Shipwrecked in World War II. The most famous maritime disasters in the world. Prestigious holidays and special operations
Everyone knows the story of the ill-fated Titanic. But at the same time, few people even suspect that the case of the Titanic is only the third shipwreck in terms of the number of victims. History has also known much larger oceanic tragedies. In this review we will talk about the most terrible shipwrecks, which became a real shock for the world.
1. The greatest victims in wartime
In January 1945 this german ship, which evacuated civilian and Nazi troops who were surrounded by the Red Army in East Prussia, sank after being hit by three torpedoes in the Baltic Sea.
After being hit by torpedoes to starboard, the ship sank in less than 45 minutes. An estimated 9,400 people lost their lives, making this the largest shipwreck in terms of loss of life in history.
2. The greatest victims in non-war time
Philippine passenger ferry The Doña Paz sank after colliding with the tanker Vector on 20 December 1987, with the loss of 4,375 lives. After a collision with a tanker carrying 1,399,088 liters of gasoline, a huge fire broke out that caused the survivors aboard the Don Paz to jump into the shark-infested waters overboard.
3. The death of 1,198 people in 18 minutes
This British ocean liner ran between Liverpool, England and New York, USA. During World War I, the ship was hit by a German torpedo on 7 May 1915 and then sank within just 18 minutes of being hit.
The disaster killed 1,198 people out of 1,959 on board. Attack on passenger liner turned many countries against Germany, and also contributed to the entry of the United States into the First World War.
4. The biggest losses in the British fleet
This British ocean liner was requisitioned by the government during World War II. She was sunk on 17 June 1940 with over 4,000 deaths. It is considered the worst disaster among British ships. Died during the sinking of the Lancastria more people than in the shipwreck of the Titanic and the Lusitania combined.
5. The worst disaster in Canadian history
This Canadian ocean liner sank in the St. Lawrence River after colliding with a Norwegian coal carrier on May 29, 1914. The accident killed 1,012 people (840 passengers and 172 crew members). After the collision, the ship listed on board so quickly that it became impossible to lower the lifeboats.
6. The death of 6,000 people in 7 minutes
“A German transport ship was carrying 6,100 documented passengers on board (and possibly over a hundred undocumented) when it was torpedoed on April 16, 1945 by a Soviet submarine in the Baltic Sea during World War II.
Just seven minutes after the torpedo hit, the ship sank, killing almost all passengers and crew. This shipwreck is considered the second in the history of navigation in terms of the number of victims.
7. The highest number of victims in the US Navy
On July 30, 1945, shortly after delivering critical parts for the first atomic bomb used in combat to the US air base on Tinian Island, the ship was torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-58 and sank in just 12 minutes.
Of the 1196 crew members on board, only 317 survived (about 300 immediately drowned with the ship, and the rest did not wait for help, which arrived only after 4 days).
8. The death of "Le Yola"
A Senegalese ferry capsized off the Gambian coast on 26 September 2002, killing at least 1,863 people. The sinking of the Le Yola ferry is considered the second largest non-military maritime disaster after the Doña Paz. The ferry was heavily overloaded, so after falling into a storm, it capsized in just 5 minutes.
9. Destroyed the city
This French cargo ship loaded with ammunition exploded in the harbor of Halifax (Canada) on December 6, 1917, killing 2,000 residents of the city and its environs. The explosion was caused by a collision with the Norwegian ship Imo.
10 Most Famous Shipwreck
This is perhaps the most famous maritime tragedy of all times. The Titanic was a passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on April 15, 1912 after colliding with an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Southampton, UK to New York, USA. The Titanic disaster resulted in 1,514 deaths.
And in continuation of the topic, we have collected.
Since ancient times, when a man became a navigator, he constantly faced the danger of perishing in the seas. underwater reefs and rocks, "killer waves", the notorious human factor and other reasons have led and may continue to lead to disasters in the sea. Even the twentieth century, with its steel and strong ships, lightning-fast communications and radars, did not save the ship from destruction. Where and for what reasons did famous shipwrecks occur in world history?
1.
"Titanic" - the main maritime disaster of the XX century
The British liner has earned the title of the most recognizable sunken ship in the world. Many things contributed to this. Even before the launch, newspapers and magazines called the Titanic unsinkable, and for good reason - the hold and lower decks were equipped with airtight doors, and the double bottom made it possible to maintain buoyancy during leaks.
The excitement around the popular and luxurious liner has led to the fact that tickets for her first and last flight from the UK to the US turned out to be more expensive than other similar ships. This is not only about the first class, in which some well-known entrepreneurs, writers and public figures hurried to take their places. The attention of the public only strengthened the impression of the coming tragedy ...
Encountering icebergs has been a common threat to ships in North Atlantic in the spring season, but huge ice floes often left ships with only scratches. The command of the Titanic (which, recall, was nicknamed "unsinkable") could not imagine the serious consequences of a collision with ice. In addition, it was necessary to follow the schedule and go at high speed.
2.
On the fifth day of its journey from the British port of Southampton to New York, on the night of April 15, 1912, the Titanic collided with an iceberg. It was dark, and the barrier was not noticed in time. Long holes allowed water to fill the holds above the bulkheads. Two and a half hours later, the ship went under water. Due to the lack of boats, about one and a half thousand people could not escape and drowned in the waters of the ocean.
3.
"Dona Paz" - a collision of a ferry with a tanker
After the sinking of the Titanic, the largest maritime disaster in peacetime was the death of the Philippine ferry Doña Paz. Its history is not at all like the history of an expensive and brand new liner. At the time of the crash, the Doña Paz had been serving the people for two decades. The ferry was built by the Japanese and, after many years of operation, was sold to the Philippines. 
Poor Asian country to the last, she used the ship on her domestic shipping lines. There were no navigational instruments on it, there was only one person on the captain's bridge at the time of the disaster - a sailor's student, and the rest of the team in the cockpit watched TV and drank beer.
On December 20, 1987, the Doña Paz collided with the tanker Vector with oil products on board. The crew of the tanker, by the way, also did not show much vigilance and a professional attitude to their duties - they did not accept attempts to change course in advance. The tanker caught fire, both ships began to sink, and the passengers in a panic threw themselves into the water, where burning fuel was already spilling on the surface.
Due to the extreme overcrowding of the ferry, the exact number of passengers was unknown, so the victims were not counted immediately, but only after many years of investigation. The dead, as it turned out, were almost 4.5 thousand. Only 24 passengers survived the crash.
4.
"Sultana" - the largest river shipwreck
Not only sea spaces posed a danger to ships. The largest crash in river waters considered the death of the American steamer "Sultana", plying the Mississippi River in 1865. In the USA this year ended Civil War, and the captive northerners finally got their freedom. The captain of the ship "Sultana" James Mason agreed to take on board more than two thousand former captives and transport them to the northern states.
In the middle of the night on April 27, 1865, a boiler exploded on the ship. Part of the deck, along with people sleeping peacefully on it - who had nowhere else to stay - collapsed down. One pipe from the power of the explosion flew overboard, and the other fell on the bow of the ship. wooden ship easily caught fire, and the headwind in the direction of the ship only intensified the fire. Some people escaped in boats, some - by swimming, but nevertheless, the death toll exceeded 1,700 people.
5.
The exact cause of the explosion could not be established. Most likely, the poor design of the boilers, the use of dirty water from the Mississippi, which clogged the mechanisms, and the overcrowding of the ship played a role. There were also more exotic versions: the former agent of the southerners, Robert Lowden, later said that it was he who planted the bomb on the ship - although this statement was probably pure bravado.
6.
"Novorossiysk" - an explosion at a combat post
Warships often go down during battles. The Italian battleship "Giulio Cesare" survived two world wars and was transferred to Soviet Union for reparations. The ship, outdated at that time, was repaired for several years and in 1955 was included in the Black Sea Fleet under the name Novorossiysk. According to some estimates, at that time it could be considered the most powerful Soviet warship. 
7.
Ship "Giulio Cesare" before transfer to the USSR
"Novorossiysk" served the new motherland for a very short time, only several times going to sea to practice combat missions and participating in the celebrations on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the defense of Sevastopol. On the night of October 29, 1955, an explosion was heard on a moored ship. The hull was pierced, and more than 150 people in the bow quarters died.
The causes of the explosion remained unclear. sabotage from the side foreign states failed to prove. The official investigation considered that the most likely source of the explosion was a German bottom mine, placed in the bay during the war. 
