The largest peacetime shipwreck in history. The worst shipwrecks in the world The largest water disasters

Over hundreds of years of sailing on various ships, sailboats and barges across the vast seas and oceans, many different accidents and shipwrecks have occurred. Films have even been made about some of them, the most popular of which, of course, is Titanic. But which shipwrecks were the largest in terms of ship size and number of victims? In this ranking, we answer this question by presenting the largest maritime disasters.

11

British ranking opens passenger airliner, which was torpedoed by the German submarine U-20 on May 7, 1915, in an area designated by the Kaiser's government as a submarine warfare zone. The ship, sailing with a blacked-out name and not raising any flag above itself, sank in 18 minutes, 13 kilometers from the coast of Ireland. 1,198 of the 1,959 people on board were killed. The destruction of this ship turned public opinion in many countries against Germany and contributed to the US entry into World War I two years later.

10

The single-screw steamer had a capacity of 7142 register tons, a length of 132 meters, a width of 17 meters, and a maximum speed of 11 knots. On April 12, 1944, a steamship with explosives with a total weight of more than 1,500 tons began unloading at the Bombay port pier. There were other cargoes on board - 8,700 tons of cotton, 128 gold bars, sulfur, wood, engine oil, etc. The ship was loaded in violation of safety regulations. At about 2 p.m., a fire started on board, and no action helped to extinguish it. At 16:06 an explosion occurred, which created a tidal wave of such force that the ship “Jalampada” with a displacement of almost 4000 tons ended up on the roof of a 17-meter warehouse. After 34 min. a second explosion occurred.

The burning cotton scattered within a radius of 900 meters from the epicenter and set everything on fire: ships, warehouses, houses. A strong wind from the sea drove a wall of fire towards the city. The fires were extinguished only after 2 weeks. It took about 7 months to restore the port. Official statistics announced 1,376 deaths, and 2,408 people were admitted to hospitals. The fire destroyed 55,000 tons of grain, thousands of tons of seeds, oil, oil; a huge amount of military equipment and almost one square mile of urban areas. 6 thousand companies went bankrupt, 50 thousand people lost their jobs. Many small and 4 large ships, dozens, were destroyed.

9

It was with this ship that the most famous disaster on the water. The British White Star Line was the second of three Olympic-class steamships and the largest passenger liner in the world at the time of its construction. Gross tonnage 46,328 register tons, displacement 66,000 tons. The length of the ship is 269 meters, width is 28 meters, height is 52 meters. The engine room had 29 boilers and 159 coal fireboxes. Maximum speed 25 knots. During her maiden voyage on April 14, 1912, she collided with an iceberg and sank 2 hours and 40 minutes later. There were 2224 people on board. Of these, 711 people were saved, 1,513 died. The Titanic disaster became legendary; several feature films were made based on its plot.

8

In the harbor of the Canadian city of Halifax on December 6, 1917, the French military cargo ship Mont Blanc, which was fully loaded with one explosive - TNT, pyroxylin and picric acid, collided with the Norwegian ship Imo. As a result of a powerful explosion, the port and a significant part of the city were completely destroyed. About 2,000 people died as a result of the explosion under the rubble of buildings and due to the fires that broke out after the explosion. Approximately 9,000 people were injured and 400 lost their sight. The explosion in Halifax is one of the most powerful explosions caused by mankind; this explosion is considered the most powerful explosion of the pre-nuclear era.

7

This French auxiliary cruiser served as the flagship and took part in the neutralization of the Greek fleet. Displacement - 25,000 tons, length - 166 meters, width - 27 meters, power - 29,000 horsepower, speed - 20 knots, cruising range - 4,700 miles at 10 knots. She sank in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Greece on February 26, 1916 after a torpedo attack by the German submarine U-35. Of the 4,000 people on board, 3,130 died and 870 were saved.

6

After 1944, this German passenger ocean liner was converted into a floating hospital, participated in the evacuation of mainly wounded military personnel and refugees from East Prussia from the advancing Red Army. The liner left the port of Pillau on February 9, 1945 and headed to Kiel, with more than 4,000 people on board - wounded military personnel, soldiers, refugees, medical staff and crew members. On the night of February 10 at 00:55, the Soviet submarine S-13 torpedoed the liner with two torpedoes. The ship sank 15 minutes later, with 3,608 deaths and 659 rescued. When torpedoing the liner, the submarine commander was convinced that in front of him was not a passenger liner, but a military cruiser.

5

The Philippine-registered passenger ferry Dona Paz sank on December 20, 1987 at about 10 p.m. off the island of Marinduque after a collision with the tanker Vector. An estimated 4,375 people were killed, making it the worst peacetime maritime disaster.

4

This passenger and cargo ship of the Adzharia type was built at the Baltic Shipyard in Leningrad in 1928, and on November 7, 1941, it was sunk by the Germans near the coast of Crimea. The death toll was, according to various estimates, from 3,000 to 4,500 people. On the ship there were several thousand wounded soldiers and evacuated citizens, including personnel from 23 military and civilian hospitals, the leadership of the pioneer camp and part of the party leadership of Crimea. The loading of evacuees was in a hurry, and their exact number is not known. There is a version that the reason for this maritime disaster were the criminal mistakes of the Black Sea Fleet command. The overcrowded ship, instead of making the transition to the Caucasus, was sent by the command to Yalta.

3

The cargo ship, built in Oslo, Norway, was launched on April 4, 1940. It was confiscated by the Germans after the occupation of Norway by Germany. At first it was used as a mock target for training German submarine crews. Later, the ship took part in the evacuation of people by sea from the advancing Red Army. It was armed with military cannons. This ship managed to make four trips, during which 19,785 people were evacuated. On the night of April 16, 1945, the ship, making its fifth voyage, was torpedoed by the Soviet submarine L-3, after which the Goya sank in the Baltic Sea. More than 6,900 people died in the disaster.

2

On May 3, 1945, a tragedy occurred in the Baltic Sea, killing approximately 8,000 people. The German liner Cap Arcona and the cargo ship Tilbeck, transporting prisoners from evacuating concentration camps, came under fire from British aircraft. As a result, more than 5,000 people died on the Cap Arcona, and about 2,800 on the Tilbek. According to one version, this raid was a mistake on the part of the British Air Force, which believed that there were German troops on the ships; according to another, the pilots were ordered to destroy everything enemy ships in the area.

1

The worst thing on the water happened to this German passenger liner, which since 1940 was converted into a floating hospital. During World War II it was used as an infirmary and dormitory for the 2nd submarine training brigade. The death of the ship, torpedoed on January 30, 1945 by the Soviet submarine S-13 under the command of A. I. Marinesko, is considered the largest disaster in maritime history- According to some historians, the actual losses could have been more than 9,000 people.

At 21:16 the first torpedo hit the bow of the ship, later the second blew up the empty swimming pool where the women of the naval auxiliary battalion were located, and the last hit the engine room. Through the joint efforts of the crew and passengers, some lifeboats were able to be launched, but many people still found themselves in the icy water. Due to the strong roll of the ship, an anti-aircraft gun came off the deck and crushed one of the boats full of people. About an hour after the attack, the Wilhelm Gustloff completely sank.

On April 16, 1945, exactly 117 years after the death of Francisco Goya, the ship Goya was sunk by a torpedo attack by a Soviet submarine. This disaster, which claimed 7,000 lives, became the largest shipwreck in world history.

The Goya was a Norwegian cargo ship requisitioned by the Germans. April 16, 1945, things went wrong early in the morning. A gloomy omen of the coming disaster was the bombardment to which the ship was subjected. Despite the defense, during the fourth raid a shell still hit the bow of the Goya. Several people were injured, but the ship remained afloat and they decided not to cancel the flight.

For Goya, this was the fifth evacuation flight from the advancing units of the Red Army. During four previous campaigns, almost 20,000 refugees, wounded and soldiers were evacuated.
In your last flight"Goya" went loaded to capacity. Passengers were in the passages, 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. They all believed that the war was over for them, they made plans and were full of hope...

The ships (Goya was accompanied by a convoy) were already at sea when at 22:30 surveillance noticed an unidentified silhouette on the right side. Everyone was ordered to put on life-saving clothing. There were only 1,500 of them on board the Goya. In addition, one of the ships of the group, the Kronenfels, suffered a breakdown in the engine room. While waiting for the completion of repair work, the ships began to drift. An hour later the ships continued their journey.
At 23:45, Goya shuddered from a powerful torpedo attack. The Soviet submarine L-3, which was following the ships, began to operate.
Panic began at Goya. Jochen Hannema, a German tankman who became one of the few survivors, recalled: “Water rushed noisily from the huge holes created by the torpedoes. The ship broke into two parts and began to rapidly sink. All that was heard was the terrible roar of a huge mass of water.”
The huge ship, devoid of partitions, sank in just 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 Gustlow", accompanied by an escort, on board which, according to modern estimates, was over 10 thousand people, most of whom were refugees from East Prussia : old people, children, women. But there were also German submarine cadets, crew members and other military personnel on the Gustlov.
Submarine captain Alexander Marinesko began the hunt. For almost three hours, the Soviet submarine followed the giant transport ship (the displacement of the Gustlov was over 25 thousand tons. For comparison, the steamship 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.

While escaping pursuit from a German military escort, the C-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 data, 5,348 people died in it; according to some historians, real losses could exceed 9,000.

They were called "Ships of Hell." These were Japanese merchant ships used to transport prisoners of war and workers (actually slaves, who were called "romushi") to Japanese-occupied territories during World War II. The “ships of hell” were not officially part of the Japanese navy and had no identification marks, but the Allied forces sank them no less violently. 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 help but know about the “cargo” that was transported on the ships, since the Japanese codes were deciphered.

The largest disaster occurred on September 18, 1944. The British submarine Tradewind torpedoed the Japanese ship Junyo Maru. Among the rescue equipment on the ship, filled 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 slaves had to survive on ships were simply terrifying. Many went crazy and died from exhaustion and stuffiness. When the torpedoed ship began to sink, the captives of the ship had no chance of salvation. The boats accompanying the “ship of hell” brought on board only the Japanese and a small part of the prisoners. In total, 680 prisoners of war and 200 romushi remained alive.

This was a case where the living envied the dead. The prisoners who miraculously escaped were sent to their destination - to 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 side 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 voyage of the “Armenia” was a trip 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, the 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 there were already German troops on the near approaches to the city. And there was practically no choice left...

At 8 o'clock in the morning on November 7, "Armenia" left Yalta and headed for Tuapse. At 11:25 the ship was attacked by a German torpedo bomber He-111 and sank less than 5 minutes after the torpedo hit the bow. Together with “Armenia”, from 4,000 to 7,500 people died, and only eight managed to escape. The causes of this terrible tragedy are still controversial.

"Dona Paz"

The sinking of the Dona Paz ferry is the largest shipwreck that occurred in peacetime. This tragedy became a cruel lesson exposing greed, unprofessionalism and sloppiness. The sea, as you know, does not forgive mistakes, and in the case of “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, it was profitably sold to the Philippines. Since then he has been exploited even more than mercilessly. Designed to carry a maximum of 608 passengers, it was usually packed to capacity, accommodating between 1,500 and 4,500 people.

Twice a week the ferry carried out passenger transportation on the route Manila - Tacloban - Catbalogan - Manila - Catbalogan - Tacloban - Manila. On December 20, 1987, the Doña Paz set sail on its last voyage from Tacloban to Manila. This flight was packed with maximum passengers - Filipinos were rushing to the capital for the New Year.

At ten in the evening of the same day, the ferry collided with the huge tanker Vector. The collision literally broke both ships in half, and thousands of tons of oil spilled across 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 swarming 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 cabinets in which the vests were stored 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 Donya Paz, two are sailors from the tanker Vector. Official statistics, which cannot be trusted, indicate the death of 1,583 people. More objective, independent experts claim that 4,341 people died in the disaster.

"Cap Arcona"

"Cap Arcona" was one of the largest passenger ships Germany, displacement - 27,561 tons. Having survived almost the entire war, the Cap Arcona perished 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 who were at Cap Arcona, wrote in the book “The Dentist of Auschwitz”: “ Suddenly planes appeared. We could clearly see their identification marks. “These are the British!” Look, we are KaTsetniks! We are prisoners of concentration camps!” we shouted and waved our hands at them. We waved our striped camp caps 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 approach, the planes descended, now they were at a distance of 15 m from the deck, we clearly saw the pilot’s face and thought that we had nothing to fear. But then bombs fell from the belly of the plane... Some fell on the deck, others into the water... They shot at us and those who jumped into the water from machine guns. The water around the drowning bodies turned red".

Aboard the blazing Cap Arcona, more than 4,000 prisoners were burned alive or suffocated by smoke. Some prisoners managed to escape and jump into the sea. Those who managed to escape the sharks were picked up by trawlers. 350 prisoners, many of whom suffered from burns, managed to escape before the liner capsized. They swam ashore, but became victims of the SS men. A total of 5,594 people died on Cap Arcona.

"Lancasteria"

Western historiography prefers to remain silent about the tragedy that occurred on June 17, 1940. 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 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 Lancastrian disaster was the largest mass death of the British during the entire Second World War, the number of victims exceeded the sum of the victims of the sinking of the Titanic and Luisitania.

The Lancastria liner was built in 1920 and was used as a military vessel after the outbreak of World War II. On June 17, he evacuated troops from Norway. A German Junkers 88 bomber spotted the ship and began bombing. The liner was hit by 10 bombs. According to official figures, there were 4,500 soldiers and 200 crew on board. About 700 people were saved. According to unofficial data published in Brian Crabb's book about the disaster, it is said that the number of victims is deliberately downplayed.

Shipwrecks... Such an incident is always shrouded in an aura of secrets, myths and legends. Famous shipwrecks are black pages of history, which can only be read by looking into depths of the sea. Sadly, majestic giant liners very often become victims of the raging waters of the seas and oceans.

The most famous shipwrecks became public knowledge. Today, there are many unspoken lists that name the most impressive ship disasters in the history of mankind. Below are just a few of those that have gone down in world history.

Wrecked ships

For many, the first thing that comes to mind is a story that shocked the whole world with its tragedy. It dwarfed any other shipwreck. This is the story of the Titanic... Although this story has become overgrown with many guesses and conjectures over time, everyone is still interested in knowing what really happened. The crew was so blinded by the greatness of their ship and its superiority over other ships that for a time everyone became overconfident.

Possible causes of the tragedy

At that time, many said that a ship had finally been built that could not be sunk. But the reality turned out to be unpredictable. One night, the ship was moving at full speed along its route, and the sailors were only able to notice the top of a huge ice block rising above the surface of the water only at the very last moment. Urgent attempts were made to steer the ship away, but it was too late: the ship was wrecked. Almost at full speed, the Titanic hit an iceberg on its starboard side.

The ship breaks in half

Gradually, the lower tiers in the bow compartment of the ship begin to flood. Almost half of the vessel is filled with cold water Atlantic Ocean. A counterweight is created on the ship, causing it to be half submerged in the water. The body cannot withstand the monstrous load and breaks in half. Both parts of the broken ship lose electricity and sink. Eyewitnesses of the tragedy remember that terrible day with trembling, but still some facts remain in the shadows. For example, class discrimination against passengers.

Could more have been saved?

Some witnesses claim that individual lifeboats were only half full of passengers. Only a few people sat in them, and they set sail as quickly as possible, in fear that the boat would overfill and sink. As a result, far fewer passengers were saved than could have been the case. However, we should not forget that heroic deeds also took place that night. Many risked their lives to help others escape. Be that as it may, this disaster has become a symbol of arrogance.

complicated story

Another, no less tragic collision occurred with the ship "Admiral Nakhimov". It became a huge sensation of the twentieth century. A warm August day began with arrival at the port cruise ship. The city of Novorossiysk said goodbye to passengers who were soon to go on an exciting trip. Around the same time, a ship called "Peter Vasev" planned to enter the port. The crews of both ships were warned about each other and had to act carefully; no one had any idea that the ships would soon crash.

Who is guilty and is there any point in finding out now?

As a result of short negotiations, it was decided to disperse at the exit from the port on starboard sides. However, something went wrong, namely the automatic heading system failed. The technology is imperfect, we must never forget this. Shipwrecks are clear evidence of this. When it was noticed that the ship was moving at full speed straight towards the Admiral Nakhimov, the situation almost completely got out of control.

The cargo ship "Peter Vasev" crashed into a passenger liner and made a hole measuring eight by ten meters in its side. in eight minutes. Some of the circumstances under which the ship crashed raised questions among many. Why did the passenger ship sink like a stone if, according to the rules, it must have sufficient buoyancy to stay on the surface of the water for at least an hour after the crash? In addition, information was received that the captain followed the order of the port dispatcher and changed the route of the vessel. There will be many gaps and white spots in this story.

However, the most inconsolable fact is the death of almost half a thousand people. Perhaps the scale of the disaster would not have been so terrible if it had been possible to launch lifeboats. But what could be done in just eight minutes? It takes at least half an hour to arrange for people to board one boat. And this is under favorable conditions.

In the case when the Nakhimov ship crashed, there was neither time nor factors allowing people to escape in lifeboats. Over time after the disaster, it becomes increasingly difficult to find out the true circumstances of the crash. Surely the true facts lie in the depths of the water, so there is no point in speculating, because time, like human lives, cannot be returned back.

These are just two stories, but they are not the only ones. The following is a list of the most famous shipwrecks will show that the crash largest airliners- is far from uncommon.

SS America.
"Discoverer of the World"
"Mediterranean sky"
M. B. Captayannis.
BOS 400.
"Fort Shevchenko".
"Gospel".
"SS Maheno".
"Santa Maria".
"Dimitrios."
"Olympia".

The ships took years to build, solemnly left their native ports into the wind and eventually sank, ran aground, leaving only fragments and piles of iron in their memory.

Many people mistakenly believe that the Titanic is the most terrible tragedy happened on the water. All this is far from true, he is not even in the top ten. So, let's begin..
1. "Goya" (Germany) - 6900 dead.
On April 4, 1945, the ship Goya stood in the Bay of Danzig, awaiting the loading of military personnel and refugees. The bay was under constant shelling from Soviet artillery, one of the shells hit the Goya, slightly wounding the captain of the ship, Plünnecke.
In addition to civilians and wounded military personnel, there were 200 soldiers of the 25th Wehrmacht Tank Regiment on board.
At 19:00, a convoy consisting of three ships: the Goya, the steamship Kronenfels, built in 1944, 2834 gross tons and the sea tug Ägir, left Danzig Bay, accompanied by two minesweepers M- 256 and M-328 to the city of Swinemünde.

At this time, at the exit from Danzig Bay, the Soviet submarine L-3 under the command of Vladimir Konovalov was waiting for German ships. The largest ship in the convoy was chosen for the attack. Around 23:00 the convoy's route was changed, the convoy headed to the city of Copenhagen.
Guards submarine "L-3" ("Frunzevets")

To catch up with the Goya, the Soviet submarine had to go on the surface using diesel engines (in the submerged position, the electric motors could not reach the required speed). L-3 caught up with the Goya and at 23:52 successfully torpedoed the ship with two torpedoes. The Goya sank seven minutes after the torpedo attack, killing between 6,000 and 7,000 people; the exact number of people on board remained unknown. The escort ships managed to save 157 people, and during the day another 28 people were found alive by other ships.
Such a rapid immersion of the ship under water is explained by the fact that the Goya ship was not a passenger ship and did not have partitions between the compartments, as was prescribed for passenger ships.
On July 8, 1945, for the exemplary performance of combat missions of the command, personal courage and heroism shown in battles with the Nazi invaders, Guard Captain 3rd Rank Vladimir Konstantinovich Konovalov was awarded the title of Hero Soviet Union with the presentation of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.
Konovalov Vladimir Konstantinovich
2. Junyo-maru (Japan) - 5620 dead.

"Junyo-maru" is a Japanese cargo ship, one of the "ships of hell". “Hell Ships” is the name given to ships of the Japanese merchant fleet that transported prisoners of war and workers forcibly taken from occupied territories. “Ships of Hell” did not have any special designations. The Americans and the British sank them on a common basis.
On March 18, 1944, the ship was attacked by the British submarine Tradewind and sank. At this moment, on board were 1,377 Dutch, 64 British and Australian, 8 American prisoners of war, as well as 4,200 Javanese workers (Romusha) sent to build the railway in Sumatra. The disaster was the greatest of its time, killing 5,620 people. 723 survivors were rescued only to be sent to work similar in conditions to the construction of the Death Road, where they were also likely to die.
3. Toyama Maru (Japan) - 5600 dead.

Another ship from the list of “ships of hell”. The ship was sunk on June 29, 1944 by the American submarine Sturgeon.
4. “Cap Arcona” (Germany) - 5594 dead- (a terrible tragedy, almost all of them were prisoners of concentration camps).

At the end of the war, Reichsführer Himmler issued a secret order for the evacuation of the concentration camps and the extermination of all prisoners, none of whom were to fall alive into Allied hands. On May 2, 1945, SS troops delivered 1000-2000 concentration camp prisoners on barges to the liner Cap Arcona, the cargo ship Thielbek and the ships Athen and Deutschland, which were stationed in the harbor of Lübeck: from Stutthof near Danzig, Neuengamme near Hamburg and Mittelbau-Dora near Nordhausen. Hundreds of prisoners died along the way. The captains of the ships, however, refused to accept them, since their ships already held 11,000 prisoners, mostly Jews. Therefore, early in the morning of May 3, the barges with prisoners were ordered to be returned to the shore.
As half-dead people began to crawl ashore, the SS, Hitler Jugend and Marines opened fire with machine guns and killed more than 500. 350 people survived. Arrived at the same time English planes and began to bomb ships with white flags raised. "Thielbek" sank in 15-20 minutes. 50 Jews survived. The prisoners on the Athen survived because the ship was ordered to return to Neustadt to pick up additional prisoners from the Stutthof concentration camp by barge. This saved the lives of 1998 people.
The striped camp uniforms of the prisoners were clearly visible to the pilots, but the English order No. 73 read: “destroy all concentrated enemy ships in Lübeck harbor.”
“Suddenly planes appeared. We could clearly see their identification marks. “These are the British!” Look, we are KaTsetniks! We are prisoners of concentration camps!” we shouted and waved our hands at them. We waved our striped camp caps 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 approach, the planes descended, now they were at a distance of 15 m from the deck, we clearly saw the pilot’s face and thought that we had nothing to fear. But then bombs fell from the belly of the plane... Some fell on the deck, others into the water... They shot at us and those who jumped into the water from machine guns. The water around the drowning bodies turned red,” wrote Benjamin Jacobs in the book “The Dentist of Auschwitz.”
Burning Cap Arcona shortly after the attack began.
The British continued to shoot at prisoners who launched a boat or simply jumped overboard. 64 shells were fired at Cap Arcona and 15 bombs were dropped on it. It burned for a long time and the people on it burned alive. Most of those who jumped overboard drowned or were killed. 350-500 were saved. In total, 13,000 died, and 1,450 survived. The barges, sea and shore were strewn with corpses.
The next day, May 4, the Germans surrendered to Field Marshal Montgomery.
5. “Wilhelm Gustloff” (Germany) - 5300 dead

At the beginning of 1945, a significant number of people fled in panic from the advancing Red Army. Many of them headed to ports on the Baltic Sea coast. For evacuation huge amount refugees, on the initiative of the German admiral Karl Dönitz, a special operation “Hannibal” was carried out, which went down in history as the largest evacuation of the population by sea in history. During this operation, almost 2 million civilians were evacuated to Germany - to large ships, like "Wilhelm Gustloff", as well as on bulk carriers and tugs.
Thus, as part of Operation Hannibal, on January 22, 1945, the Wilhelm Gustloff began accepting refugees in the port of Gdynia. At first, people were accommodated with special passes - primarily several dozen submarine officers, several hundred women from the naval auxiliary division and almost a thousand wounded soldiers. Later, when tens of thousands of people gathered at the port and the situation became more complicated, they began to let everyone in, giving preference to women and children. Since the planned number of places was only 1,500, refugees began to be placed on decks and in passages. Women soldiers were even accommodated in an empty swimming pool. During the last stages of the evacuation, the panic grew so intense that some women in the port, in desperation, began to give their children to those who managed to get on board, in the hope of at least saving them in this way. At the end, on January 30, 1945, the ship’s crew officers had already stopped counting the refugees, whose number had exceeded 10,000.
According to modern estimates, there should have been 10,582 people on board: 918 junior cadets of the 2nd training division of submarines, 173 crew members, 373 women from the auxiliary naval corps, 162 seriously wounded military personnel, and 8,956 refugees, mostly old men and women and children. When the Wilhelm Gustloff, accompanied by two escort ships, finally departed at 12:30, arguments arose on the captain's bridge between four senior officers. In addition to the commander of the ship, Captain Friedrich Petersen (German: Friedrich Petersen), called up from retirement, there were on board the commander of the 2nd training division of submariners and two captains of the merchant fleet, and there was no agreement between them regarding which fairway to navigate the ship and what precautions to take accept relatively Allied submarines and aircraft. The outer fairway (German designation Zwangsweg 58) was chosen. Contrary to recommendations to go in a zigzag to complicate the attack by submarines, it was decided to go straight at a speed of 12 knots, since the corridor in the minefields was not wide enough and the captains hoped to get out into safe waters faster this way; In addition, the ship lacked fuel. The liner could not reach full speed due to damage received during the bombing. In addition, the torpedo boat TF-19 returned to the port of Gotenhafen, having received damage to its hull in a collision with a stone, and only one destroyer, Löwe, remained in guard. At 18:00, a message was received about a convoy of minesweepers that was supposedly heading towards them, and when it was already dark, it was ordered to turn on the running lights to prevent a collision. In reality, there were no minesweepers, and the circumstances of the appearance of this radiogram have remained unclear to this day. According to other sources, a section of minesweepers was trawling towards the convoy, and appeared later than the time specified in the notification.
When the commander of the Soviet submarine S-13, Alexander Marinesko, saw and was shocked by the brightly lit, contrary to all norms of military practice, Wilhelm Gustloff, he followed it on the surface for two hours, choosing a position for attack. Typically, submarines of the time were unable to catch up with surface ships, but Captain Peterson was moving slower than design speed, given the significant overcrowding of passengers and uncertainty about the condition of the ship after years of inactivity and repairs after the bombing. At 19:30, without waiting for the minesweepers, Peterson gave the command to put out the lights, but it was already too late - Marinesko had developed an attack plan.
Submarine S-13

At about nine o'clock, S-13 came from the shore, where it was least expected, from a distance of less than 1,000 m. At 21:04, it fired the first torpedo with the inscription “For the Motherland,” and then two more - “For the Soviet people” and “For Leningrad". The fourth, already cocked, “For Stalin” torpedo got stuck in the torpedo tube and almost exploded, but they managed to neutralize it, close the tube hatches and dive.
Captain of the third rank A. I. Marinesko
At 21:16 the first torpedo hit the bow of the ship, later the second blew up the empty swimming pool where the women of the naval auxiliary battalion were located, and the last hit the engine room. The passengers' first thought was that they had hit a mine, but Captain Peterson realized that it was a submarine, and his first words were: Das war's (That's all). Those passengers who did not die from the three explosions and did not drown in the cabins on the lower decks rushed to the lifeboats in panic. At this moment, it turned out that by ordering the watertight compartments in the lower decks to be closed, according to the instructions, the captain had accidentally blocked part of the team, which was supposed to lower the boats and evacuate passengers. Therefore, in the panic and stampede, not only many children and women died, but also many of those who climbed to the upper deck. They could not lower the lifeboats because they did not know how to do this, besides, many of the davits were iced over, and the ship was already heavily listing. Through the joint efforts of the crew and passengers, some boats were able to be launched, but many people still found themselves in the icy water. Due to the strong roll of the ship, an anti-aircraft gun came off the deck and crushed one of the boats, already full of people. About an hour after the attack, the Wilhelm Gustloff completely sank.
Two weeks later, on February 10, 1945, the submarine S-13 under the command of Alexander Marinesko sank another large German transport, the General Steuben, more on that below.
6. "Armenia" (USSR) - approximately 5,000 dead.

At about 17:00 on November 6, 1941, the Armenia left the port of Sevastopol, evacuating a military hospital and city residents. According to various estimates, there were from 4.5 to 7 thousand people on board. At 2:00 on November 7, the ship arrived in Yalta, where it took several hundred more people on board. At 8:00 the ship left the port. At 11:25 a.m., the ship was attacked by a single German torpedo bomber Heinkel He-111, belonging to the 1st squadron of air group I/KG28. The plane came in from the shore and dropped two torpedoes from a distance of 600 m. One of them hit the bow of the ship. After 4 minutes, "Armenia" sank. Despite the fact that the transport had the distinctive insignia of a medical ship, the Armenia violated this status, as it was armed with four 21-K anti-aircraft guns. In addition to the wounded and refugees, there were military personnel and NKVD officers on board. The ship was accompanied by two armed boats and two I-153 fighters. In this regard, “Armenia” was a “legitimate” military target from the point of view of international law
German medium bomber Heinkel He-111

There were several thousand wounded soldiers and evacuated citizens on the ship. The personnel of the main hospital of the Black Sea Fleet and a number of other military and civilian hospitals (23 hospitals in total), the leadership of the Artek pioneer camp and part of the party leadership of Crimea were also loaded onto the ship. The loading of evacuees was carried out in a hurry, their exact number is not known (the same as during the evacuation of Germans from Germany at the end of the war - on the ships Wilhelm Gustloff, Goya). Officially in Soviet time It was believed that about 5 thousand people died; at the beginning of the 21st century, estimates were increased to 7-10 thousand people. Only eight were saved.
7. "Ryusei-maru" (Japan) - 4998 dead

The Ryusei Maru was a Japanese ship that was torpedoed by the American submarine USS Rasher on February 25, 1944, killing 4,998 people. Another ship from the list of “ships of hell”.
8. Dona Paz (Philippines) - 4375 dead

Until the time of the collision, Doña Paz carried out passenger transportation twice a week on the route Manila-Tacloban-Catbalogan-Manila-Catbalogan-Tacloban-Manila. The ship departed on its last voyage on December 20, 1987. At about 22 o'clock on the same day, near the island of Marinduque, the ferry collided with the Vector tanker. This disaster is considered the largest among those that occurred in peacetime.
9. Lancastria (UK) - approximately 4,000 dead

Until 1932, Lancastria made regular flights from Liverpool to New York, then was used as a cruise ship sailing around Mediterranean Sea and along the coast of northern Europe.
On October 10, 1932, Lancastria rescued the crew of the Belgian ship Scheldestad, which was sinking in the Bay of Biscay.
In April 1940, it was requisitioned by the Admiralty and converted into a troop transport. It was first used in a new capacity during the evacuation of Allied troops from Norway. On June 17, 1940, she was sunk by German aircraft off the coast of France, killing more than 4,000 people, which exceeded the total number of victims of the sinkings of the Titanic and Lusitania.
10. General Steuben (Germany) - 3608 dead

During World War II, until 1944, the liner was used as a hotel for senior Kriegsmarine command staff in Kiel and Danzig; after 1944, the ship was converted into a hospital ship and participated in the evacuation of people (mainly wounded military personnel and refugees) from East Prussia from the advancing Red Army.
On February 9, 1945, the Steuben liner left the port of Pillau (now Baltiysk) and headed to Kiel; there were more than 4,000 people on board the liner - 2,680 wounded military personnel, 100 soldiers, about 900 refugees, 270 military medical personnel and 285 crew members. The ship was accompanied by the destroyer T-196 and the minesweeper TF-10.
The German liner was discovered on the evening of February 9 by the Soviet submarine S-13 under the command of Alexander Marinesko. For four and a half hours, the Soviet submarine pursued the Steuben and finally, on the night of February 10 at 00:55, torpedoed the liner with two torpedoes. The liner sank 15 minutes later, killing more than 3,600 people (the following numbers are given: 3,608 killed, 659 people saved).
When the liner was torpedoed, the commander of the submarine, Alexander Marinesko, was convinced that in front of him was not a passenger liner, but the military cruiser Emden.
Cruiser "Emden" for comparison.

Marinesko learned that this was not the case after returning to his base in Turku, Finland, from local newspapers.
Until December 1944, Steuben made 18 voyages, evacuating a total of 26,445 wounded and 6,694 refugees.
11. Tilbeck (Germany) - approximately 2800 dead

Died near Cap Arcona (see point 4)
12. "Salzburg" (Germany) - approximately 2000 dead

On September 22, 1942, the submarine M-118 (commander - Lieutenant Commander Sergei Stepanovich Savin) headed to position No. 42 (Cape Burnas area) from Poti. The boat's task was to obstruct enemy navigation and sink his ships.
On October 1, 1942, the Salzburg transport was part of the Yuzhny convoy, which left Ochakov for the Romanian port of Sulina. The convoy also included the Bulgarian steamer Tsar Ferdinand (which two years later, on October 2, 1944, was sunk by the French submarine FS Curie). After the convoy passed the traverse of Odessa, it was taken under the protection of the Romanian gunboats “Lokotenent-Commander Stihi Eugen”, “Sublokotenent Giculescu Ion” and the minesweeper “MR-7”. Aerial surveillance of the situation was carried out by an Arado Ar 196 seaplane (some sources mention Cant-501z) of the Romanian Air Force.
“Salzburg” was carrying a cargo of 810 tons of scrap metal (according to other sources, it was carrying coal). In addition, there were from 2,000 to 2,300 Soviet prisoners of war on board.
Due to the danger of being attacked by Soviet submarines, which were constantly on duty in the area, the convoy sailed close to the coast, and escort ships covered it further out to sea.
Submarine M-118

At 13.57, an explosion was heard near the starboard side of the second Salzburg and a column of water shot up above the superstructure and masts.
Covering ships began searching for the boat seaward of the convoy, but to no avail. At this time, the captain of the Salzburg received the command to throw the ship aground. However, already 13 minutes after the explosion the ship lands with its hull on the ground. Only the masts and the pipe remain above the water.
“Lokotenent-komandor Poetry Eugen” continued to accompany the Bulgarian transport, and “Sublokotenent Giculescu Ion” and the minesweeper approached the distressed “Salzburg”.
At this time, the M-118, which was between the shore and the convoy during the attack, began to move, and the muddy trail stirred up by the propellers was noticed by the pilots of the patrol aircraft. When the headquarters received a signal about the discovery of a submarine, the minesweeper received an order to catch up with the convoy and protect it from a possible new attack, and the Sublokotenent Giculescu Ion headed to the place where the boat was discovered. A German seaplane BV-138 from the 3rd squadron of the 125th reconnaissance air group was hunting for the boat from the air. After dropping a series of depth charges from a Romanian gunboat, they reported oil stains appearing on the water and floating wooden debris.
Seaplane BV-138

At 15.45, the convoy commander from the gunboat "Lokotenent-Kommander Stiehi Eugen" sent another radiogram to headquarters, in which he reported that the "Salzburg" sank in shallow water, only masts and superstructures remained above the water, and bad weather, strong winds and waves at sea, as well as the lack of life-saving equipment, greatly complicate rescue operations. Only after this message, at 16.45, the German minesweepers “FR-1”, “FR-3”, “FR-9” and “FR-10” were sent from Bugaz to the site of the death of the ship, and at 17.32 they reported that “. ..70 Russians are hanging on the masts.”
The Romanian command of the naval forces of the region turned to the help of local fishermen, who were alerted and sent to sea. Fishermen rescued 42 prisoners of war from the water.
At 20.00, the Bulgarian steamer Tsar Ferdinand and escort ships entered the port of Sulina, delivering part of the rescued, including 13 crew members of the Salzburg, 5 German artillerymen from the anti-aircraft installation of the dead ship, 16 guards and 133 prisoners of war.
The boat minesweepers “FR-1”, “FR-3”, “FR-9” and “FR-10” rescued another 75 prisoners of war.
In total, 6 Germans and 2080 Soviet prisoners of war died on the Salzburg transport.
M-118 never went on the air again and never returned to base.
13. Titanic (Great Britain) - 1514 dead.
We told readers about it in detail in the following articles:

14. "Hood" (Great Britain) - 1415 dead.

He died heroically in the Battle of the Denmark Strait - a naval battle of World War II between ships of the Royal Navy of Great Britain and the Kriegsmarine (naval forces of the Third Reich). The British battleship Prince of Wales and the battle cruiser Hood tried to prevent the famous German battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen from breaking through the Denmark Strait into the North Atlantic.
At 0535 on May 24, lookouts from the Prince of Wales spotted a German squadron at a distance of 17 miles (28 km). The Germans knew about the enemy's presence from hydrophone readings and soon also noticed the masts of British ships on the horizon. Vice Admiral Holland had a choice: either continue to escort the Bismarck, awaiting the arrival of the battleships of Admiral Tovey's squadron, or attack on his own. Holland decided to attack and at 05:37 he gave the order to approach the enemy. at 0552, the Hood opened fire from a distance of approximately 13 miles (24 km). The Hood continued to approach the enemy at full speed, trying to reduce the time it took to come under overhead fire. Meanwhile, the German ships took aim at the cruiser: the first 203-mm shell from the Prinz Eugen hit the middle part of the Hood, next to the aft 102-mm installation and caused a strong fire in the stock of shells and missiles. At 05:55, Holland ordered a 20-degree turn to port to allow the rear turrets to fire on the Bismarck.
At approximately 06:00, before completing the turn, the cruiser was hit by a salvo from the Bismarck from a distance of 8 to 9.5 miles (15 - 18 km). Almost immediately, a gigantic fountain of fire appeared in the area of the mainmast, after which a powerful explosion occurred, tearing the cruiser in half.
German battleship Bismarck

The stern of the Huda quickly sank. The bow section rose and swayed in the air for some time, after which it sank (at the last moment, the doomed crew of the bow tower fired another salvo). The Prince of Wales, half a mile away, was buried under the wreckage of the Hood.
The cruiser sank in three minutes, taking with it 1,415 people, including Vice Admiral Holland. Only three sailors were saved, who were picked up by the destroyer HMS Electra, which arrived two hours later.
15. "Lusitania" (UK) - 1198 dead

The Lusitania left Pier 54 in New York City at noon on Saturday, May 1, 1915.
On May 5 and 6, the German submarine U-20 sank three ships, and the Royal Navy sent out British ships warning: “Submarines are active near south coast Ireland." Captain Turner received this message twice on May 6 and took all precautions: the watertight doors were closed, all portholes were battened down, the number of observers was doubled, all boats were uncovered and dumped overboard to speed up the evacuation of passengers in case of danger.
On Friday 7 May at 11:00 the Admiralty transmitted another message and Turner adjusted course. He probably thought that the submarines should be on the open sea and would not approach from the shore, and the Lusitania would be protected by its proximity to land.
At 13:00, one of the sailors of the German submarine U-20 noticed a large four-pipe ship ahead. He reported to Captain Walter Schwieger that he had spotted a large four-tube ship traveling at about 18 knots. The boat had little fuel and only one torpedo; the captain was about to return to base when the boat noticed that the ship was slowly turning starboard towards the boat.
Captain U-20 Walter Schwieger (will die 2.5 years later along with the submarine U-88 off the coast of Denmark)
The Lusitania was approximately 30 miles (48 km) from the Irish coast when it encountered fog and reduced speed to 18 knots. She was sailing to the port of Queenstown - now Cobh - in Ireland, which was 43 miles (70 km) away.
At 14:10 the lookout noticed an approaching torpedo from the starboard side. A moment later, a torpedo hit the starboard side under the bridge. The explosion threw a column of steel plating debris and water upward, followed by a second, more powerful explosion, due to which the Lusitania began to list heavily to starboard.
The Lusitania's radio operator sent out a distress signal non-stop. Captain Turner ordered the ship to be abandoned. Water flooded the longitudinal compartments of the starboard side, causing a 15-degree list to starboard. The captain tried to turn the Lusitania towards the Irish coast in the hope of running it aground, but the ship did not obey the rudder, since the torpedo explosion had broken the steering steam lines. Meanwhile, the ship continued to move at a speed of 18 knots, causing water to enter faster.
After about six minutes, the Lusitania's forecastle began to sink. The list to starboard greatly complicated the launching of lifeboats.
U-20 on the Danish coast in 1916. Torpedoes exploded in the bow, destroying the ship

A large number of rescue boats capsized while loading or were capsized by the movement of the ship as they touched the water. The Lusitania carried 48 lifeboats - more than enough for the entire crew and all passengers - but only six boats could be lowered safely - all on the starboard side. Several folding lifeboats were washed off the deck as the liner sank into the water.
Despite the measures taken by Captain Turner, the liner did not reach the shore. There was panic on board. By 14:25 Captain Schwieger lowered the periscope and went to sea.
Captain Turner remained on the bridge until he was washed overboard. Being an excellent swimmer, he lasted three hours in the water. From the movement of the ship, water entered the boiler rooms, some boilers exploded, including those under the third pipe, which caused it to collapse, while the remaining pipes collapsed a little later. The ship traveled about two miles (3 km) from the site of the torpedo attack to the site of the sinking, leaving a trail of wreckage and people in its wake. At 14:28, the Lusitania capsized, keel up, and sank.
Comparison of the Lusitania and the submarine that destroyed it. Drawing from the magazine “Nature and People”, 1915

The liner sank in 18 minutes 8 miles (13 km) from Kinsale. 1,198 people died, including almost a hundred children. The bodies of many of the victims were buried in Queenstown in Kinsale, the town near the site of the sinking of the Lusitania.
On January 11, 2011, Audrey Pearl, the last surviving passenger on the liner, who was only three months old at the time of her death, died at the age of 95.