitania was bombed by the Royal Navy during
World War II, and in the 1990’s, a Dublin diver visited the wreck, with him describing
it “like Swiss cheese”, and that the seabed around the boat was littered with unexploded
hedgehog mines.
This is definitely not a place you would want to visit.
4 SS Andrea Doria SS Andrea Doria was an ocean liner for the
Italian line which is most famous for sinking in 1956 when 46 people died.
On July 25th of 1956 while Andrea Doria was approaching the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts,
bound for New York City, the Eastbound MS Stockholm of the Swedish American Line collided
with it, during thick fog, in one of history’s most infamous maritime disasters.
The boat was top-heavy which resulted in the Andrea Doria tilting and in turn leaving half
of its lifeboats unusable.
The shortage of lifeboats would of course result in significant loss of life, but thankfully
the boat stayed afloat for another 11 hours following the collision.
Due to this fact, 1,660 passengers and crew were rescued, however, 46 people on the ship
died as a direct consequence of the collision.
Now, what makes this shipwreck so interesting, is that due to the luxurious appointments
and initially good condition of the wreck, Andrea Doria has been a frequent target of
treasure divers and is commonly referred to as the Mount Everest of scuba diving.
The ship is called this simply because of the number of deaths while exploring the site.
To list a few, William Edgerton in 1956 who passed away shortly after one of the valves
on his breathing apparatus become partially closed.
Christopher Murley and Charles J. McGurr in 1999 who both died of apparent heart attacks
while preparing for the dive.
William Schmoldt in 2002 who died from decompression sickness.
Terry DeWolf in 2008 who died during a dive on the wreck, his cause of death was never
determined.
And finally, Steven Slater in 2017, who was pulled from the water unconscious and could
not be revived.
Ultimately, this wreck holds a lot of supernatural questions that can not be answered, and therefore,
you stay as far away from it as possible.
3 The Mary Rose The Mary Rose is a carrack-type warship of
the English Tudor navy of King Henry VIII.
She served for 33 years and ultimately saw her last action on July 19th, 1545 when she
sank off the Isle of Wight.
Not long after Henry ascended the throne, The Mary Rose would participate in several
skirmishes against the French early in her career, however, she was kept in storage when
the fighting died down.
In 1545 however, The Mary Rose was taken out of retirement when the French attempted an
invasion of England at Portsmouth, but, during the bombardment she went down, taking more
than 300 crewmen to their deaths.
What’s baffling though is that no one quite knew why The Mary Rose sank, according to
museum dedicated to the warship, a retrofit may have left her too heavy to withstand an
unlucky wind that caught her as she was turning -- she may have been overloaded -- or perhaps
a French cannonball hit her hull, swamping her.
The boat was raised from the seabed in 1982, however, this still didn’t answer the questions
as to what exactly happened to The Mary Rose.
2 The USS Cyclops The USS Cyclops was the second of four Proteus-class
colliers built for the United States Navy several years before World War I.
The ship was named for the Cyclops, a primordial race of giants from Greek Mythology, she was
the second US Naval vessel to bear the name.
Now, what was ultimately disturbing about the boat, was its loss of 306 crew and passengers
without a trace within the area known as the Bermuda Triangle some time after March 4th
1918.
Making the single largest loss of life in US Naval history not directly involving combat.
Now, this took place during wartime, making people believe that she was captured or sunk
by a German raider or submarine.
Now according to the Naval Historical Foundation, the ship was carrying manganese ore from Brazil
to Baltimore when she took a detour to Barbados.
Rumours have it that she was overloaded by both her cargo and coal she picked up on that
stop.
Not only that, but one of her engines was nonfunctional thanks to a cracked cylinder.
All in all these factors may have contributed to the ship’s ultimate demise, however,
no one quite knows for sure.
The ship’s loss was what ultimately fueled the fear of the Bermuda Triangle, a region
of the Atlantic that is said to be the site of many mysterious maritime disappearances.
So, if you want to visit the USS Cyclops, you would have to visit the Bermuda Triangle,
and would you dare do that?
1 The HMS Terror HMS Terror was a specialized warship and a
newly developed bomb vessel constructed by the Royal Navy all the way back in 1813.
However, she was later converted into a polar exploration ship two decades later and participated
in George Back’s Arctic expedition of 1836-1837, the Ross expedition of 1839-1843, and Sir
John Franklin’s ill-fated attempt to force the Northwest Passage in 1845, during which
was lost with all hands along with HMS Erebus.
However, on September 12th 2016, HMS Terror was located in Nunavut’s Terror Bay, off
the southwest coast of King William Island.
The wreck was found 57 miles south of location where the ship was reported abandoned, and
31 miles from the wreck of the HMS Erebus, which was discovered in 2014.
For more than 170 year, the Terror was a mystery which loomed large over the Arctic prior to
its discovery.
Now, the initial expedition launched in 1845, however, it was in 1846 that the Terror and
Erebus became stuck in the ice.
Franklin died in 1847, according to a note later discovered stashed on King William Island,
and the ships were ultimately abandoned in April 1848.
The 106 men were never heard from again, nor was the Terror, until 2016 as previously mentioned.
As it stands, researches are hoping to unravel more about the mystery of where the expedition
ultimately went wrong, and what exactly happened to the crew.
For those of you who like a spook and a conspiracy theory, AMC made a show called The Terror
which follows the ill-fated expedition, however, there’s a twist.
It is emotional, but absolutely terrifying, and is perhaps one of the best shows I’ve
watched in a long time.
Give it a watch, you won’t be disappointed.
Well, there we have it!
Do you guys agree with our list?
Were there any scary shipwrecks that we missed?
Leave us all your thoughts and feelings in the comments down below and perhaps we can
do a part 2.
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And until next time, see ya later.