Boats
have been one of the most efficient ways to transport everything from
vital supplies to humans throughout history. But this efficiency can
come with a price, as human error and nature’s power sometimes leads to
disaster. Here are the top 10 shipwrecks and maritime disasters in or
near United States waters.
1. USS Arizona
Just
before 8 a.m. on Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese aircraft from six fleet
carriers attacked the heart of the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet in the port
of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The two attack waves destroyed or severely
damaged many vessels including several of the U.S. Navy’s prized
battleships: the USS Arizona, California, Oklahoma and West Virginia.
The Arizona sustained eight direct bomb hits, one of which penetrated
the deck and the black-powder magazine. The subsequent explosion and
fire ripped through the forward part of the ship. The Arizona sank at
its mooring taking the lives of 1,177 of the 1,400 sailors on board
making it the greatest loss of life on any warship in U.S. history. Its
fires burned for more than two days and oil continues to seep up from
the wreckage to this day. In all, 2,402 Americans were killed in the
attack on Pearl Harbor, which came to be symbolized by the destruction
of the USS Arizona.
2. SS Sultana
SS
Sultana, a steamship that regularly traveled from St. Louis to New
Orleans, was commissioned by the war department to transport
just-released Union prisoners of war back home. The ship was legally
registered to carry a maximum of less than 400 people, but with the
government paying $5 per soldier, 2,300 soldiers were packed in so
tightly that they could barely stand. At 2 a.m., April 27, three of the
ship’s boilers exploded since they were rapidly and poorly repaired in
order to get “first dibs” of the POWs. Fire quickly spread throughout
the ship and those who survived jumped into the river and drowned. By
the time the sun came up, more than 1,700 soldiers were dead and the
Sultana sank about seven miles north of Memphis, Tennessee.
3. PS General Slocum
On
June 15, 1904, 1,358 passengers boarded the ship for an annual church
event up the East River. Shortly after launch, a small fire began in the
forward section and within the hour, the fire had spread to a paint
locker that contained gasoline and other flammable liquids.
Unfortunately, the captain had not maintained any safety standards so
all of the fire hoses had rotted away, the lifeboats were bolted in
place, and life jackets were unusable. To make matters worse, the
captain sailed into headwinds that actually spread the fire over the
majority of the ship. By the time it sank off the Bronx shore, 1,021
people had died and it was New York’s largest loss of life in a single
disaster until the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
4. SS Eastland
On
July 24, 1915, the passenger ship SS Eastland was docked on the Chicago
River in downtown Chicago preparing to depart for Lake Michigan. The
ship had been chartered to take Western Electric Co. employees and their
family members on a well-deserved cruise and picnic. As the 2,700
passengers boarded the ship, it began to list while still moored to the
dock. Eventually, the weight caused the ship to roll onto its side,
spilling hundreds of passengers into the river with the rest trapped
underwater in the interior cabins. The disaster killed 844 passengers,
mostly women and children. Its center of gravity was simply too high,
which made it susceptible to listing.
5. Texas City Disaster
On
April 16, 1947, a 437-foot French-registered vessel was docked in the
port of Texas City on the Texas Gulf Coast. Known as the SS Grandcamp,
its cargo included 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate that was used for
fertilizer and high explosives. After a small fire started in the cargo
hold, the captain ordered his men to steam out the fire in order to
protect the cargo. The steam actually liquefied the ammonium nitrate and
raised the temperature of the hold to 850 degrees Fahrenheit, which
caused the water around the ship to boil. At 9:12 a.m., the ammonium
nitrate detonated with an explosive force that shattered windows 40
miles away, ignited nearby oil refineries, destroyed hundreds of
buildings and even sheared off the wings of overhead planes. The
explosion, dubbed the “Texas City Disaster,” injured thousands and
killed an estimated 600 people.
6. SS Central America
On
Sept. 3, 1857, the ship departed from Panama with 476 passengers and
three tons of gold, which included 5,200 newly minted $20 gold pieces
from the San Francisco Mint. On Sept. 9, the ship was caught in a
Category 2 hurricane off the Carolinas with sustained 100-mile-per-hour
winds. With shredded sails, a boiler failure, and a leak in the
paddlewheel, the ship began taking on water. After a failed attempt to
bail the rising water, the crew flew the ship’s flag upside down (the
maritime distress signal). But no one came to their rescue and the ship
sank with 426 passengers on Sept. 12, 160 miles east of Cape Hatteras,
North Carolina. The 50 remaining survivors were rescued by a Norwegian
vessel five hours later.
7. USS Thresher
The
USS Thresher was a 3,700-ton, nuclear-powered attack submarine
commissioned in August 1961. On April 9, 1963, the Thresher sailed to an
area 220 miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and began a series of
deep-sea trials. With a fleet of rescue ships that included the
bathyscaphe Trieste, the submarine was found broken into six major
sections at a depth of 8,400 feet.
8. SS Andrea Doria
On
July 25, 1956, it was headed for New York near the island of Nantucket
with 1,706 passengers. At the same time, the 528-foot MS Stockholm was
on its transatlantic voyage back to Sweden. Unfortunately, the two ships
charted similar courses at full speed completely unaware of each
other’s presence. Once the ships spotted each other, it was too late and
crucial errors in steering only made it worse. 1,660 passengers were
rescued while 46 people died as a consequence of the collision.
9. SS Edmund Fitzgerald
On
Nov. 9, 1975, the ship departed for Detroit loaded with more than
26,000 tons of iron. The Edmund Fitzgerald ran into a storm early the
next morning, and by mid-afternoon, reported encountering 25-foot waves
with 50-knot winds.
The SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank minutes later in Canadian waters 17 miles northwest of Whitefish Bay, Michigan. The entire crew of 29 went down with the ship and no bodies were recovered.
The SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank minutes later in Canadian waters 17 miles northwest of Whitefish Bay, Michigan. The entire crew of 29 went down with the ship and no bodies were recovered.
10. Exxon Valdez
On
March 24, 1989, a 987-foot oil tanker, the Exxon Valdez on its way to
California through Prince William Sound in Alaska. As Captain Joseph
Hazelwood slept off an alcohol-induced bender below decks, his third
mate steered the vessel right into Bligh Reef. The error spilled
approximately 11 million gallons of crude oil, which eventually covered
1,300 miles of coastline and killed an estimated 250,000 seabirds and
other marine life.