Shipping Disasters

Profile managers: Terri Rick [send private message], Mary Richardson [send private message], David Wilson [send private message], and Disasters Project WikiTree [send private message]

'

RMS Lusitania was a British ocean liner, 202 transatlantic trips and was the largest passenger ship during a time of fierce competition by ocean liners. The Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat on May 7, 1915. The Royal Navy blockaded Germany, during World war I, with Germany responding with submarine warfare and declared the seas around the United Kingdom a war zone.

Lusitania.

However later evidence and documents of 4.2 million rounds of ammunition, 1,250 cases of shrapnel shells were on board.

Loss: 1198 people,128 American citizens. value of ship, Ammunition

Warning from Germany.

Dining room.

• RMS Lusitania 1915
• History and the RMS Lusitania

• Sinking of RMS Lusitania and explosives

• Britannica lusitania sinking

• Dining Room designed by: Scottish Architect James Miller who used plasterwork rather than wood to create a lighter effect.

'

RMS Titanic, a British passenger liner sank 15 April 1912 in the North Atlantic Ocean. It had taken a northern route, then collided with an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Southampton, UK, to New York City, US. More than 1,500 passengers and crew drowned, The RMS Titanic, the largest ship afloat. Many wealthy passengers of England, U.S., Europe.

Last Lifeboat launched.

Titanic Bow.

'

The Costa Concordia, a large passenger ship piloted by Captain Francesco Schettino deviated from a planned route going off course at the Isola del Giglio. The ship hit a rock formation on the sea floor and was allowed to drift for an hour, then passengers contacted the Port Authorities when a ripped hole in the hull caused it to begin to list and then turned and began to sink. 4,252 passengers heard the impact. Authorities evacuated frantic passengers for 6 hours. Deaths: Ecological disaster, because the partially submerged wreck was in danger of slipping into much deeper water, with a risk of oil pollution. The Captain was found guilty of manslaughter of 32 passengers by Judge and sentenced to 16 years in prison. Court: 10 years for multiple manslaughter, 5 years for causing shipwreck, 1 year for abandoning passengers, and 1 month for providing false information to port authorities. Costa Concordia

Costa Concordia.

'

The capsizing of the SS Eastland steamboat- had a history of some instability- listing as it seemed to be top-heavy. Thus was downgraded in number of passengers it could carry. It was chartered to take employees to a picnic. While in port with 2,572 passengers it listed to the port side. As others rushed over to look, the boat turned over. This trapped passengers underneath and under furniture. A disaster. Deaths 844 passengers and 4 crew. Eastland

'

S.S. Formby and S.S. Connenbeg

The S.S. Formby, an Irish ship left port Dec 15/16 in the midst of a gale and blowing snow. It failed to reach Hartford.. S.S. Formby had radio transmission, but communication was limited in those days due to war. Very little wreckage was ever found, but the shipping company informed relatives that the ships were lost due to bad weather. By 1918 it was "assumed the losses could have caused by a German torpedo S.S. Formby

The S.S. Conningbeg, a sister ship left Dec 17, and never reached Hartford. S.S. Formby and SS Conningbeg

'

20th January 1887. The merchant ship, Kapunda was sailing from London to Australia when another ship, the Ada Melmoure struck the Kapunda. Two hundred three people died in this shipping disaster. , The French ship, Ulysses rescued the survivors. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapunda_(ship)

• Kapunda

'

The SS Edmund Fitzgerald was an American Great Lakes freighter that sank in a Lake Superior storm on November 10, 1975, with the loss of the entire crew of 29. When launched on June 7, 1958, she was the largest ship on North America's Great Lakes, and remains the largest to have sunk there.

and others.