Other Famous Maritime Disasters!

The Andrea Doria

At 11:10pm on the 25th of July 1956, while travelling in heavy fog 60 miles of Nantucket Island, the icebreaker Stockholm collided with the passenger liner Andrea Doria on the starboard side.

At the time of the impact the Andrea Doria listed ( tilted ) 18 degrees to the starboard. Moments after the collision the Captain new the ship was going to founder and the order was given to abandon ship.

With the ever increasing list to the starboard side this made it impossible to use the lifeboats anchored on that side. They started lowering as many passengers as they could from the ship, and other ships in the area headed towards the sticken vessle, the most notable being the famous Ile De France.

At 10:09am 11 hours after the collision the Andrea Doria sank beneath the North Atlantic, with a total of 1,662 passengers and crew evacuated, and a total of 52 lives lost ( all due to the actual collision ).

The Lusitania

During the years of WW1 many great ocean liners were sunk by German U-boats, whether they were troop carriers, hospital ships, or passenger liners, it didn't matter, if they were flying a flag which belonged to Britan, they were considered the enemy and sunk.

Perhaps the greatest loss of a passenger liner which was still a passenger liner during the war years was the Lusitania. She was owned by the Cunard line, and was in service for the fabled South Hampton to New York route.

1st of May 1915 she left New York heading for South Hampton carrying 1,965 passengers and crew ( the majority being American citizens who's country was not yet fighting in the war ). 7th of May she had been making good time on her run, and while off the coast of Ireland a German U-boat spotted her, lined her up in their sights and fired a torpedo. The torpedo wasn't spooted til it was almost upon the ship.

The topedo hit the Lusitania putting a large whole in her starboard side which water began rushing into the 1st and 2nd boiler rooms. The ship was then rocketed by a 2nd explotion, this time coming from the eternal area's of the ship, ( some believed the Lusiatania to be carrying explosive materials, but recent studies have shown that this second explotion may have been caused by the extensive gases which had built up in the ship, from the coal ).

The Lusitania took a mere 20 minutes to sink taking 1,201 people with her -- only 764 survived.