What is a ship crash. The largest shipwrecks in history

The RIA Novosti agency published a reference article dedicated to the anniversary of the death of the ship Bulgariya at the Kuibyshev reservoir. The tragedy occurred on July 10, 2011. This is not the only major accident involving passenger ships and ferries since 2000. Now we have the opportunity to compare how the number of major accidents in water transport is growing in recent times.

On June 27, about 200 kilometers from the Australian Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, a ship en route to Australia was shipwrecked, carrying about 150 illegal migrants. 123 people were saved.

The Rabaul Queen ferry operated a passenger flight from the city of Lae on the mainland of Papua New Guinea to Kimbi, the administrative center of the province of the same name, located on a separate island. On board, according to the company owner Rabaul Shipping, there were 350 passengers and 12 crew members. Managed to save 246 people, the rest were declared missing. The cause of the shipwreck was bad weather conditions.

On 21 April, a passenger ship capsized and sank in eastern Bangladesh, killing at least four people and over 90 missing. The tragedy occurred early in the morning on the Meghna River near the city of Brahmanbariya. On board the ship, according to various sources, there were from 70 to 100 people.

On January 28, in the Sunda Strait off the western tip of the Indonesian island of Java, the ferry Laut Teduh II caught fire, heading from the Javanese port of Merak to Bakoheni in the extreme south of neighboring Sumatra. The ship was three miles from Merak near Tempurung Island when a fire broke out on it for unknown reasons. According to various sources, there were up to 550 people on board. The victims of the fire were 27 people, injured almost 200.

November 27, near the island of Bhola in southern Bangladesh, the Coco 4 ferry crashed, carrying more than 1.5 thousand people. As a result of the disaster, 75 passengers and crew members died. The accident occurred due to the overload of the vessel, designed to carry no more than a thousand passengers.

On January 11, the ferry Teratai Prima capsized and sank in the Makassar Strait in Indonesia, carrying 250 passengers and 17 crew members. As a result of the crash of the ship, 41 people survived, including the captain of the ship. The cause of the accident was a strong storm that overturned the ferry.

On June 22, the ferry Princess of Stars crashed off Sibuyan Island in the Philippine archipelago, carrying 862 passengers and crew members. As a result of the disaster, only 52 people survived, the rest died or went missing. Also, the Philippine authorities revealed the fact that the ship was illegally transporting 10 tons of endosulfan, the entry of which into the sea could provoke an environmental disaster. Containers with a toxic substance were removed from the vessel by divers.

April 8 in Ghana on the Volta River, a ship was wrecked with 150 people on board, but only 30 were saved.

On April 6, in the Red Sea near the port of Djibouti, the passenger ferry al Baraqua 2 capsized, carrying, according to various estimates, from 250 to 400 people. Despite the fact that rescue boats immediately set off from the shore, only 113 people were saved, the rest of the passengers died or were reported missing. The most probable cause of the crash was called the displacement of the center of mass, which occurred as a result of improper placement of the load.

On February 3, 88 kilometers from the city of Safaga (Egypt), the Egyptian ferry al Salam Boccaccio 98 sank, carrying 1,414 passengers and crew members. Of this number, only 387 people were saved. The cause of the crash was a fire in the hold of the ferry, which was extinguished using outboard water, which led to the roll of the ship. The ferry banked 25 degrees and then went under water.

On July 7, the ferry Digul sank off the coast of the Indonesian province of Papua with over 200 people on board. Only two crew members and 13 passengers managed to escape, the rest were found dead or missing.

On May 18, the Rajpur ferry sank in the Arich area (Bangladesh), carrying about 250 passengers and crew members. Only 50 people were saved, the rest of the passengers died or went missing. The cause of the shipwreck was the congestion of the vessel, which was not adapted for the carriage of such a number of passengers.

On February 19, the Maharaj ferry sank on the Buriganga River (Bangladesh), carrying about 200 passengers. Only 23 people were saved, the rest of the passengers and crew died. The shipwreck was caused by a tropical storm.

On July 8, near the city of Chandpur (Bangladesh), on the Meghna River, the Bangladeshi ferry Nasreen 2 sank, carrying 750 people. As a result of the rescue operation, 220 people were pulled alive from the water. The rest were found dead or missing.

The cause of the accident was the overload of the vessel, designed to carry only 350 people.

On November 29, in the Congo, in the waters of Lake Mai Ndombe, the Dieu Merci ferry, carrying about 450 people, crashed. Rescuers managed to extract about 200 survivors from the water, 163 people were found dead, and 222 were declared missing. The shipwreck was caused by a storm.