Battleship "Novorossiysk" on the roads of Sevastopol
The disaster, unfortunately, did not end with an explosion. "Novorossiysk" immediately tried to be towed in shallow water, but its bow sat on the ground and the ship began to roll rapidly on its side, and then completely went under water. The decision to evacuate the sailors was made too late, and they were locked in an overturned ship. As a result, the number of lost lives exceeded 800 people.
8.
"Thresher" - the largest death of a submarine
The main disaster in the Russian submarine fleet is considered the death of the Kurs. However, in world history there was a similar case that led to the death of a larger crew. The American nuclear submarine "Thresher" in 1963 conducted strength tests during deep-sea diving. 
On April 10, 1963, in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, the Thresher was supposed to descend to a test depth of 360 meters. Approaching this depth, the boat stopped responding to calls. In the last and heavily distorted message from the boat, the words "deep to the limit" were made out, followed by noise. Subsequently, it was identified as the noise of a collapsing hull.
As the investigation established, due to poor-quality soldering of the seam, water entered the reactor, and it failed. The boat could not emerge and began to sink to the bottom until the destruction of the strong hull. 129 people on board drowned with her.
9.
"Admiral Nakhimov" - a collision of two ships
Even with modern navigational instruments, ship collisions are possible due to the human factor. Such an example was the story of the collapse of the Soviet passenger ship "Admiral Nakhimov". The fate of the ship was somewhat similar to the Novorossiysk: it was also built abroad, in Germany, and after the war was transferred to the Soviet fleet.
Despite its age, the Admiral Nakhimov made cruises without accidents or incidents. He successfully transported passengers to long distance up to Cuba and Saudi Arabia. The depreciation of the vessel made itself felt, and at the end of 1986 it was planned to write it off from Cherno's balance shipping company.
Unfortunately, things turned out differently. On the evening of August 31, 1986, while making a flight from Novorossiysk to Sochi, the Admiral Nakhimov crossed the course with another ship, the dry cargo ship Pyotr Vasyov. This happened due to uncoordinated actions of the crews: the passenger liner slightly changed its course, and the captain of the Pyotr Vasyov did not take this into account and did not pay attention to the radar screen in time.
10.
"Pyotr Vasyov" after the collision
The cargo ship rammed the Admiral Nakhimov. The liner tilted heavily, which made it impossible to launch the boats into the water. "Admiral Nakhimov" went under water just 8 minutes after the collision. Passengers in a hurry fled on rafts or by swimming, someone, due to panic, did not even have time to get out of the cabins and corridors, and many did not even have enough life jackets. More than 400 of the 1,200 on board did not survive the night.
On April 16, 1945, exactly 117 years after the death of Francisco Goya, the Goya ship was sunk by a torpedo attack carried out by a Soviet submarine. This catastrophe, which claimed 7,000 lives, was the largest shipwreck in world history.
"Goya" was Norwegian cargo ship, requisitioned by the Germans. On April 16, 1945, it did not work out in the morning. The bombardment to which the ship was subjected became a grim omen of the coming catastrophe. Despite the defense, during the fourth raid, the projectile still hit the bow of the Goya. Several people were injured, but the ship remained afloat and it was decided not to cancel the flight.
For "Goya" it was the fifth evacuation flight from the advancing units of the Red Army. During the four previous campaigns, almost 20,000 refugees, wounded and soldiers were evacuated.
The Goya went on its last flight loaded to capacity. Passengers were in the aisles, on the stairs, in the holds. Not everyone had documents, so the exact number of passengers has not yet been established, from 6000 to 7000. All of them believed that the war was over for them, made plans and were full of hope ...
The ships (Goya was escorted by a convoy) were already at sea when, at 22:30, surveillance noticed an unidentified silhouette on the right side of the ship. Everyone was ordered to put on rescue residents. There were only 1500 of them on board the Goya. In addition, on one of the ships of the group, the Kronenfels, there was a breakdown in the engine room. Waiting for the end of the repair work, the ships lay adrift. An hour later, the ships continued on their way.
At 23:45, the Goya shuddered from a powerful torpedo attack. The Soviet submarine L-3, following the ships, began to act.
Panic broke out on the Goya. Jochen Hannema, a German tanker who became one of the few survivors, recalled: “Water rushed out of the huge holes formed as a result of torpedo hits. The ship broke into two parts and began to sink rapidly. All that was heard was the eerie rumble of a huge mass of water.
