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She was then sold to AG Belofin Investments when Chandris decided to focus on its Celebrity Cruises brand instead. Her final sinking occurred in 1986 while operating cruises around the Black Sea. She collided with a freighter, despite the freighter’s Captain radio-ing to say they would make sure to avoid the collision. Of the 372 passengers and 348 crew onboard, most were able to make it into a lifeboat, although it was a close call – only 20 minutes after the last passenger was recused, the ship completely sunk.
The Tragedy of the SS Morro Castle (September
She was supposed to sail as a passenger ship, but World War I started, and plans changed. She served as a hospital ship and was struck by a naval mine between the Makronisos and Kea Islands of Greece. Although she sank in only 55 minutes, only 30 people died as most of those on board got onto the lifeboats and escaped. While sinkings of large vessels are rare, these events are even more infrequent when discussing cruise ships.
How Many Cruise Ships Have Sunk in History?
While it is true that 1,517 lives were lost as a direct result of the sinking, it is also worth clarifying that the Titanic was not technically a cruise ship. The first 6 sinkings up to 1956 were technically all ocean liners rather than cruise ships, but many people think of them as the same because they both can carry thousands of passengers. There have been very few cruise ships that have sunk in the past century.
9-1-1's cruise ship disaster had another epic scene cut, says showrunner - Entertainment Weekly News
9-1-1's cruise ship disaster had another epic scene cut, says showrunner.
Posted: Thu, 28 Mar 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]
How Many Cruise Ships Sink a Year?
To provide the highest level of security for its patrons, the cruise industry has enacted a number of safety rules and procedures in recent years. These modifications have greatly decreased the quantity of mishaps and sinkings, which has helped to explain why we don’t hear about them as frequently. In a first step to prevent pollution of the shore and assist in a refloat the ship, its oil and fuel tanks were emptied. If you were reading this guide because you were interested in cruise ship history, hopefully, I’ve been able to shed some light. The ship underwent a number of incidents in a storied life, including a hijacking in 1985, two serious collisions with other ships, and four onboard fires. In 1986, the ship was operating a cruise from Sydney, exploring New Zealand on a two-week itinerary.
Almost immediately questions were raised concerning the conduct of Schettino and other crew officers. In July 2013 four crew members and Costa Crociere’s crisis coordinator pled guilty to various charges, including manslaughter. That same month Schettino went on trial after being denied a plea bargain. He was charged with manslaughter as well as causing the wreck and abandoning ship. During the 19-month trial, prosecutors claimed that he was an “idiot,” while Schettino countered that his actions had saved lives and that he was being scapegoated. In addition, he noted the steering error by the helmsman, but a maritime expert testified that regardless of the mistake, the collision was unavoidable.
Chaos broke out as terrified passengers had to decide whether to leap into the sea or stay on the blazing ship, even as efforts were made to put out the fire and launch lifeboats. The ruined Morro Castle ran aground close to Asbury Park, New Jersey, after only six hours. In 1932, the French passenger liner Georges Philippar caught fire and sank in the Gulf of Aden, killing fifty-four people. On May 16, during her inaugural journey off the coast of Italian Somaliland, Mme Valentin’s opulent cabin’s wood paneling caught fire due to a malfunctioning light switch. Early on May 29, 1914, in the thick fog, the ocean liner RMS Empress of Ireland collided with another ship and sank in Canada’s St. Lawrence River. It is noteworthy that not all of these sinkings contained passengers or caused a sizable number of casualties.
Today’s cruise ships are extremely resistant to sinking because of their emphasis on safety throughout construction. Modern cruise ships are outfitted with a plethora of safety precautions to preserve as many lives as possible in the event of an unfortunate disaster. Whether or not Captain Francesco Schettino was trying to impress his girlfriend is debatable. The wreck was not the fault of unexpected weather or ship malfunction—it was a disaster caused entirely by a series of human errors.
The Titanic Tragedy (April
It is considered one of the deadliest maritime disasters of the 20th century. As you can see, it’s very rare for a cruise ship to sink, but it does happen on occasion. In most cases, the cause is weather-related or due to hitting an obstacle like a reef or iceberg.
Perhaps the most infamous cruise ship sinking took place on April 14, 1912, when the RMS Titanic hit an iceberg; it was completely underwater in roughly two hours. Unfortunately, there weren’t enough lifeboats on the ship, and most passengers did not survive. If you have ever wondered how many cruise ships have sunk in history, we have the answers you are looking for. Today, we are going to take a look at these rare yet tragic events. We will cover some of the most famous sinkings in the cruise industry’s history and explain how frequent these events are in the modern era.
The ship was en route to its very first port when Captain Francesco Schettino decided to veer off of the original course, sailing extremely close to the island of Giglio. Within the last 111 years, over 20 cruise ships and ocean liners have sunk. All passengers and crew were evacuated from the ship before it completely sunk. Considering there are more cruise ships than ever on the seas today, it’s clear that not many cruise ships have sunk in recent times.
The cause of the incident was an electrical fault; a fire had broken out in one of the luxury cabins thanks to a faulty light switch that caused a spark to ignite the wood paneling ablaze. A more recent and well-known incident was that of a fire on Carnival Triumph, since renamed Carnival Sunshine. The ship was left stranded and without power after the generator caught fire. An engine room explosion was found to be the cause of the safety systems’ deactivation. Following investigations, it became clear that a lack of training and preparation for fire safety contributed to the shockingly high death toll. The burned-out wreck, which served as a somber reminder of the horror everyone on board had to endure, remained on the beach until 1935.
When the RMS Lusitania belonged to the Cunard Line, it was the world’s largest passenger ship. On May 7, 1915, a U-boat hit the Lusitania with a torpedo near the Ireland coast. The ship went down quickly, and the crew only launched six lifeboats. On January 13, 2012, the ship departed on a 7-night Mediterranean cruise with 3,206 passengers and 1,023 crew members onboard.
She sank in Thailand in 2016 after having been abandoned for a year, with no casualties. Instead, in 2000, she was towed towards shipbreakers in India where she was to be scrapped, but she began to take on water and list. The MS Achille Lauro was a cruise ship that was originally built for a Dutch company but eventually ended up being in the hands of StarLauro, which would go on to form part of MSC Cruises. The Titanic sinking has since become a major point of maritime history, with dedicated museums to the tragedy and, of course, the 1997 blockbuster movie.
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