On March 24, in the Congo, in the waters of Lake Taganika, the ferry Qashovge crashed, carrying about 200 people on board. About 150 passengers and crew members died in the shipwreck, 43 managed to escape. The ship was adapted to carry no more than 67 passengers and could not withstand the load in the conditions of the storm that had begun.

On 26 September, the Senegalese ferry Joola sank off the coast of The Gambia, with about 1,200 people on board. Only 64 of them managed to escape, the rest died or went missing. The causes of the disaster were called the congestion of the ship, designed to carry no more than 550 passengers, a malfunction of the radio equipment and a lack of lifeboats on the ferry. The small number of survivors was due to the inaction of the army units of Senegal, which delayed the start of the rescue operation.

On May 4, the Bangladeshi ferry Salahuddin sank on the Meghna River (Bangladesh), carrying about 500 passengers. More than 300 people died as a result of the sinking of the ship. The cause of the shipwreck was a storm that started on the river and overturned the ferry.

On October 19, an Indonesian fishing boat carrying illegal migrants from Muslim countries to Australia sank off the coast of Java, Indonesia. Of the 421 passengers on board, 44 survived and were brought ashore with various fractures. The cause of the accident was the overfilling of the ship, designed to carry no more than 150 passengers.

On July 26, a passenger ferry carrying about 150 passengers sank in the waters of Lake Tanganyika. Rescuers managed to extract 24 survivors from the water. The rest of the passengers and crew died or were reported missing.

On September 26, in the Aegean Sea, near the island of Paros, stumbled upon a reef and crashed the Greek ferry Express Samina, carrying 511 people. As a result of the shipwreck, 82 passengers and crew members died. The accident occurred due to the negligence of the ship's crew, which left the ferry without control, as a result of which the ship stumbled upon a rock marked on all navigation maps.

On June 29, in the waters of the Moluccas archipelago (Indonesia), the ferry Cahaya Bahari sank, on board of which there were about 500 Christian refugees fleeing Muslims who staged pogroms on religious grounds in the Moluccas. With the exception of 10 people who managed to escape, all the passengers of the ship died.

The shipwreck occurred as a result of a storm when a ship overflowing with people, designed to carry no more than 200 passengers, leaked.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources

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. This review will focus on the most terrible shipwrecks that have become a real shock to the world.

1. The greatest victims in wartime

In January 1945, this German ship, which was evacuating 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

The Philippine passenger ferry Dona Paz sank after colliding with the tanker Vector on December 20, 1987, killing 4,375 people. 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 traveled 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. The attack on the 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. More people died in the sinking of the Lancastria than in the sinking 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 time. 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.

We all know about the ill-fated history of the Titanic, but few know that this tragedy was only the third largest loss in the history of shipping. Today we suggest you familiarize yourself with the list of the 10 most terrible disasters that occurred on the water.

1. MV Wilhelm Gustloff.
In January 1945, this German ship was hit by three torpedoes in the Baltic Sea while participating in the evacuation of civilians, military personnel and Nazi officials who were surrounded by the Red Army in East Prussia. The ship sank in less than 45 minutes. More than 9,400 people are estimated to have died.

2. MV Dona Paz.
This Philippine ferry sank after colliding with the oil tanker MT Vector on December 20, 1987. More than 4300 people died. The collision occurred late at night and resulted in a fire, and life jackets were locked, forcing passengers to jump into the burning water, which was also infested with sharks.

3. RMS Lusitania.
This British liner sailed on the Liverpool-New York route. During World War I, the ship was hit by German torpedoes on 7 May 1915 and sank within only 18 minutes of impact. The crash killed 1,198 people out of 1,959 on board.

4. RMS Lancastria.
This British ocean liner was requisitioned by the government during World War II. She sank on June 17, 1940, taking 4,000 lives with her. This catastrophe caused the death of more people than the sinking of the Titanic and the Lusitania combined.

5. RMS Empress of Ireland.
This Canadian liner sank in the St. Lawrence River after colliding with a Norwegian bulk carrier on May 29, 1914 due to heavy fog. 1012 people died (840 passengers and 172 crew members).

6. MV Goya.
The German transport ship MV Goya was carrying 6,100 passengers when it was sunk by a Soviet submarine in the Baltic Sea on April 16, 1945. The ship sank just 7 minutes after the impact. Almost all the people on board died. Only 183 people survived.

7. USS Indianapolis (CA-35).
On July 30, 1945, Indianapolis was torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-58 and sank 12 minutes later. Out of 1196 people, only 300 survived.

8. MV Le Joola.
A Senegalese ferry capsized off the Gambian coast on September 26, 2002, killing at least 1,863 people. As it became known, the ferry was overloaded, therefore, faced with a storm, it capsized after 5 minutes. Only 64 people survived.