A huge ship, devoid of partitions, sank in some 20 minutes. Only 178 people survived.
"Wilhelm Gustlow"
On January 30, 1945, at 21:15, the S-13 submarine discovered in Baltic waters escorted German transport "Wilhelm Gustlov", on board which was, according to modern estimates, over 10 thousand people, most of whom were refugees from East Prussia: old people, children, women. But also on the Gustlov were German submarine cadets, crew members and other military personnel.
Submarine captain Alexander Marinesko began hunting. For almost three hours, the Soviet submarine followed the giant transporter (the displacement of the Gustlov was over 25 thousand tons. For comparison: the steamer Titanic and the battleship Bismarck had a displacement of about 50 thousand tons).
Having chosen the moment, Marinesko attacked the Gustlov with three torpedoes, each of which hit the target. The fourth torpedo with the inscription "For Stalin" got stuck. The submariners miraculously managed to avoid an explosion on the boat.
Avoiding the pursuit of the German military escort, the S-13 was bombed by over 200 depth charges.
The sinking of the Wilhelm Gustlov is considered one of the major disasters V maritime history. According to official figures, 5,348 people died in it, according to some historians, real losses could exceed 9,000.
They were called the "Ships of Hell". These were Japanese merchant ships used to transport prisoners of war and workers (in fact, slaves, who were nicknamed "romushi") to the territories occupied by the Japanese during the Second World War. The “ships of hell” were not officially part of the Japanese navy and did not have identification marks, but the allied forces drowned them no less fiercely from this. In total, 9 "Ships of Hell" were sunk during the war, on which almost 25 thousand people died.
It is worth saying that the British and Americans could not have been unaware of the "cargo" that was transported on the ships, since the Japanese ciphers were deciphered.
The biggest disaster occurred on September 18, 1944. The British submarine Tradewind torpedoed the Japanese ship Junyo Maru. From the rescue equipment on the ship, packed with prisoners of war to the eyeballs, there were two lifeboats and several rafts. On board were 4.2 thousand workers, 2.3 thousand prisoners of war Americans, Australians, British, Dutch and Indonesians.
The conditions in which the slaves had to survive on ships were simply horrendous. Many went crazy, died of exhaustion and stuffiness. When the torpedoed ship began to sink, there was no chance for the ship's prisoners to escape. The boats accompanying the "ship of hell" took only the Japanese and a small part of the prisoners on board. In total, 680 prisoners of war and 200 romushi remained alive.
This was the case when the living envied the dead. The miraculously escaped captives were sent to their destination - to the construction railway to Sumatra. The chances of surviving there were not much greater than on the ill-fated ship.
"Armenia"
The cargo-passenger ship "Armenia" was built in Leningrad and was used on the Odessa-Batumi line. During the Great Patriotic War in August 1941, "Armenia" was converted into a medical transport ship. The board and deck began to be "decorated" with large red crosses, which, in theory, were supposed to protect the ship from attacks, but ...
During the defense of Odessa, "Armenia" made 15 flights to the besieged city, from where more than 16 thousand people were taken on board. Last flight"Armenia" was a campaign from Sevastopol to Tuapse in November 1941. On November 6, having taken on board the wounded, almost the entire medical personnel of the Black Sea Fleet and civilians, "Armenia" left Sevastopol.
At night, the ship arrived in Yalta. The captain of the "Armenia" was forbidden to make the transition to Tuapse during daylight hours, but the military situation dictated otherwise. The port of Yalta did not have cover to protect against German air raids, and German troops were already on the near approaches to the city. And there wasn't much choice...
At 8 am on November 7, "Armenia" left Yalta and headed for Tuapse. At 11:25 a.m., the ship was attacked by a German He-111 torpedo bomber and sank less than 5 minutes after the torpedo hit the bow. Between 4,000 and 7,500 people were killed along with "Armenia", and only eight managed to escape. So far, the reasons for this terrible tragedy cause controversy.
"Dona Paz"
The sinking of the Doña Paz ferry is the largest shipwreck that has occurred in peacetime. This tragedy has become a cruel lesson, denouncing greed, unprofessionalism and slovenliness. The sea, as you know, does not forgive mistakes, and in the case of the Dania Paz, mistakes followed one after another.
