These historical shipwrecks are the stuff of legend! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at the worst shipwrecks, whether by combat, natural disaster, or accident.
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00:00 The greatest naval disaster in British history,
00:03 where the loss of life was greater than the Titanic, the Lusitania and the Hood combined.
00:08 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at the worst shipwrecks,
00:13 whether by combat, natural disaster or accident.
00:16 Under the waters of this bay in western Japan are the remains of a combat fleet.
00:22 Number 20. HMS Victory.
00:27 The HMS Victory, launched in 1737, was the pride of the British Navy and the flagship
00:37 of the Channel Fleet. The vessel was tremendous for its time, sporting three gun decks and 100
00:42 guns. Unfortunately, she was built with a fatal flaw. Her design led to a tendency for the vessel
00:48 to get pushed downwind. That flaw likely led to her destruction. In 1744, the Channel Fleet was
00:54 caught in a massive storm. She disappeared until her wreck was discovered in 2008, losing her
01:01 entire crew of 1,150 men. Scientists and divers did not, however, discover Victory's greatest
01:08 secret. She is rumoured to have sunk while carrying four tonnes of gold coins. If so,
01:14 they are still lost to the sea. To the best of my knowledge, nobody's ever found any,
01:18 and we certainly didn't see any when we were down there.
01:21 Number 19. RMS Empress of Ireland.
01:24 His intention was to get his passengers to Liverpool on time, as advertised. That simple
01:30 change of direction would ensure that 1,012 men, women, and children would never reach their
01:36 destination. The early 1900s was a rough period for accidents at sea. One such accident involved
01:42 the Canadian ocean liner RMS Empress of Ireland. On a foggy May morning, the Empress was traversing
01:48 the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. The fog was so thick that the crew didn't notice an oncoming
01:53 Norwegian cargo ship. The SS Storstad and the larger passenger vessel crashed into one another.
01:59 The Titanic had sunk two years prior, and the world had learned a harsh lesson from the experience.
02:05 Always have enough lifeboats. Unfortunately, the damage from the collision was so severe,
02:10 the Empress sank in only 14 minutes. By the time the ship went down, 1,012 people – about two
02:16 thirds of the souls aboard – perished. Number 18. USS Arizona.
02:26 December 7th, 1941, was a dark day in US military history. In the early hours of that lazy Sunday
02:36 morning, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched a surprise attack on Hawaii. The Pearl Harbor Naval
02:41 Base was home to dozens of US Navy vessels. By the time the attack was over, 21 ships had been
02:47 significantly damaged or destroyed. Around 2,400 American civilians and military personnel died
02:53 that day. Almost half of them were sailors aboard the USS Arizona, a Pennsylvania-class battleship.
03:00 Japanese pilots hit the Arizona with multiple bombs loaded with armor-piercing warheads.
03:05 One of those bombs hit an ammo magazine, triggering a massive explosion. 1,177 of the
03:12 over 1,500 crewmen were killed. Number 17. RMS Lusitania.
03:31 Between 1914 and 1918, German U-boats sank nearly 5,000 vessels. One of those, in 1915,
03:39 was the British ocean liner RMS Lusitania. For a brief three-month period early on in the
03:44 Lusitania's life, it was the largest passenger ship on Earth. She had traversed the Atlantic
03:49 Ocean over 200 times, carrying passengers back and forth between Britain and the US.
03:54 On her 202nd voyage, a German U-boat hit her with a torpedo, 11 miles off the coast of Ireland.
04:00 Traveling at 40 miles an hour, the torpedo will strike its target in less than a minute.
04:05 Almost 1,200 passengers and crew members were killed. The sinking caused an uproar in the
04:12 United States, and was later one of several justifications for the US to enter World War I.
04:17 Number 16. HMS Hood. The HMS Hood was a battlecruiser in the Royal Navy during World War
04:24 II. Built during the First World War, the Hood spent 20 years as the largest warship on Earth.
04:30 "Thinly armored and nearly obsolete, but she was to many Englishmen a symbol of Britain's
04:36 invincible sea power." The Royal Navy was proud of her long-storied service,
04:40 nicknaming her "The Mighty Hood." In May of 1941, the Hood partnered with the battleship
04:46 Prince of Wales to locate and destroy a pair of German warships, the Bismarck and the Prinz
04:52 Eugen. The Germans were wreaking havoc on convoys in the Atlantic. They found their enemy and
04:57 engaged. Ten minutes into the Battle of the Denmark Strait, a shell from the Bismarck sparked
05:03 a massive explosion. The invincible British ship sank quickly thereafter. Of the 1,418 crew,
05:18 only three survived. Number 15. SS Castillo de Olite. The SS Castillo de Olite spent her 19-year
05:26 career as a journeyman cargo steamship. She started her life as a Dutch vessel named
05:31 "Zondijk." She was renamed three times as she was traded between Dutch and Soviet ownership.
05:37 During the Spanish Civil War in 1938, she was captured by Spanish nationalists. They renamed
05:43 her after a royal palace in Navarre. The Spanish repurposed her as a troop transport vessel.
05:49 Towards the end of the war, Castillo was part of a convoy making for Cartagena. Unlike the rest of
05:54 the convoy, Castillo was never informed that Republican forces controlled the port. As a result,
06:00 she was destroyed by gunfire from shore. Hundreds were wounded and captured. Nearly
06:05 1,500 crewmen and troops were killed. Number 14. Chinese Steamer Ship Taiping.
06:12 The Chinese steamer Taiping is often compared to the Mayflower by Taiwan. After the horrors
06:23 of World War II, Communist forces gained the upper hand during the Chinese Civil War. In the
06:28 decade after the Japanese surrender, around one million refugees fled mainland China for Taiwan.
06:35 Ferries like the Taiping facilitated that journey. They were often overloaded with passengers. The
06:41 Taiping had a rated capacity of fewer than 600 passengers. On its final voyage, it's estimated
06:47 that she carried more than 1,500. Taiping was steaming near the Joshan Archipelago without
06:53 lights to avoid detection. Unfortunately, that decision led to a collision with a small cargo
06:58 vessel. Only 37 passengers were ultimately rescued. Number 13. Haitian Ferry Neptune.
07:12 The 1990s were a tumultuous time for the Caribbean island nation of Haiti. In 1991,
07:17 a military coup unseated the democratically elected president. Three years later,
07:22 the US intervened on behalf of the United Nations. That three-year period of military
07:35 dictatorship was a chaotic one, with human rights falling by the wayside. Infrastructure was not top
07:40 of mind, leading to lax rules and regulations. The passenger ferry Neptune was on a routine trip
07:46 from Port-au-Prince to Jeremie, overloaded with five times its rated capacity of 400.
07:52 Rough seas led to uncontrollable flooding. The passengers fled to the upper deck, which collapsed
07:57 under their collective weight. The ship capsized, and nearly 1,500 are estimated to have died.
08:03 Number 12. RMS Titanic.
08:14 The RMS Titanic was the second of three Olympic-class luxury liners built for the White
08:25 Star Line. At the time, she was the largest passenger ship in the world. After loading
08:30 up with an estimated 2,224 passengers in Southampton, England, she set course for New York
08:36 City. Millionaires and socialites populated her luxury cabins. Her steerage was filled with
08:42 working-class immigrants, parts set on America. Five days later, in the wee hours of April 15th,
08:48 Titanic sank after striking an iceberg. She was built to hold 48 lifeboats, but was only
08:59 equipped with 20. Those that were lowered were only filled to 60% capacity. As a result, 1,517
09:08 souls were lost, including both the ship's captain, Edward Smith, and her architect, Thomas Andrews.
09:13 Number 11. SS Sultana.
09:16 The sinking of the SS Sultana is the greatest American shipwreck you've never heard of.
09:29 The Sultana was a side-wheel steamboat and a vital part of the Mississippi River cotton trade.
09:34 During the Civil War, she was often contracted as a troop transport ship. It was in this capacity,
09:40 the day after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, that Sultana sank near Memphis,
09:45 Tennessee. Sultana was overloaded with six times her passenger maximum. Three of her four boilers
09:51 were leaking, repaired with a slapdash job that led to their explosion.
09:56 Frantic screams as many slid into the fire.
09:59 Wails and cries could be heard as the steamboat began sinking. Officials recorded the death toll
10:04 at 1,547, but modern historians put that number closer to 1,800. It was the worst civilian maritime
10:12 disaster in American history. Number 10. MV Lejula.
10:23 Cars, trucks, and other wheeled vehicles drive onto roll-on boats, are secured, and drive out
10:29 when they reach their destination. In Senegal, such ferries were owned and operated by the
10:34 government. In September of 2002, one such ship, the MV Lejula, was en route to the Senegalese
10:41 capital of Dakar. The Lejula was not a deep-sea vessel and was caught unprepared when she hit
10:46 a storm too far from shore. As with other ships on this list, corruption and foolishness left
10:53 the Lejula overloaded with passengers. There were literally people sleeping on her decks,
10:58 many of whom didn't have tickets. The ship capsized, and a rescue didn't come for hours.
11:04 Between 1,800 and 1,900 souls were lost at sea.
11:07 Number 9. SS Montblanc.
11:19 It brought a city to its knees in an instant. Two square kilometers of Halifax simply obliterated.
11:26 The Halifax explosion of 1917 is one of the most infamous disasters in Canadian history.
11:32 It was a cold December morning when the French cargo ship SS Montblanc entered Halifax Harbor.
11:37 What made this Thursday morning unusual was the Montblanc's cargo. She was fully laden with over
11:43 2,800 tons of volatile cargo. She was traversing a narrow section of the harbor when she collided
11:49 with a Norwegian steamer. The collision sparked a fire, which soon hit the tons of TNT, picric acid,
11:56 and gun cotton below. The resultant explosion virtually destroyed the Richmond district of
12:02 Halifax. The toll on the ship and the city was devastating. Some of the returning soldiers said
12:08 they had not seen worse destruction on the fields in Flanders than what they came home to here.
12:14 Around 9,000 people were injured and approximately 2,000 died.
12:18 Number 8. German Battleship Bismarck.
12:21 In 1940, Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine was so proud of their shiny new battleship that they named it
12:32 after former Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. She was the largest Germany ever built. For a year
12:38 and a half, the Bismarck terrorized Atlantic shipping lanes. Eventually, the British sent
12:43 a pair of warships after her, the Hood and the Prince of Wales. Utilizing her superior modern
12:48 firepower, Bismarck sank the Hood and forced the Prince of Wales to withdraw. Unfortunately,
12:54 Bismarck suffered significant damage during the fight. She limped towards France, seeking repairs.
13:00 Before she could get there, she was pursued by a vengeful British battle group. They encountered
13:05 and destroyed the Bismarck. 2,200 men were killed. There were only 114 survivors.
13:11 Number 7. Japanese Battleship Yamato.
13:24 The battleship Yamato was both the flagship of the Imperial Japanese Navy and, along with her
13:29 sister ship, the largest battleship ever constructed. Her primary guns were the largest ever
13:34 used on a warship. But, towards the end of the war, the Imperial Navy was in dire straits. Their
13:40 fleet had been decimated by the US, and fuel shortages pervaded their home islands. Knowing
13:46 the end was near, the Yamato was sent on a one-way trip to Okinawa. She was ordered to beach herself
13:52 and fight until destroyed. Yamato was intercepted by American bombers before she could make it.
13:57 The Yamato had a massive crew complement of 3,332 sailors, including Vice Admiral Seichi Ito.
14:04 All but 277 died in the American attack.
14:07 Number 6. SS Kyongya.
14:11 Toward the end of the Chinese Civil War, tens of thousands fled before the advance of the People's
14:16 Liberation Army. Cities like Shanghai emptied themselves as those who could afford passage took
14:21 steamer ships to the east. Many ultimately fled to Taiwan. The SS Kyongya was one such ferry,
14:28 filled to the brim with panicked refugees. The total number of people aboard isn't known.
14:33 There were hundreds of stowaways above and beyond its 2,150-person capacity.
14:38 On its route at the mouth of the Huangpu River, the Kyongya met disaster. A mine,
14:43 most likely a remnant of the Japanese invasion, exploded, utterly destroying the ship. Around
14:49 700 refugees were rescued, but estimates potentially put the dead at almost 4,000.
14:54 Number 5. MV Doña Paz.
14:58 After 16 years in Japanese service, a ferry was bought, refurbished, and renamed MV Doña Paz
15:05 in the Philippines. In 1987, on route to Manila, the ferry was overloaded by thousands of people.
15:18 Rumors since the disaster claim that the crew had locked away their life jackets and didn't
15:23 have a working radio. It was struck by the Vector, an unseaworthy oil tanker in operation
15:28 without a license. The tanker also lacked a lookout. The sinking of the MV Doña Paz was
15:44 both a human tragedy and an ecological disaster. Over a thousand tons of gasoline spilled into the
15:50 ocean. There were only 26 survivors of the collision, with the death toll estimated as
15:55 approaching 4,400. It is the deadliest peacetime disaster in maritime history.
16:01 Number 4. RMS Lancastria.
16:04 The rapid initial advance of Nazi Germany left the Allies in utter chaos. Less than nine months
16:22 after declaring war on the Nazis, the British were forced to evacuate at Dunkirk. Desperate,
16:28 they launched Operation Ariel to evacuate all Allied civilians and military personnel from
16:33 continental Europe. As part of Ariel, the government requisitioned commercial ocean
16:38 liners for the evacuation. The RMS Lancastria was tasked with evacuating Brits from France
16:45 two weeks after Dunkirk. While off Saint-Nazaire, German bombers attacked. Even as the ship was
16:51 sinking, survivors had to contend with a continued German assault. The total number of fatalities is
17:03 unknown. Historians believe that anywhere between 4,000 and 7,000 Britons lost their lives when the
17:09 Lancastria sank. Number 3. MV Wilhelm Gustloff.
17:14 The Eastern Front of World War Two saw some of the bloodiest battles in human history. By the start
17:19 of 1945, the Germans were swiftly evacuating the Baltic ahead of the Red Army's advance.
17:26 The MV Wilhelm Gustloff was a military transport vessel participating in the evacuation.
17:31 The exact number of people on the ship when it launched is unknown, but it's estimated that
17:35 around 10,000 passengers were on board when the ship set sail. In January, they were evacuating
17:40 East Prussia as well as other Baltic states occupied by the Nazis. The Wilhelm Gustloff
17:45 was discovered and attacked by a Soviet submarine. Passengers died in the explosion,
17:50 in the stampede to escape the oncoming water, and by drowning. When the Wilhelm Gustloff sank,
17:56 it resulted in the worst loss of life from a single sinking vessel in history. One estimate
18:01 places the butcher's bill at a staggering 9,400 people. It was due to the countless tragedies in
18:07 the war finally coming to an end that the tragedy of the Wilhelm Gustloff did not get much attention.
18:12 It was the largest loss of life on any ocean liner in history.
18:15 Number 2. The Spanish Armada. In the summer of 1588, Elizabeth and the
18:21 people of England faced an overwhelming threat. The Battle of the Spanish Armada is one
18:26 of the greatest upsets in military history. A huge fleet of some 130 Spanish galleons and
18:32 caravels were sent by Philip II to join with an invasion force and conquer England. The Spanish
18:37 Armada vastly outgunned the English fleet. The combined force totaled near 55,000 men.
18:43 It was one of the most terrifying military forces the world had ever seen.
18:52 Along the way, horrible storms wrecked many Spanish ships along the rocky shoals of Scotland
18:58 and Ireland. When the two forces finally met in battle, the English ship's speed and
19:02 manoeuvrability won the day. Between storm and battle, the Spanish lost 44 ships and anywhere
19:09 between 11,000 and 20,000 men. Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the
19:15 bell to get notified about our latest videos. You have the option to be notified for occasional
19:20 videos or all of them. If you're on your phone, make sure you go into settings and
19:24 switch on your notifications. Number One. The Lost Fleet of Kublai Khan.
19:30 Under the waters of this bay in western Japan are the remains of a combat fleet.
19:36 Until D-Day, it was the largest armada in history. Kublai Khan realized the dreams of his
19:45 grandfather Genghis by establishing the Yuan Dynasty. Kublai's own dreams, however, lay further
19:50 eastward, towards the island nation of Japan. In 1274, he sent a fleet of 900 ships to invade.
19:57 The first invasion was thwarted when riverboats met terrible storms at sea. Kublai tried again
20:03 in 1281. One fleet of 900 ships set sail from Korea and easily conquered Tsushima Island.
20:10 A second, much larger fleet of 3,500 hastily constructed ships launched from China. That fleet
20:16 transported 100,000 soldiers ready to conquer all of Japan. They never finished their journey.
20:22 Their river-made construction couldn't withstand the overseas journey, and were all destroyed along
20:28 the way. If you'd like to dive into the depths of these maritime
20:40 disasters together, please comment below.
20:42 Here we are again on the deck of Titanic. Two and a half miles down. 3,821 meters.
20:56 [Music]