Shipwrecks Since 1833

The Titanic isn't the only notable shipwreck (though it is famous for crashing into an iceberg on April 15, 1912, killing over 1,500 people). The Lusitania, a British luxury liner, was sunk by a German submarine on May 7, 1915, killing 1,195 people. Joola, a Senegalese ferry, sunk in 2002, drowning 1,863 people.

1833: May 11, Lady of the Lake: bound from England to Quebec, struck iceberg; 215 perished.

1853: Sept. 29, Annie Jane: emigrant vessel wrecked off coast of Scotland; 348 died.

1860: Sept. 8, Lady Elgin: steamer was hit by schooner Augusta , killing more than 300.

1865: April 27, Sultana: boiler explosion on Mississippi River steamboat, near Memphis; 1,547 killed. Most of the dead were Union POWs finally heading home at the end of the Civil War.

1873: April 1, Atlantic: sank near Halifax after hitting rocks, killing 562.

1878: Sept. 3, Princess Alice: collided with the steam collier Bywell Castle and sank in the Thames, killing at least 600, actual numbers unknown.

1898: Feb. 15, Maine: U.S. battleship destroyed in Havana harbor by an explosion that killed 260 men. The incident led to the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in April 1898.; Nov. 26, City of Portland: 157 died near Cape Cod.

1904: June 15, General Slocum: excursion steamer burned in East River, N.Y.; 1,021 perished.

1912: March 5, Principe de Asturias: Spanish steamer struck rock off Sebastien Point; 500 drowned.; April 15, Titanic: supposedly unsinkable British ocean liner went down on maiden voyage after colliding with an iceberg. More than 1,500 people died.; Sept. 28, Kichemaru: Japanese steamer sunk off Japan; killing 1000.

1914: May 29, Empress of Ireland: sank after collision in St. Lawrence River; 1,014 perished.

1915: May 7, Lusitania: British luxury liner was sunk off Irish coast by a German submarine; 1195 died.

1915: July 24, Eastland: Great Lakes excursion steamer overturned in Chicago River; 812 died.

1916: Feb. 26, Provence: French cruiser sank in Mediterranean; 3,100 perished.; Nov. 21, Britannic: sister ship of the Titanic sank in the Aegean Sea after an explosion. The vessel, which had been converted to a hospital ship during World War I, probably collided with an underwater mine. Of the more than 1,100 people aboard, only 30 died.; Aug. 29, Hsin Yu: Chinese steamer sunk; 1,000 died.

1928: Nov. 12, Vestris: British steamer sank in gale off Va.; 110 died.

1934: Sept. 8, Morro Castle: 134 killed in fire off Asbury Park, N.J.

1939: May 23, Squalus: submarine with 59 men sank off Hampton Beach, N.H.; 33 saved.; June 1, Thetis: submarine sank in Liverpool Bay, England; 99 perished.

1945: Jan. 30, Wilhelm Gustloff: cruise ship carrying German refugees and soldiers sunk by Soviet submarine in Baltic. It is thought that as many as 10,000 people were aboard, of which only about 900 survived.

1949: Sept. 17, Noronic: Canadian Great Lakes cruise ship burned at Toronto dock; about 130 died.

1952: April 26, Hobson: minesweeper collided with aircraft carrier Wasp and sank during night maneuvers in mid-Atlantic; 176 people lost.

1953: Jan. 9, Chang Tyong-Ho: South Korean ferry foundered off Pusan; 249 reported dead.; Jan. 31, Princess Victoria: British ferry sank in Irish Sea; 133 lost.

1954: Sept. 26, Toya Maru: more than 1,000 killed when commercial ferry sank in Tsugaru Strait, Japan.

1956: July 25, Andrea Doria : Italian liner collided with Swedish liner Stockholm off Nantucket Island, Mass., and sank the next day. 51 people died.

1962: April 8, Dara: British liner exploded and sank in Persian Gulf; 236 dead. Caused by time bomb.

1963: April 10, Thresher: atomic-powered U.S. submarine sank in North Atlantic; 129 dead.; May 4: United Arab Republic ferry capsized and sank in upper Nile; over 200 died.

1966: Dec. 12, Heraklion: Greek passenger ferry foundered in heavy seas near Crete; 241 dead.

1968: Jan. 25, Dakar: Israeli submarine sank in eastern Mediterranean, probably after collision with large ship; 69 dead.; Late May, Scorpion: U.S. nuclear submarine sank in Atlantic 400 mi southwest of Azores; 99 dead.

1970: Dec. 15: ferry in Korean Strait capsized; 261 lost.

1975: Nov. 10, Edmund Fitzgerald: cargo vessel carrying 26,000 long tons of iron ore pellets sank in eastern Lake Superior; all 29 crew lost.

1976: Oct. 20, George Prince: Mississippi River ferry rammed by Norwegian tanker Frosta near Luling, La.; 77 dead.

1983: May 25, 10th of Ramadan: Nile steamer caught fire and sank in Lake Nasser, near Aswan, Egypt; 272 dead and 75 missing.

1987: March 6, Herald of Free Enterprise: British ferry capsized after leaving Belgian port of Zeebrugge with 500 aboard; 134 drowned. Water rushing through bow left open was the cause.; Dec. 20, Dona Paz: over 4,000 killed when passenger ferry collided with oil tanker Victor off Mindoro Is., south of Manila, Philippines.

1990: April 7, Scandinavian Star: suspected arson aboard Danish-owned North Sea ferry killed at least 110 passengers in Skagerrak Strait off Norway.; April 7: double-decker ferry sank in Gyaing River in Myanmar (Burma) during a storm and 215 people were believed drowned.

1991: Dec. 15, Salem Express: ferry carrying 569 passengers sank in Red Sea off coast of Safaga, Egypt, after hitting a coral reef. Over 460 people believed drowned.

1993: Feb. 17, Neptune: triple-deck ferry capsized off southern peninsula of Haiti during a squall. Over 1,000 passengers believed drowned. About 300 survived the sinking.

1994: Sept. 28, Estonia: passenger ferry capsized off coast of southwest Finland and sank in a stormy Baltic Sea. Only about 140 of the estimated 1,040 passengers aboard survived.

1996: Jan. 21, Gurita: overloaded ferry sank off the coast of northern Sumatra, killing 340.

1999: Feb., Harta Rimba: ship sank in the South China Sea, killing about 325 people. The ship had not been licensed for passenger use.; Nov. 24, Dashun: ferry carrying more than 300 passengers sank after catching fire. More than 150 confirmed dead, with another 140 missing.

2000: June 29, Cahaya Bahari: ferry carrying refugees sank about 40 mi off Sulawesi, killing the 492 people aboard.; Aug. 12, Kursk: Russian nuclear submarine sank to bottom of Barents Sea following an explosion; 118 dead.

2001: Feb. 9, Ehime Maru: U.S. submarine Greeneville collided with Japanese fishing boat near Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. 26 people aboard the Ehime Maru were rescued; 9 others were presumed dead.

2002: Sept. 26, Joola: overloaded Senegalese ferry capsized off the coast of Gambia, drowning 1,863 people. Only 64 passengers were rescued.

2006: Feb. 3, Red Sea: a fire on the al-Salam Boccaccio 98, a Red Sea ferry, enroute from Saudi Arabia to Egypt, caused it to sink 60 miles off the Egyptian coast, killing more than 1,000.

2007: Jan. 28, California: computer scientist, Jim Gray, disappears off the coast of San Fransisco during a solo day trip on his 40-foot yacht, the Tenacious.; Aug. 3, Sierra Leone: the Amunafa ferry, traveling from Freetown to Kasire, sank off the coast of Sierra Leone, killing 158 passengers.