The ferry was built in Japan in 1963. At that time it was called "Himeuri Maru". In 1975, he was sold to the Philippines for a profit. Since that time, he has been exploited even more than mercilessly. Designed to carry a maximum of 608 passengers, it was usually packed to capacity, seating between 1,500 and 4,500 people.
Ferry performed twice a week Passenger Transportation on the route Manila - Tacloban - Catbalogan - Manila - Catbalogan - Tacloban - Manila. On December 20, 1987, Doña Paz retired last voyage from Tacloban to Manila. This flight was filled with a maximum of passengers - the Filipinos were in a hurry to the capital for the New Year.
At ten in the evening of the same day, the ferry collided with the huge tanker "Vector". From the collision, both ships literally broke in half, thousands of tons of oil spilled into the ocean. The explosion caused a fire. The chances of salvation were reduced to almost zero. The situation was aggravated by the fact that the ocean at the site of the tragedy was teeming with sharks.
One survivor, Paquito Osabel, later recalled: " Neither the sailors nor the ship's officers reacted in any way to what was happening. Everyone demanded life jackets and a lifeboat, but there were none. The lockers where the vests were kept were locked, and the keys could not be found. The boats were thrown into the water just like that, without any preparation. Panic, chaos, chaos reigned".
The rescue operation began only eight hours after the tragedy. 26 people were caught from the sea. 24 are passengers of the Doñi Paz, two are sailors from the tanker Vektor. Official statistics, which cannot be trusted, speak of the death of 1,583 people. More objective, independent experts claim that 4,341 people died in the disaster.
"Cap Arkona"
"Cap Arcona" was one of the largest passenger ships Germany, displacement - 27,561 tons. Having survived almost the entire war, Cap Arkona died after the capture of Berlin by the Allied forces, when on May 3, 1945 the liner was sunk by British bombers.
Benjamin Jacobs, one of the prisoners at Cap Arcona, wrote in his book The Dentist of Auschwitz: " Suddenly the planes appeared. We clearly saw their insignia. "It's the English! Look, we are KaTsetniki! We are prisoners of concentration camps!” we shouted and waved our hands at them. We waved our striped camp hats and pointed to our striped clothes, but there was no compassion for us. The British began to throw napalm at the shaking and burning Cap Arcona. On the next run, the planes descended, now they were at a distance of 15 m from the deck, we could clearly see the pilot's face and thought that we had nothing to be afraid of. But then bombs rained down from the belly of the plane... Some fell on the deck, others into the water... Machine guns fired at us and at those who jumped into the water. The water around the sinking bodies turned red".
On board the blazing Cap Arcona, more than 4,000 prisoners were burned to death or suffocated by the smoke. Some prisoners managed to break free and jump into the sea. Those who managed to avoid the sharks were picked up by trawlers. 350 prisoners, many of whom suffered from burns, managed to get out before the liner capsized. They swam ashore, but became victims of the SS. In total, 5594 people died on Cap Arcone.
"Lancasteria"
About the tragedy that occurred on June 17, 1940, Western historiography prefers to remain silent. Moreover, a veil of oblivion covered this terrible catastrophe the day it happened. This is due to the fact that on the same day France surrendered to the Nazi troops, and Winston Churchill decided not to report anything about the death of the ship, as this could break the morale of the British. This is not surprising: the Lancaster disaster was the largest mass death of the British during the Second World War, the number of victims exceeded the sum of the victims of the death of the Titanic and Louisitania.
Liner "Lancastria" was built in 1920 and after the outbreak of World War II was operated as a military ship. On June 17, he evacuated troops from Norway. The German bomber Junkers 88, which noticed the ship, began bombing. The liner was hit by 10 bombs. According to official figures, there were 4,500 soldiers and 200 crew members on board. About 700 people were saved. According to unofficial data published in Brian Crabb's book on the disaster, it is said that the number of victims is deliberately underestimated.
The history of shipbuilding and sailing on various watercraft dates back several millennia. People sailed on boats, sailboats, nuclear icebreakers. During this time, there have been many shipwrecks, most often due to the human factor. Some shipwrecks were large, with thousands dead and injured.
The largest disasters by the number of victims
Conventionally, the largest shipwrecks can be divided into two groups and the ratings can be derived by the number of dead and the size of the ships.