9. SS Mont-Blanc.
This French ammunition freighter exploded in Halifax Harbor on December 6, 1917. The explosion caused the death of 2,000 people, including residents of the city. The explosion was triggered by a collision with the Norwegian ship SS Imo. The fire that resulted from the collision caused an explosion of ammunition that destroyed the harbor and the city.

10. RMS Titanic.
This is perhaps the most famous maritime tragedy of all time. The Titanic was a passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic on April 15, 1912, after colliding with an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. The sinking of the Titanic claimed 1,514 human lives.

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"

"Goya" was a 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 6,000 to 7,000. 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 the Baltic waters the German transport "Wilhelm Gustlov", accompanied by an escort, carrying, 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 largest disasters in maritime history. According to official figures, 5,348 people died in it, according to some historians, real losses could exceed 9,000.

Junyo Maru

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. Of the life-saving equipment on the ship, stuffed to capacity with prisoners of war, 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 build a 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. The last flight of "Armenia" was a campaign from Sevastopol to Tuapse in November 1941. On November 6, having taken on board the wounded, almost all the 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. Until now, the causes of this terrible tragedy are controversial.

"Dona Paz"

The death of the Doña Paz ferry is the largest shipwreck that occurred in peacetime. This tragedy became a cruel lesson denouncing greed, unprofessionalism and sloppiness. The sea, as you know, does not forgive mistakes, and in the case of the Danya 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.

Twice a week, the ferry carried passengers on the route Manila - Tacloban - Catbalogan - Manila - Catbalogan - Tacloban - Manila. On December 20, 1987, the Doña Paz left on her 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 of the survivors, 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 Donji Paz, two are sailors from the tanker Vector. 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 Arkona" was one of the largest passenger ships in Germany, with a displacement of 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 on 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 the Second World War was operated as a military vessel. 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.

I stumbled across this sad thread. We all hear about the tragedy of the Titanic, but in fact this is far from the largest shipwreck.

As a rule, shipwrecks are not classified as man-made disasters, but it is this record-breaking case in terms of the number of victims that deserves a place among the most terrible man-made tragedies of mankind. The largest disasters at sea, accompanied by many thousands of victims, occurred during the Second World War (we will talk about the largest shipwreck in general in terms of the number of victims), and in peacetime there was only one shipwreck comparable in consequences, which became the largest in history - a collision Philippine ferry "Dona Paz" with a tanker. This tragedy claimed more lives than the much more famous sinking of the Titanic.

Let's take a closer look at this...

An object: passenger ferry "Dona Paz" (MV Doña Paz). Displacement - 2062 tons, length - 93.1 m, maximum width - 13.6 m, designed to carry 1518 passengers. Built in Japan, launched on April 25, 1963, from 1975 (until 1981 - under the name MV Don Sulpicio, from 1981 - under the name MV Doña Paz) was operated by the Philippine operator Sulpicio Lines.

Crash Location: Tablas Strait, near Marinduque Island, Philippines.

Victims: in disaster 4386 people died, of which 4,317 were passengers of the Doña Paz ferry and 58 crew members, as well as 11 crew members of the Vector tanker. Only 24 ferry passengers and 2 tanker crew members were saved. This number of casualties makes this the largest peacetime crash in history.

Chronicle of events

Due to the lack of communication, the chronology of events is built from the words of rare eyewitnesses and the time of the onset of key events is determined approximately.

It is authentically known that the Dona Paz left the port of Tacloban at 6.30 in the morning and headed for Manila, and at about 22.00 — 22.30 the ship was passing through the Tablas Strait near the island of Marinduque. At this time, the weather was clear, there was little roughness at sea, so there were no threats to navigation in the area. But the ferry never arrived in Manila, having crashed somewhere in the strait.

At about 10:30 p.m., the ferry collided with the Vector tanker, which was transporting about a thousand cubic meters of gasoline and other oil products. During the collision, one or two explosions thundered, the tanker immediately began to leak, a large amount of gasoline flowed onto the surface of the sea, which immediately flared up. Soon the Doña Paz was also on fire.

Panic broke out on board the ferry, the crew did not take any action to save the passengers. Many people jumped overboard, but most of them soon died from the flames. Some of the passengers did not dare to leave the burning ship, but help never came.

Approximately at midnight The Doña Paz sank, taking with her passengers and any hope of salvation. Near 2.00 the wreck of the tanker sank.

The crash became known only by six o'clock in the morning, the authorities sent rescuers to the crash site, but search and rescue operations lasted no more than one day - a total of 26 people were saved.

Within a few days after the disaster, the remains of 108 people washed ashore. All of them had burn marks, and almost all of them were eaten by sharks, which are very numerous in these seas. Thousands more people were never found, which subsequently made it difficult to accurately calculate the number of victims and find out the causes of the disaster.

The question of the number of victims and the investigation of the crash

Immediately after the shipwreck, confusion arose over the determination of the number of dead. Initially, the investigation relied on the number of officially registered passengers on the Doña Paz ferry - based on this, there were 1,525 passengers and 58 crew members on board the ship.

However, as it turned out later, the ferry was always overloaded, many tickets were sold without registration at a reduced price, and almost no one ever registered children. Therefore, experts soon began to call ever larger numbers - 2000, 3000 and even 4000 passengers. According to the stories of survivors and eyewitnesses, the last figure is most true - many passengers lived in overcrowded cabins, someone took a seat in the corridors, and many were completely located on the deck.

Only later - in 1999 - it was found that the ferry on that tragic day took on board 4341 passengers, and most of them died in the crash.

It should be noted that the relatives of the victims are still continuing litigation against the operator of Sulpicio Lines and the owner of the tanker "Vector" Cal-Tex Philippines, Inc., accusing them of criminal negligence. However, even almost thirty years after the catastrophe, no success was achieved in this matter, and no one was held responsible for the tragedy.

Causes of the disaster

Here we should talk about two groups of reasons: about the reasons for the shipwreck, and about the reasons that led to so many victims. After all, even with the crash of the more famous Titanic, there were three times fewer victims!

For a long time, the causes of the collision of ships in the Tablas Strait remained unknown and numerous discussions were held on this issue. And to this day, it is not entirely clear how the ferry and the tanker could collide in a wide strait in clear weather. But if the exact causes of the disaster are unknown, then indirect causes have long been established.

In October 1988, the board assembled to investigate the disaster issued an official statement blaming the collision on the crew of the Vector tanker. During the investigation, it was found that the ship did not have a license and was actually unseaworthy. Also, the tanker did not have experienced forward looking and special navigation equipment, so the appearance of the Doña Paz ferry was a complete surprise, and the crew of the Vector could not prevent a collision.

It was assumed that part of the blame lay with the crew of the ferry, since at the time of the disaster, only one of the crew members was on the captain's bridge (and, probably, it was not the ship's captain), and the rest of the team went about their business. But later this version did not find proper confirmation, therefore, all charges were dropped from the team and the operator (Sulpicio Lines).

If we consider the reasons that led to a huge number of victims, then the same fault lies with the crews of both ships and their owners.

Firstly, there were almost three times more passengers on the ferry than allowed (4341 against the maximum allowable 1518) - in the event of a collision and subsequent fire, panic and stampede began on the ship. The fire on the ship and the burning water closed all the ways to escape, so many passengers found their last refuge in the cabins and corridors of the ferry.

Secondly, a large number of people died in the fire both on the ferry and at sea - due to the spill of oil products from the tanker "Vector", the water literally burned and did not give salvation. In addition, the waters in the strait are teeming with sharks, which also gave rise to fear in people and only despair forced them to leave the ship.

Thirdly, there were life jackets on the ferry, but they were all hidden under lock and key, and even if one of the crew members opened a warehouse with vests, there would hardly be enough for everyone. But the vests, like the people who need them, went to the bottom.

Fourthly, the team of the Doña Paz ferry did not make any attempts to organize the rescue of people, these people were not ready for an emergency. The professionalism of the ferry team still raises questions.

Finally, fifthly, the ferry and the tanker were not equipped with basic means of communication - even the simplest radio station! Therefore, at the time of the crash, no one could call for help, and the Philippine authorities learned about the terrible disaster only in the morning. It is clear that after such a time it was simply impossible to save someone, and this delay became fatal for many passengers of the Doña Paz.

Absolute disregard for the safety of ships and the unprofessionalism of the crews, the opportunity to get additional benefits and savings on everything - all this underlies the terrible shipwreck, which became the largest in peacetime.

In terms of the scale of maritime disasters, the Philippines has firmly taken a leading position. In 1987, as a result of a collision with a tanker, the Dona Pas passenger ferry of the Sulpicio Lines company sank. The company's administration then announced that there were 1,583 passengers and 60 crew members on the ship. Subsequently, it turns out that there were actually 4341 passengers there, of which only 24 survived. Less than a year later, the Dona Marilyn ferry dies, and with it more than three hundred passengers and sailors. Seven weeks after this tragedy, the world will learn about the death of the ferry "Rosalia" with 400 passengers, and a short time later - another ferry with its 50 victims. But no one knows how many smaller ships and boats and the people who were on them actually disappeared in the depths of the sea around the Philippines.

And more about crashes, for example, and. And here is also