The MV Doña Paz – the Worst Maritime Disaster in History

While the Titanic may be the most famous shipwreck, its death toll was but a third of the world’s deadliest, taking the lives of over 4,300 souls.  Just five days before Christmas, the MV Doña Paz ferry collided with an oil tanker, burnt to the water line, and sank in the Philippine Sea.  “Asia’s Titanic”Continue reading “The MV Doña Paz – the Worst Maritime Disaster in History”

The Forgotten Sinking of the Empress of Ireland

Just two years after the Titanic, and a year before Lusitania, another passenger ship sank with an even greater loss of life, yet few remember the tragic tale. The Empress of Ireland sank in Canada’s St. Lawrence River in the spring of 1914 after colliding with another ship in a dense fog bank in theContinue reading “The Forgotten Sinking of the Empress of Ireland”

Chicago’s SS Eastland Disaster topped Titanic

In July of 1915 on the Chicago River, the SS Eastland, carrying over 2,500 passengers and crew headed for a Western Electric company picnic, suddenly listed to port and rolled over into the muddy river.  844 souls perished, more than on the Titanic or Lusitania; yet the SS Eastland is lost in history to most.

The Mariana Trench – a Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

 A decade before the Apollo Moon Missions, two aquanauts, traveled to the last unexplored place on Earth, the deepest point under all the Earth’s oceans.  On 23 January 1960, Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh, in the bathyscaphe Trieste, descended down to the bottom of Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, 7 miles, (11 km) beneathContinue reading “The Mariana Trench – a Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea”

The Lusitania Sank in Just 18 Minutes, Beating Titanic!

The ocean liner Lusitania was struck by a German torpedo in 1915 and sunk within sight of the Irish coast in just 18 Minutes! Compare that to the rather luxurious sinking of the Titanic three years earlier in 1912 that lasted 2 hours and 40 minutes. We have all seen the popular movie, so justContinue reading “The Lusitania Sank in Just 18 Minutes, Beating Titanic!”