Many of the top ten biggest crashes occurred during wartime as a result of hostilities. The ranking by death toll is as follows:
11th place - "Louisitania"
One of the largest English passenger liners, which died at the beginning of the First World War. The vessel, which at that time had no identification marks, was torpedoed by a German submarine and sank within 18 minutes. Nearly 1200 people died. It is believed that the destruction of the liner provoked a change in public opinion against Kaiser Germany and was one of the reasons for the US entry into the war.
10th place - "Fort Stykin"
The steamer has an official capacity of 7142 tons. At the time of the crash, there were about 1,500 tons of explosives in the holds and about 10,000 tons of other cargo, including 8,700 tons of cotton. Safety precautions when loading the ship were violated. At 2 pm on April 12, 1944, a fire started, but it was not possible to stop it. As a result, the fire reached the hold with explosives and several powerful explosions. The main consequences were from the burning cotton scattered over a distance of a kilometer, which set fire to many houses, ships, warehouses. According to official statistics alone, there were 1376 dead. The strength of the explosion can be judged by the fact that the resulting tidal wave carried the ship, which was not far from the steamer and had a displacement of about 4000 tons, to a height of 17 meters.
9th place - "Titanic"
The wreck of this ship went down in history and became a symbol of the largest shipwrecks; one of the best films about the Titanic disasters, beloved by many, was shot about it. A total of three ships of this class were produced. At the time of construction, it was the largest passenger liner in the world. Length - almost 270 meters, width - 28. The ship died as a result of a collision with a large iceberg in the first big cruise. At the time of the crash, there were 2,224 people on board, including passengers and crew members. It is reliably known that only 711 people were saved, the bodies of many of the dead were not found.
8th place - "Imo" and "Mont Blanc"
The crash happened in 1917. Mont Blanc - large French cargo Ship, loaded with several types of explosives. In the Canadian harbor adjacent to the city of Halifax, this ship collided with the Norwegian ship Imo. The explosion that followed the collision is considered the most powerful in the entire pre-nuclear era. The port and part of the city were completely destroyed, total number The death toll from the explosion itself and its consequences reached 2,000. About 9,000 more were injured of varying severity.
7th place - Provence
Flagship French ship that neutralized the Greek fleet. One of the largest auxiliary cruisers of its time. Sunk after being hit German torpedo in February 1916. About 4 thousand people were on board, 3130 of them died.
6th place - "General Steuben"
A large German passenger liner, converted into a floating hospital during the war. In 1945 he carried out the evacuation from East Prussia from the Soviet troops. Torpedoed on February 10, 1945. According to the statements of the commander of the boat that torpedoed the liner, he was sure that this was a large military cruiser. More than 3600 people died.
5th place - Tanker "Vector" and ferry "Dona Paz"
The largest shipwreck that occurred in peacetime. In December 1987, a Philippine ferry collided with a tanker. As a result, about 4,400 people died.
4th place - "Armenia"
Soviet ship, sunk in 1941 by the German Air Force near the Crimean coast. The number of dead is not known exactly, according to various sources - from 3 to 5 thousand people.
3rd place - "Goya"
Norwegian ship confiscated by the Germans. In 1945, she carried out the sea evacuation of people from the Red Army. On April 16, the ship was torpedoed by a Soviet submarine and sank. The estimated death toll is over 6,000.
2nd place - "Tilbek" and "Cap Arkona"
Two German ships that died as a result of a British air strike in May 1945. The approximate death toll is 8 thousand people, mostly prisoners of concentration camps to be evacuated. The exact reasons for the air raid remain unknown.
1st place - "Wilhelm Gustlov"
Record holder for the number of human casualties in known maritime history. In the first half of the 40s, it was used by the German armed forces as a floating hospital. In January 1945 the ship was torpedoed by a Soviet submarine. According to researchers, the death toll exceeded 9 thousand people.
Major cargo ship disasters
To this day, the sinking of the Amoco tanker Cadiz remains one of the biggest oil disasters. Not far from the British coast, the tanker ran aground and broke in two. This resulted in a spill of more than one and a half million barrels of oil.
Among other wrecks of large ships, incidents with container ships can be separately noted. These are one of the largest ships in the world, carrying multi-ton cargo, and each such disaster leads to billions in losses. So, in June 2013, one of the largest container ships– Mol Comfort with 2400 containers on board. The specific value of the cargo is unknown, claims against insurers amounted to about $400 million. A year and a half after the shipwreck, and some time after the completion of the investigation, the insurance companies filed a lawsuit on the grounds that the disaster was caused by problems in the ship's design itself.
Among common causes that cause crashes, there are several:
- Combat operations, including terrorist attacks.
- Human factor - insufficient crew experience, etc.
- Other factors: violation of safety regulations, improper distribution of cargo, leading to deformation, exceeding the maximum permissible load of the vessel, etc.
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On August 31, 1986, in the port of Novorossiysk, the cargo ship "Peter Vasev" rammed the steamer "Admiral Nakhimov", as a result, a hole of about 90 square meters was formed in the board of the "Nakhimov". There were 1,243 people on board the cruise ship at the time, of which 423 died.
Assigned to Odessa, "Admiral Nakhimov" was built in 1925 in Germany and was then called "Berlin". Until 1939 he made regular flights through Atlantic Ocean. Since the beginning of World War II, she was part of the German Navy as a hospital ship. In 1945, at the mouth of the Svine River, he hit a mine and sank at a depth of 13 meters. In 1946, the ship passed to the Soviet Union as war reparations and was renamed "Admiral Nakhimov". In 1949-1957, the ship underwent a major overhaul in the GDR. Since 1957, the ship has been on the balance sheet of the Black Sea Shipping Company and made cruise voyages along the Black Sea coast. Since the late 1970s, its operation was limited to cruises along the Crimean-Caucasian line between the ports of Odessa, Yalta, Novorossiysk, Sochi, Sukhumi, Batumi, since the ship did not meet the requirements of the SOLAS-1974 Convention on the safety of navigation.
Its last scheduled repair and classification of "Admiral Nakhimov" took place in January-April 1985 in Varna (Bulgaria), and then it was assigned a service life until November 30, 1986.
The ship was 174 meters long, 21 meters wide and 12 meters high. The ship had two swimming pools, a cinema hall, dance floors, a library, music and ladies' salons, a restaurant, a children's canteen, etc.
On August 31, 1986, in accordance with the cruise plan at 2 pm, the Admiral Nakhimov steamer arrived in Novorossiysk, where it remained until 10 pm. During the stay, the ship's passengers had the opportunity to walk around the city, get acquainted with local attractions. Due to the hot weather, the portholes were opened in the cabins, as the ventilation on the ship was not very good, especially on the lower decks.
At 22.00 the ship under the command of the captain long-distance navigation Vadim Markov departed from the pier of Novorossiysk and followed to the exit from the Tsemesskaya Bay, in the northwestern part of which the city is located. The ship was heading south, along the Black Sea coast, to the resort city of Sochi. There were 346 crew members and 897 passengers on board.
At the same time, the cargo ship-dry cargo ship "Pyotr Vasev" entered the Tsemess Bay ( greater displacement), which carried about 30,000 tons of barley from Canada. The ship was built in Japan in 1981 and is equipped with the latest navigational and navigational aids. The commander of the dry cargo ship (bulk carrier) was Captain Viktor Tkachenko.
The ships approached on intersecting courses. According to all international maritime rules, the one who is on the left gives way first, i.e. steamer "Admiral Nakhimov". In this situation, it was enough for the Admiral Nakhimov steamer to turn 25-30 degrees to the right, and the ships would freely disperse on their left sides. But this time the coastal ship regulation post decided differently. The controllers offered the captain of the cargo ship Viktor Tkachenko to let the passenger ship through, to which he agreed. After that, both ships got in touch with each other and clarified the details of the maneuver. At a distance of 2.5 miles (4.6 kilometers) from each other, the watchman of the steamer once again specified the order of passage of the course, to which he received a positive response from the watchman on the bulk carrier.
Both ships were approaching. When there was 1.5 miles (2.8 kilometers) between them, the watchman on the steamer several times requested confirmation by radio that the cargo ship was giving way to them. To which a positive response was received.
The captain of the cargo ship, Viktor Tkachenko, really did not see any reason for concern, since he did not observe the surrounding situation, but completely relied on the automatic radar plotting system, which did not show a dangerous approach.
At 23.05, Captain Tkachenko, after another call from the steamer "Admiral Nakhimov" to give way, finally gave the command to slow down, and then "full astern", but the cargo ship continued to move forward by inertia. At this time, the watch officer on the ship twice gave the command to turn five degrees off course, and then "full back".
At 23.12 there was a collision of ships at an angle close to a straight line, when they were at a distance of four kilometers from the coast of Cape Doob. "Pyotr Vasev" crashed with a bulb - the underwater part of the bow - into the starboard side of the passenger steamer, the blow fell between the engine and boiler rooms. As experts later found out, a hole was formed nine by ten meters in size. Having run into the "Admiral Nakhimov", the bulk carrier hovered on it for a few seconds with its bow, and only then only heavily stepped back. Then the experts calculated: only six seconds were not enough for the two ships to freely disperse.
After disengaging, the Admiral Nakhimov went forward by inertia and began to list sharply to starboard due to the incoming huge masses of outboard water. A minute later, all the lights on the ship went out. After about 1-2 minutes, the second mechanic of the ship managed to start the emergency diesel generator. The light came on again, but the emergency lighting worked for about two minutes, after which the light went out completely.
After the impact, the ship moved by inertia to the southeast for another 900 meters, gradually laying on the starboard side and sinking. All this time, on the deck of the ship, sailors lowered boats and dropped rafts, thanks to which hundreds of people saved their lives. 7-8 minutes after the collision, the Admiral Nakhimov sank, dragging along a lot of people who did not have time to sail away, as well as those who did not have time to get out of the labyrinth of numerous passages, ladders, and doors of the ship. Those crew members who went to the lower decks to help the passengers who lived there also died, to find their life jackets, put them on and go out onto the open deck.
The ship lay down on the bottom of the Tsemesskaya Bay on the starboard side to a depth of 47 meters.
Five minutes after the steamship "Admiral Nakhimov" sank, the cargo ship "Pyotr Vasev", which was damaged, began to move towards the crash site, but after a while stopped moving, fearing to crush people in the water. A motorboat was lowered from it, which went to the crash site. People from the sunken ship began to swim up to the cargo ship. They could not lower the ladder from it, and not everyone had the strength to climb onto the rope ladders (storm ladders) and ropes.
Boats, ships, boats and boats were sent to the accident area from Novorossiysk to provide assistance to the victims. The pilot boat LK-90 was the first to approach the site of the death of the "steamboat" Admiral Nakhimov ", whose crew rescued 80 people. The approaching military border boat rescued 146 passengers, another boat - 86 people. As a result of rescue work, 820 people were rescued from the water. In the hull 344 people remained on the ground in the disaster area, of which 279 of the dead were soon raised by divers. two divers were killed.
The sunken ship gradually sank into the silt and by September 18 had gone into it by 1.5 meters. It became extremely dangerous to work in the compartments of the ship, and therefore, on September 19, an order was issued to stop diving operations associated with the search for the dead.
In total, 423 people died in this disaster. About 60 floating facilities, 18 helicopters and aircraft, 223 divers were involved in rescue operations.
According to experts, the cause of the tragedy was the wrong actions of the captains of both ships. They survived and were sentenced to 15 years in prison. The captain of the "Pyotr Vasev" Tkachenko was released early in 1992, later emigrated to Israel and died tragically in 2003. The captain of the "Admiral Nakhimov" Markov was also released in 1992 and continued to work as a mentor captain on the ships of the Black Sea Shipping Company. He died in May 2007 after a serious illness.
Motor ship "Pyotr Vasev" in 1986 was renamed "Podolsk". Then the ship changed its owner and name on board several times. last name- "JIAJIAXIN 1" (Panama flag). Decommissioned 24 September 2012, broken up for scrap in Bangladesh.
The ship "Admiral Nakhimov" still rests at the bottom of the sea. An area with a radius of 500 meters is officially declared a burial place. It is forbidden to anchor here.
On the high slope of Cape Doob of the Tsemess Bay, the closest to the place of the death of the "Admiral Nakhimov", near the lighthouse, in 1987 a monument was erected, a tribute to the memory of all 423 dead passengers and crew members. The site chosen for the monument rises about a hundred meters above sea level. IN good weather from it you can see a vast stretch of the sea, as well as the place of death of the Nakhimov.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources
