The stories of shipwrecks have fascinated countless explorers and adventurers who are particularly interested in the goods that sank with the ship. This makes shipwrecks something like a sunken treasure waiting to be discovered beneath the waves of seas. However, shipwrecks have also resulted in huge loss of lives. New and advanced measures could not guarantee the safety of lives like in the case of the Titanic. This make shipwrecks the tombs of innocent people. Here is a list of top 10 shipwrecks you can call graves of innocents.
It is generally believed that this Tudor galleon sank in 1545 as Henry VIII watched from the shore. However, Mary Rose actually sank during a battle against the French in a strait north of the Isle of Wight. Around 400 sailors went down with it. She was discovered in 1971 and raised in 1982. The wreck is exhibited in a dockyard at Portsmouth.
Between August and October 1588, military action and storms combined to destroy the Spanish fleet off the British coast. About half the 130 ships that set sail were wrecked, killing about 4,000 men.
The Donna Paz sank off the Philippines on 20 December 1987, killing upto 3,000 people. This was the world’s worst passenger ferry disaster and the deadliest peacetime maritime disaster in history. The death toll from the incident made many dub the disaster as the ‘Titanic of Philippines’.
The German liner, laden with refugees, was torpedoed off Gdansk, Poland on January 30, 1945 by a Soviet submarine, S – 13. Between 5,348 and 7,800 people died, making this the worst ever marine disaster.
The British liner was torpedoed off the Irish coast by a German U – boat on May 7, 1915, resulting in the loss of 1,198 lives. For a brief period, the RMS Lusitania was the world’s biggest ship. Although a designated passenger liner, she carried munitions during the World War I thereby making itself a German target.
On September 3, 1878 the pleasure steamer was taking people on a holiday trip down the the Thames in London. She collided with another ship, the Bywell Castle, and 786 people lost their lives.
On April 27, 1865, the Sultana, a steamboat on the Mississippi River near Memphis, USA, was destroyed by a boiler explosion. This was the USA’s worst ever marine accident and a total of 1,547 people died.
This Chinese junk, carrying 2,000 passengers and 350,000 pieces of porcelain, sank in 1822. It was found in 1999 and its treasures sold for high prices. The sinking of Tek Sing, which means ‘True Star’ in Chinese, has been referred to as ‘Titanic of the East’.
On December 4, 1811 these three British warships were stranded off the Jutland coast. More than 2,000 people died. Not much is known about the incident but it was a big jolt to the then British empire and the world.
Inspiration of one of the biggest Hollywood flick, the “unsinkable” Titanic struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage on the night of April 14, 1912 and sank the next day, killing 1,517. The wreck was discovered and explored by Robert Ballard in 1986.