2008: Jan. 15, Taiwan: a Panamanian cargo ship transporting coal from Hong Kong was capsized by a wave near Taiwan, killing all eight crew members.; June 21, the Philippines: a ferry, the Princess of the Stars, is struck by Typhoon Fengshen, killing most of the 800 passengers and crew.; Nov. 9, the Sea of Japan: in the most deadly accident on a Russian submarine since 2000, 20 people die and 21 more are injured when two compartments of a new Russian nuclear submarine flood with Freon gas during tests in the Sea of Japan.; Dec. 5, Antarctic penninsula: more than 80 passengers and 30 crew members were evacuated from a luxury Antarctic cruise ship when the ship hit a rock and became stuck on the Antarctic Peninsula, over 150 miles southwest of Argentina.

2009: Jan. 11, Indonesia: a passenger ferry MV Teratai Prima carrying 267 capsizes during a cyclone off the coast of Sulawesi. About 40 people, including the captain, are rescued.; March 27, Libya: a boat designed to hold 75 sinks with more than 250 migrants headed to Europe on board. Twenty survivors are rescued.; Aug. 6, Tonga: a passenger ferry MV Princess Ashika sinks, killing 74. Four men are charged with manslaughter for knowingly sailing an unseaworthy vessel.; Sept. 9, Sierra Leone: the ferry Teh Teh sinks during a storm with more than 250 on board, many of them schoolchildren and their parents on their way to Freetown to start the new school year. Forty people are rescued.

2010: May 8, New York: the Staten Island ferry Andrew J. Barberi crashes into the terminal after losing brake power. Thirty six people are injured.; July 7, Philadelphia: an amphibious tourist boat, or duck boat, stalls in the Delaware River and is struck by a sludge-carrying barge. All 37 people on board are thrown into the water; 35 are recovered alive, while 2 Hungarian tourists are missing.; Dec. 13, Antarctica: Twenty survive and 20 die when the South Korean FV No. 1 Insung (or Number One In Sung) sinks in frigid waters. The 42-person fishing trawler crew consisted of 11 Indonesians, 11 Vietnamese, 8 Koreans, 8 Chinese, 3 Filipinos, and 1 Russian.

2011: March 6, China: the U.K. container ship Cosco Hong Kong collides with China's FV Zhe Ling Yu Yun 135 with the loss of all 11 crew.; March 11, Pacific Rim: an undetermined number of vessels sink following a magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami off the northeast coast of Japan.; April 6, Italy: more than 250 Libyan migrants are missing after a boat carrying men, women, and children capsizes off the coast of Lampedusa.

2012: Jan. 13, Italy: the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia capsizes near the Tuscan coast. There are 4,200 passengers on board. At least 11 people are killed and dozens missing. The ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, reportedly changed course to sail closer to shore to show off the luxury liner. In addition, he is accused of abandoning the ship after the crash.

2013: October 3, Mediterranean: at least 94 people are dead and another 250 are missing after a boat capsizes in the Mediterranean near the Sicilian island of Lampedusa. The boat, carrying African migrants to Europe, sinks after passengers light a blanket on fire to signal their position. The fire spreads from the blanket to gasoline, creating a panic that sinks the boat. It is the worst boating accident of its kind in the region.

2014: April 16, South Korea: a ferry carrying 459 people, mostly students from Danwon High School, sinks off the southern coast of South Korea. When the ship begins sinking, the ship's captain, Lee Jun-seok, is not at the helm. Instead, the third mate is steering the ship. Lee is taken into custody. There are 146 confirmed deaths with more than 150 people still missing.

2015: April 19, Mediterranean: a ship carrying 850 migrants sinks off the coast of Libya. Many are trapped in the ship at the bottom of the sea. According to a statement made by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the ship carried 850 people and only 28 are known to have survived. It is the deadliest incident in the Mediterranean involving refugees.

Shipwrecks

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