"Worst Ship Disaster" Topic

What was the worst ship disaster in history. Here are a few.

SS Eastland
The White Ship
SS Kiangya
SS Sultana
RMS Lusitania
MV Doņa Paz
MV Wilhelm Gustloff
SS Titanic
USS Arizona
USS Oklahoma
USS Indianapolis
USS Juneau.
HMS Hood
HMS Ark Royale
SS Edmond Fitzgerald
Bismarck
SMS Szent István
Admiral Graf Spee

USS Maine
RMS Empress of Ireland
Queen Annes Revenge
Flor de la Mar
The Mary Rose

MV Wilhelm Gustlov. Over 9000 casualties.

HMS Captain always struck me as pretty insane. Probably not worst, but certainly avoidable.

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Niņa, Piņta, and the Santa Maria…

GO BACK, TURN AROUND, ITS NOT TOO LATE

'Worst' in what sense? Number of casualties? Overall effect?caused by avoidable decisions?

HMS Victoria and HMS Camperdown. (self inflicted)

I'd differentiate between natural disaster, accident and intentional sinking.

The Halifax harbor explosion on the early morning of 6 December 1917, caused by the collision of French cargo ship SS Mont-Blanc carrying explosives and the Norwegian vessel SS Imo.

ss GENERAL SLOCUM

ss LADY ELGIN (Great Lakes)

IJN MUTSU

In that vein, Shinano.

ss Minnow

USS Indianapolis
Apollo 1
USS Forrestal
LZ 129 Hindenberg
SS Posideon
Windows 2000
Exxon Valdez

In terms of people lost, John the OFM – by best estimates, 9,343 men, women and children

Worst' in what sense? Number of casualties? Overall effect? Caused by avoidable decisions?

Any criteria you want.

For an excellent fictional treatment of the Gustloff tragedy, try Salt to the Sea— also an excellent gift for readers not into history or military history.

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I would add:

MV Goya
SS General von Steuben

Both during Operation Hannibal like the above-mentioned MV Wilhelm Gustloff.

Italy's passenger Andea Doria sank on 26th July 1956 off Nantucket Island, US East Coast due tragic navigation course mistake made by the 3rd mate of M/V Stockholm which collided with Andrea Doria sending her down. 46 Andrea Doria passenger were casualties. 5 casualties on the Stockholm crew. While not the most significant in terms of human losses regretfully many, it was certainly one of the worst cases of human mistake and misjudgment of the vessels navigation route and fog warning that were ignored by the Stockholm crew made even worse by the fact thsi happended in an era when radio communications and navigation instruments were well established and reliable. .

Surprised no one has mentioned the Vasa.

Several criteria for this one: sunk on maiden voyage, design flaws, rush to launch for the king, bad timing with sudden gust, most of the crew perished. Like the Mary Rose the ship was raised and is in a museum.

The Dali

A friend's cousin was killed while working on the bridge when it was struck. Really damaged the already shaky economy of that major port.

Surprised no one has mentioned the MV Dona Paz, 4375 lives lost in 1987 in the Philippines. This is the largest loss of life in a peacetime sinking.

SS Grandcamp, explosion while loading ammonium nitrate in port of Texas City, April 1947. Largest industrial accident in terms of fatalities in the United States.

Sorry to hear about your friend, the Dali could have been so much worse.

No one added HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse?