Highlights :
- Shipwreck happens when a ship sinks in a water body .
- There are many cases of shipwrecks.
- In history’s top 10 shipwrecks, the famous ship Titanic is also included.
Wreckage of a ship that is located either on the beach or has sunk to the bottom of a water body is termed as a shipwreck. Shipwrecking can be both intentional and unintentional. In January 1999, Angela Croome reported that there were about three million shipwrecks around the world. There are many types of famous shipwrecks :
- Historic Shipwrecks
- Military Shipwrecks
- Treasure ships
- Contemporary Shipwrecks
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The Story OF 10 Famous Shipwrecks
10. MS WORLD DISCOVERER
This was a Danish Cruise ship which was built in 1974. In 2000, while carrying passengers on a cruise, it struck a rock at the Solomon Islands. The ship was sinking, a distress signal was given, and all the people were escorted safely.
Many people tried to salvage the shipwreck but none of the trials was successful. The ship has remained at Roderick Bay ever since, and now it is a famous tourist site.
9. THE BLACK SWAN
The Black Swan Project is one of the greatest recoveries of gold treasures in the history of shipwrecks. The Spanish Warship Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes which sank in Portugal in 1804 was found with these treasures.
The American Company, Odyssey Marine Exploration, announced that they uncovered gold worth $500 million. In 2021, the treasure was returned to the Spanish Authorities and now is displayed in various exhibitions.
8. MV DONA PAZ
The sinking of this ship was one of the deadliest of all maritime distresses. The ferry was carrying around four thousand passengers and collided with an oil tanker MT Vector on 20th of December, 1987.
There were only 24 survivors. It is called “ Asia’s Titanic”.
7. THE QUEEN ANNE’S REVENGE
It was an 18th-century warship known for being the ship of Edward Teach (Pirate Blackbeard). The ship served in the British Navy before being captured by the French and then by the pirates.
In 1718, the ship was grounded and abandoned by the pirates to escape from being captured by the British. In 1996 the remains of this ship were recovered from Atlantic Beach, North Carolina. 31 canons and more than a quarter of a million artifacts were recovered from the ship.
6. VASA
It was a Swedish warship that was built between 1662 and 1668. On August 10th 1628, the ship sank after being hit by strong winds and flooding. It sank after moving just a mile and thus was regarded as a great embarrassment for the King of Sweden.
In 1961, the shipwreck was successfully recovered and thousands of artifacts were discovered.
5. THE MARY ROSE
It was a Tudor warship. Built in 1511, it served in many wars against France, Britain, and Scotland. In 1545 it sank during a war against France.
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It was salvaged in 1982 and more than 26,000 artifacts were recovered.
4. USS ARIZONA
This American battleship was built for the US Navy in 1915. It was sent to Hawaii in 1940 in response to the warning of Japanese Imperialism. It was bombed by the Japanese on the 7th of December, 1940, due to which the ship exploded and sank.
1,177 crew members, including US officers, were killed. The famous shipwreck was declared a National Historic Mark on the 5th of May, 1989.
3. RMS LUSITANIA
It was a British Ocean Liner launched in 1906. It was sunk by a German U-boat on the 7th of May, 1915. Out of 1,962 crew members and passengers, 1,191 lost their lives.
This is believed to be a major factor that encouraged the US to enter WWI as an ally.
2. THE RMS REPUBLIC
It was built in 1903 and operated as a steam-powered ocean liner. In January 1909, at 5.30 am, the disaster happened. A collision with the Lloyd Italiano liner SS Florida just off Nantucket, Massachusetts and the very next day it sank at about 8.40 pm. Six lives were lost, but the evacuation process was praised all over.
The shipwreck is 250 feet underwater and is said to have large treasures worth $250,000- $3,000,000, which are still untouched.
1. THE RMS TITANIC
The “unsinkable” ocean liner that started its maiden voyage on the 10th of April 1912, hit an iceberg before midnight on the 14th of April and sank in less than three hours. The disaster claimed 1,514 lives. It is considered to be one of the most tragic and famous shipwrecks.
In 1985, a Franco-American expedition was able to discover the shipwreck and revealed that the ship had been split in half, and the pieces lie about a third of a mile apart from one another at the bottom of the ocean floor.
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