20th Century Shipping Disasters

1904
The General Slocum pleasure steamer, carrying 1,360 children and their escorts on a church outing, caught fire on New York's East River on 15 June. Over 900 people died, many when the decks collapsed; others were hit by the still-turning paddles, and still others were trampled in the panic. More than 400 escaped but all of them sustained injuries.

1912
Titanic, the great ocean liner and pride of the White Star fleet, proclaimed unsinkable because of her 16 watertight compartments, sank on 15 April after striking an iceberg. Between 1,500 and 1,635 of those who had been on board died because of a lack of lifeboats and other inadequate safety measures; 706 survived. The disaster led to the first International Convention for Safety at Sea.

1914
The high-speed liner Empress of Ireland collided with the Norwegian collier Storstad in thick fog on the St Lawrence River in Canada on 29 May. Of the 1,057 passengers, only 217 survived.

1917
On 6 December, the freighter Mont Blanc collided with the Norwegian tramp steamer Imo off Halifax, Nova Scotia. The Mont Blanc's cargo of explosives was set ablaze, and the ship drifted into a pier. Then the Mont Blanc was ripped apart by an enormous explosion - the largest detonated before the dropping of the first atomic bomb. At least 1,963 people on shore died and well over 9,000 were injured; buildings were destroyed over a 16-mile radius.

1940
HMS Lancastria, a Royal Navy warship, went down off the French coast in June with the loss of 4,000 lives.

1945
On 30 January, at least 5,348 people lost their lives when the Nazi ship Wilhelm Gustloff, packed with German refugees, was torpedoed in the Baltic off Poland by the Soviet submarine S-13 - the greatest loss of life associated with any maritime disaster.

1967
On 18 March, in broad daylight, the Liberian tanker Torrey Canyon ran aground 18 miles west of Lands End, in south-west England, spilling 37 million gallons of oil into the sea. At the time, it was the world's worst oil pollution disaster - extending over 260 square kilometres (100 square miles) and drastically polluting 120 miles of England's southern coastline and 55 miles of Brittany's - and the impact on public opinion was enormous.

1980
On 9 September, the bulk carrier Derbyshire, bound for the Japanese port of Kawasaki, sent its last message: 'Vessel hove to violent storm force 11.' The storm was Typhoon Orchid, and the ship was never heard from again - the biggest British ship ever to be lost at sea. Every one of the crew of 44 perished. In 1996, the wreckage of Derbyshire was located at a depth of 4 km (2.4 miles). Pictures of her hull, taken by a mini-submarine, showed a huge hole near its stern. Five other bulk carriers built in the same way had suffered cracks in this area.

In 1998 an investigation into the fate of Derbyshire concluded that the bulk carrier had not been split in two. Rather, as the full force of Typhoon Orchid struck the bulk carrier, the hatch covers over its holds had been blown in and the ship had been sunk by thousands of tons of water. It had all happened so quickly that no SOS could have been sent. Since Derbyshire's sinking, over 300 other bulk carriers have been lost.

1987
On 6 March, the Townsend Thoresen cross-Channel ferry Herald of Free Enterprise capsized outside the Belgian port of Zeebrugge on 6 March with the loss of 135 lives. Its bow door had been improperly closed, allowing the car deck to flood.

1987
The passenger ferry Doña Paz sank off the Philippines on 21 December after colliding with the motor tanker Vector, which was carrying 8,800 barrels of petroleum products. Both ships were quickly ablaze and sank in minutes. On the ferry, only 21 survived from a passenger list of over 4,400.

1989
On 23 March, the 300-metre (987 foot) supertanker Exxon Valdez set out on a routine voyage from the Alaskan oil terminal at Valdez to ports on the US west coast. Small icebergs had been reported, and the ship's captain, Joseph Hazelwood, received permission to vary his route, moving into the northbound shipping lane. The captain then went to bed, telling the watch officer to revert to the southbound lane once a particular island had been reached. Just after midnight, Exxon Valdez struck Bligh Reef. Oil began to gush out of its hull, which had been holed. In time, over 11 million gallons would be discharged into Prince William Sound.

Ten hours elapsed before the Valdez terminal's emergency teams arrived. They tried to contain the oil by deploying booms and skimmers, but these only trapped the surface oil. Aircraft attempted to break up the oil by spraying chemicals on it. The remainder of Exxon Valdez's oil was transferred to another tanker, but too much had already escaped. Finally, efforts were made to burn off the oil but this merely polluted the atmosphere.

The result was the worst case of oil pollution in history, which had a devastating effect on the local ecology and economy. Exxon Valdez's captain was charged with criminal mischief, driving a watercraft while intoxicated, reckless endangerment and the negligent discharge of oil. He was found guilty on the last count.

1993
In January, off the Shetland islands north of Scotland, the tanker Braer lost power when her engines became flooded in gale force winds while en route to Canada. The ship ran aground and broke into three sections. Some 84,000 tons of oil were discharged into the sea, prompting predictions of another disaster on the scale of Exxon Valdez. However, very choppy seas prevented an oil slick from forming.

It later emerged that the captain of the Braer had placed his vessel at risk by trying to pass to the south of the Shetlands rather than traverse the open seas to the north. He had wanted to seek shelter from the storm but only exposed his ship to greater danger.

1994
The ferry Estonia, plying the Baltic between Stockholm and Tallinn, capsized on 28 September when its bow door failed and, like the Herald of Free Enterprise, its car deck flooded. At least 838 people died, with just 144 survivors.

1996
On 15 February, the single-hulled tanker Sea Empress ran aground near Milford Haven harbour in south-west Wales. The ship was pulled clear but, in stormy weather, released nearly 72,000 tons of oil into the sea.