Friday, April 19, 2024

The Costa Concordia Disaster: How Human Error Made It Worse

last cruise ship to sink

It was then that she received the name Bianca C after one of the owner's daughters. On May 7, 1915, Lusitania was struck by torpedo sent by a German U-Boat while she was sailing off the coast of Ireland en route to Liverpool, England. The ship began to list quicker than expected, meaning that only six lifeboats could be launched. They are still around today, and you can sail on Queen Mary 2, the last ocean liner in service.

The Journey and End of the Angelina Lauro (September

In October 1927, she sank off the coast of Brazil due to a propeller shaft that broke and damaged the ship's hull. The ship was originally built as the ocean liner SS Galileo Galilei and later converted to a cruise ship. All 1,090 passengers and crew were evacuated from the ship before it sank. No one was killed but some people were injured in the incident and needed hospitalization.

SeaBreeze (

The Oceanos was a French-built Greek-owned cruise ship that sank off the coast of South Africa in 1991. The vessel started taking on water after a series of leaks in the hull. The MS Estonia quickly sank, and only 137 people were able to be rescued from the frigid waters.

When Was the Last Time a Cruise Ship Sunk?

In 1965, she was purchased by Italian businessman Achille Lauro, who had it converted into a cruise ship. During her service history, she underwent a series of misfortunate events. The first of which occurred in 1953 when she struck Angelina Lauro. Thankfully, neither of the ships sustained enough damage to take them out of service. The Sun Vista, a cruise liner from Malaysia, capsized in the Malacca Strait on August 8, 1999, due to extreme listing caused by an engine room fire that took off power. The well-trained crew quickly boarded lifeboats with all of the passengers and crew after making a call for assistance from nearby ships.

Although Costa is an Italian cruise ship company, it is owned by Carnival Corporation. The ship was previously known as the SS Monterey and had a capacity for 701 passengers and 360 crew. The vessel started taking on water and listing, so the tug boats cut here free and allowed how to sink. At the time of the incident, there were 34 people all onboard who were all extracted to safety.

How Many Cruise Ships Have Sunk?

So, let’s sate that interest (or quell those fears) with a guide on the cruise ships that have sunk in recent times. Captain Francesco Schettino veered off course, sailing too close to the island of Giglio. The ship struck a large rock, causing a 174-foot gash in the hull, leading to flooding and loss of power.

last cruise ship to sink

On June 14, 1931, the Saint-Philibert sank off the French coast. One year later, she ran aground on a reef near the island of Santorini. Onboard were 77 students from Paisley Magnet School in North Carolina. MV Explorer began her career in 1969 as MS Lindblad Explorer as the very first ship of her kind that was used to sail through the Antarctic Ocean.

I’ve also chosen not to include ships that served as a cruise ship for a small part of their life but were being used for other purposes when they sank. If the ship was mainly a cruise ship but was commandeered for war efforts, I’ve kept it in. For Concordia survivor Georgia Ananias, the COVID-19 infections are just the latest evidence that passenger safety still isn’t a top priority for the cruise ship industry. Passengers aboard the Concordia were largely left on their own to find life jackets and a functioning lifeboat after the captain steered the ship close too shore in a stunt. He then delayed an evacuation order until it was too late, with lifeboats unable to lower because the ship was listing too heavily. The sinking of the MS Estonia in 1994 was one of the worst maritime disasters of the 20th century.

Achille Lauro (December

Looking at the past 100 years, roughly one cruise ship has sunk every five years. While this may sound alarming, most of these occurred in the first half of the previous century. With that said, there have been some highly publicized cruise ship sinkings recently. In 1965, an ocean liner called Willem Ruys was changed into a cruise ship and renamed MS Achille Lauro. In 1953, she collided with the Angelino Lauro, though neither ship suffered extreme damage.

last cruise ship to sink

As the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro sailed off Somalia on November 30, 1994, a destructive engine room fire broke out and swiftly got out of control. Tragically, during a nocturnal emergency evacuation, two passengers perished. In approximately 55 minutes, the explosion destroyed much of the ship and caused serious damage.

This event is remembered as one of the major maritime tragedies of the early 20th century. Cunard Line has been operating ships since 1940 and is still active today. One of its famous ships is the Queen Mary 2, the last ocean liner still in service. This explains why the Mar Lines cruise line is involved in a lengthy lawsuit that caused the deadly explosion with the warehouse owners. With Giglio Island lying in a protected marine area, environmental issues relating to the Concordia wreck were of particular concern. The vessel was on the edge of an underwater cliff, leading to worries that the ship might slip and break apart, causing an oil spill.

Only 11 ocean cruise ships have sunk while on a cruise in the last 50 years. Assuming an average of 100 sailings per ship per year, and an average of 150 cruise ships in that time, that is odds of 1 in 68,000. Lusitania was a cruise ship that was launched for Cunard Line in 1906 – the same Cunard Line that still operates cruise ships today.

A rogue wave caused a cruise ship tragedy. They occur more often than you think. - Phys.org

A rogue wave caused a cruise ship tragedy. They occur more often than you think..

Posted: Wed, 07 Dec 2022 08:00:00 GMT [source]

There were 456 people on board the ship and tragically only 12 people survived – the remaining 442 bodies were all found. Most of the passengers were in their 60s or 70s and the ship capsized and sank very quickly. Officially named ‘Dongfang zhi Xing’, this Chinese river cruise ship would make regular sailings along the Yangtze River around the Three Gorges. In 2015, while sailing from Nanjing to Chongqing, she was caught in a storm and sank in waters just 15 metres deep. All 581 passengers and crew survived, but with no thanks to the captain and some of the crew, who were later convicted for abandoning the ship.

In the Black Sea, close to the Strait of Kerch, the Soviet passenger liner and the bulk freighter Pyotr Vasev collided. Admiral Nakhimov’s hull sustained a huge hole from the accident, which quickly caused the ship to flood. In a matter of hours, rescue ships and aircraft safely evacuated everyone else on board the sinking ship before it submerged beneath the water. The captain gave the order for the staff and passengers to leave the burning ship as smoke filled the halls.

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