Many mistakenly believe that the Titanic is the worst tragedy that has ever happened on the water. All this is far from true, he is not even in the top ten. So, let's begin..
1. "Goya" (Germany) - 6900 dead.
On April 4, 1945, the ship "Goya" stood in the Danzig Bay, waiting for the loading of the military and refugees. The bay was under constant shelling by Soviet artillery, one of the shells hit the Goya, lightly injuring the captain of the ship, Plünnecke.
In addition to civilians and wounded soldiers, there were 200 soldiers of the 25th tank regiment of the Wehrmacht on board.
At 19:00, the convoy, consisting of three ships: the Goya, the steamship Kronenfels (built in 1944, 2834 brt.) and the sea tug Ägir, left the Danzig Bay, accompanied by two minesweepers M- 256 and M-328 to the city of Swinemünde.

At that time, at the exit from the Danzig Bay, the Soviet submarine L-3 under the command of Vladimir Konovalov was waiting for German ships. The largest vessel of the convoy was chosen for the attack. Around 23:00 the route of the convoy was changed, the convoy headed for the city of Copenhagen.
Guards submarine "L-3" ("Frunzevets")

To catch up with the Goya, the Soviet submarine had to go on the surface on diesel engines (in the underwater position, the electric motors could not develop the required speed). L-3 caught up with the Goya and at 23:52 successfully torpedoed the ship with two torpedoes. The Goya sank seven minutes after the torpedo attack, killing between 6,000 and 7,000 people, the exact number of people on board remained unknown. Escort ships managed to save 157 people, during the day other ships found another 28 people alive.
Such a rapid immersion of the ship under water is explained by the fact that the Goya ship was not a passenger ship and did not have partitions between compartments, as was prescribed for passenger ships.
On July 8, 1945, for the exemplary performance of the command’s combat missions, personal courage and heroism shown in battles with the Nazi invaders, Guard Captain 3rd Rank Vladimir Konovalov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.
Konovalov Vladimir Konstantinovich
2. Junyo-maru (Japan) - 5620 dead.

Junyo-maru is a Japanese cargo ship, one of the "ships of hell". "Ships of hell" - the name of the ships of the Japanese merchant fleet, transporting prisoners of war and workers forcibly taken from the occupied territories. "Ships of Hell" did not have any special designations. The Americans and the British drowned them on a common basis.
On March 18, 1944, the ship was attacked by the British submarine Tradewind and sank. At that moment, on board were 1,377 Dutch, 64 British and Australian, 8 American prisoners of war, as well as 4,200 Javanese workers (Romush) sent to build railway in Sumatra. The disaster was the greatest for its time, claiming the lives of 5620 people. The 723 survivors were rescued only to be sent to work similar to the construction of the Death Road, where they were also likely to die.
3. Toyama-maru (Japan) - 5600 dead.

Another ship from the list of "ships of hell". The ship was sunk on 29 June 1944 by the American submarine Sturgeon.
4. "Cap Arkona" (Germany) - 5594 dead- (a terrible tragedy, almost all of them were prisoners of concentration camps).

At the end of the war, Reichsführer Himmler issued a secret order for the evacuation of the concentration camps and the destruction of all prisoners, not one of whom was to fall into the hands of the Allies alive. On May 2, 1945, on the Cap Arcona liner, the cargo ship Thielbek and the ships Athen and Deutschland, which were in the harbor of Lübeck, SS troops delivered 1000-2000 concentration camp prisoners on barges: from Stutthof near Danzig, Neuengamme near Hamburg and Mittelbau-Dora near Nordhausen. Hundreds of prisoners died along the way. The captains of the ships, however, refused to accept them, since there were already 11,000 prisoners, mostly Jews, on their ships. Therefore, early in the morning of May 3, the barges with the prisoners were ordered to return to the shore.
As the half-dead men began to come ashore, the SS, Hitler Jugend and Marines opened fire with machine guns and killed over 500. 350 survived. Arrived at the same time English planes and began bombing ships with white flags raised. "Thielbek" sank in 15-20 minutes. 50 Jews survived. The prisoners on the Athen survived because the ship was ordered to return to Neustadt to pick up additional prisoners from the Stutthof concentration camp by barge. It saved the lives of 1998 people.
The camp striped uniforms of the prisoners were clearly visible to the pilots, but English order No. 73 read: "destroy all concentrated enemy ships in the harbor of Lübeck."
“All of a sudden there were planes. We clearly saw their insignia. "It's the English! Look, we are KaTsetniki! We are prisoners of concentration camps!” we shouted and waved our hands at them. We waved our striped camp hats and pointed to our striped clothes, but there was no compassion for us. The British began to throw napalm at the shaking and burning Cap Arcona. On the next run, the planes descended, now they were at a distance of 15 m from the deck, we could clearly see the pilot's face and thought that we had nothing to be afraid of. But then bombs rained down from the belly of the plane... Some fell on the deck, others into the water... Machine guns fired at us and at those who jumped into the water. The water around the drowning bodies turned red,” wrote Benjamin Jacobs in The Dentist of Auschwitz.
Burning Cap Arcona shortly after the attack began.
The British continued to shoot at the prisoners who launched the boat or simply jumped overboard. 64 shells were fired at Cap Arcona and 15 bombs were dropped on it. It burned for a long time and the people on it burned alive. Most of those who jumped overboard drowned or were killed. 350-500 were saved. In total, 13,000 died, and 1,450 survived. The barges, the sea and the coast were littered with corpses.
The next day, May 4, the Germans surrendered to Field Marshal Montgomery.
5. "Wilhelm Gustloff" (Germany) - 5300 dead

At the beginning of 1945, a significant number of people were fleeing in panic from the advancing Red Army. Many of them followed to the ports on the coast Baltic Sea. To evacuate a huge number of refugees, on the initiative of the German Admiral Karl Dönitz, a special operation "Hannibal" was carried out, which went down in history as the largest evacuation of the population by sea in history. During this operation, almost 2 million civilians were evacuated to Germany - on large ships like the Wilhelm Gustloff, as well as bulk carriers and tugboats.
Thus, as part of Operation Hannibal, on January 22, 1945, the Wilhelm Gustloff in the port of Gdynia began to take on board refugees. At first, people were placed on special passes - first of all, several dozen submarine officers, several hundred women from the naval auxiliary division and almost a thousand wounded soldiers. Later, when tens of thousands of people gathered in the port and the situation became more complicated, they began to let everyone in, giving preference to women and children. Since the planned number of seats was only 1,500, refugees began to be placed on decks, in passageways. Women soldiers were placed even in an empty pool. In the last stages of the evacuation, panic increased so much that some women in the port, in desperation, began to give their children to those who managed to board, in the hope of at least saving them in this way. In the end, on January 30, 1945, the officers of the ship's crew already stopped counting the refugees, whose number exceeded 10,000.
According to modern estimates, there should have been 10,582 people on board: 918 cadets of junior groups of the 2nd submarine training division, 173 crew members, 373 women from the auxiliary naval corps, 162 seriously wounded military personnel, and 8956 refugees, mostly old people, women and children. When the Wilhelm Gustloff, escorted by two escort ships, finally withdrew at 12:30, disputes arose between the four senior officers on the captain's bridge. In addition to the commander of the ship, Captain Friedrich Petersen (German Friedrich Petersen), called up from retirement, there were on board the commander of the 2nd submarine training division and two captains of the merchant fleet, and there was no agreement between them on which fairway to navigate the ship and what precautions to take take on submarines and allied aircraft. The outer fairway was chosen (German designation Zwangsweg 58). Contrary to the recommendations to zigzag to complicate the attack of submarines, it was decided to go straight ahead at a speed of 12 knots, since the corridor in the minefields was not wide enough and the captains hoped to get out to safe waters faster in this way; in addition, the ship was running out of fuel. The liner could not reach full speed due to the damage received during the bombing. In addition, the TF-19 torpedoes returned to the port of Gotenhafen, having received damage to the hull in a collision with a stone, and only one destroyer Löwe remained in guard. At 18:00, a message was received of a convoy of minesweepers that was allegedly moving towards them, and when it was already dark, they were ordered to turn on their navigation lights to prevent a collision. In reality, there were no minesweepers, and the circumstances of the appearance of this radio message have remained unclear to this day. According to other sources, the section of minesweepers was trawling towards the convoy, and appeared later than the time given in the notification.
When the commander of the Soviet submarine S-13 Alexander Marinesko saw and went nuts brightly lit, contrary to all norms of military practice, "Wilhelm Gustloff", then for two hours he followed him on the surface, choosing a position for attack. Normally, submarines of the time were unable to catch up with surface ships, but Captain Peterson was running slower than design speed given the significant overcrowding and uncertainty about the state of the ship after years of inactivity and repairs after the bombing. At 19:30, without waiting for the minesweepers, Peterson gave the command to put out the fires, but it was too late - Marinesko worked out a plan of attack.
Submarine S-13

At about nine o'clock S-13 came from the side of the coast, where they could least expect it from a distance of less than 1,000 m at 21:04 fired the first torpedo with the inscription "For the Motherland", and then two more - "For the Soviet people" and "For Leningrad. The fourth, already cocked torpedo "For Stalin", got stuck in the torpedo tube and almost exploded, but they managed to neutralize it, close the hatches of the vehicles and dive.
Captain of the third rank A. I. Marinesko
At 21:16 the first torpedo hit the bow of the ship, later the second blew up the empty pool where the women of the naval auxiliary battalion were, and the last one hit the engine room. The passengers' first thought was that they had hit a mine, but Captain Peterson realized it was a submarine and his first words were: Das war's (That's it). Those passengers who did not die from three explosions and did not drown in the cabins of the lower decks rushed to the lifeboats in a panic. At that moment, it turned out that by ordering to close, according to the instructions, the watertight compartments in the lower decks, the captain inadvertently blocked part of the team, which was supposed to launch the boats and evacuate passengers. Therefore, in the panic and stampede, not only many children and women died, but also many of those who got out on the upper deck. They couldn't get down lifeboats, because they did not know how to do this, in addition, many davits were iced over, and the ship had already received a strong roll. With the joint efforts of the crew and passengers, some boats were launched, and yet there were many people in the icy water. From the strong roll of the ship, an anti-aircraft gun came off the deck and crushed one of the boats, already full of people. About an hour after the attack, the Wilhelm Gustloff completely sank.
Two weeks later, on February 10, 1945, the S-13 submarine under the command of Alexander Marinesko sank another large German transport, the General Steuben, more on that below.
6. "Armenia" (USSR) - approximately 5,000 dead.

Around 17:00 on November 6, 1941, "Armenia" left the port of Sevastopol, evacuating a military hospital and residents of the city. According to various estimates, there were from 4.5 to 7 thousand people on board. At 2:00 am on November 7, the ship arrived in Yalta, where it took on board several hundred more people. At 8:00 the ship left the port. At 11:25 a.m., the ship was attacked by a single German Heinkel He-111 torpedo bomber belonging to the 1st squadron of the I / KG28 air group. The aircraft approached from the shore and dropped two torpedoes from a distance of 600 m. One of them hit the bow of the ship. After 4 minutes, "Armenia" sank. Despite the fact that the transport had the hallmarks of a medical ship, "Armenia" violated this status, as it was armed with four 21-K anti-aircraft guns. In addition to the wounded and refugees, there were military personnel and NKVD officers on board. The ship was escorted by two armed boats and two I-153 fighters. In this regard, "Armenia" was "legitimate" in terms of international law military purpose
German medium bomber "Heinkel He-111"

Several thousand wounded soldiers and evacuated citizens were on the ship. The staff of the main hospital of the Black Sea Fleet and a number of other military and civilian hospitals (a total of 23 hospitals), the leadership of the Artek pioneer camp and part of the party leadership of the Crimea were also loaded onto the ship. The loading of the evacuees was in a hurry, their exact number is not known (just like when the Germans were evacuated from Germany at the end of the war - on the ships Wilhelm Gustloff, Goya). Officially, in Soviet times, it was believed that about 5 thousand people died, at the beginning of the 21st century, estimates were increased to 7-10 thousand people. Only eight were saved.
7. "Ryusei-maru" (Japan) - 4998 dead

The Ryusei Maru was a Japanese ship that was torpedoed by the American submarine USS Rasher on February 25, 1944, killing 4,998 people. Another ship from the list of "ships of hell".
8. "Dona Paz" (Philippines) - 4375 dead

Until the time of the collision, Doña Paz performed twice a week Passenger Transportation on the route Manila-Tacloban-Catbalogan-Manila-Catbalogan-Tacloban-Manila. The ship left its last voyage on December 20, 1987. At about 10 p.m. on the same day, the ferry collided with the tanker Vektor near Marinduke Island. This disaster is considered the largest among those that occurred in peacetime.
9. "Lancastria" (UK) - approximately 4,000 dead

Until 1932, Lancastria made regular flights from Liverpool to New York, then was used as a cruise ship that sailed along mediterranean sea and along the coast of northern Europe.
October 10, 1932 "Lancastria" rescued the crew of the Belgian ship Scheldestad, sinking in the Bay of Biscay.
In April 1940, it was requisitioned by the Admiralty and converted into a military transport. In a new capacity, it was first used during the evacuation of allied forces from Norway. On June 17, 1940, she was sunk by German aircraft off the coast of France, killing more than 4,000 people, which exceeded the total number of victims of the Titanic and Lusitania crashes.
10. General Steuben (Germany) - 3608 dead

During the Second World War, until 1944, the liner was used as a hotel for the senior officers of the Kriegsmarine in Kiel and Danzig, after 1944 the ship was converted into a hospital and participated in the evacuation of people (mostly wounded soldiers and refugees) from East Prussia from the advancing Red Army.
On February 9, 1945, the Steuben liner left the port of Pillau (now Baltiysk) and headed for Kiel, there were more than 4,000 people on board the liner - 2,680 wounded military personnel, 100 soldiers, about 900 refugees, 270 military medical personnel and 285 ship crew members. The vessel was escorted by the destroyer T-196 and minesweeper TF-10.
The German liner was discovered on the evening of February 9 by the Soviet submarine S-13 under the command of Alexander Marinesko. For four and a half hours, the Soviet submarine pursued the Steuben and finally on the night of February 10 at 00:55 torpedoed the liner with two torpedoes. The liner sank 15 minutes later, killing more than 3600 people (the following numbers are given: 3608 died, 659 people were rescued).
When the liner was torpedoed, the submarine commander Alexander Marinesko was convinced that there was no passenger liner, and the military cruiser "Emden".
Cruiser "Emden" for comparison.

The fact that this is not so, Marinesko learned after returning to the base in Finnish Turku from local newspapers.
Until December 1944, the Steuben made 18 flights, evacuating a total of 26,445 wounded and 6,694 refugees.
11. Tilbeck (Germany) - approximately 2800 dead

Died near Cap Arcona (see item 4)
12. "Salzburg" (Germany) - approximately 2000 dead

On September 22, 1942, the M-118 submarine (commander - lieutenant commander Sergey Stepanovich Savin) headed for position No. 42 (Cape Burnas area) from Poti. The task of the boat was to prevent enemy navigation and sink his ships.
On October 1, 1942, the Salzburg transport was part of the Yuzhny convoy, which left Ochakov for the Romanian port of Sulina. The convoy also included the Bulgarian steamship Tsar Ferdinand (which was sunk two years later, on October 2, 1944, by the French submarine FS Curie). After the convoy passed the traverse of Odessa, it was guarded by the Romanian gunboats Lokotenent-Commander Verses Eugen, Subotenent Giculescu Ion and minesweeper MR-7. Aerial surveillance of the situation was carried out by the Arado Ar 196 seaplane (some sources mention Cant-501z) of the Romanian Air Force.
The Salzburg was carrying 810 tons of scrap metal (according to other sources, it was carrying coal). In addition, from 2,000 to 2,300 Soviet prisoners of war were on board.
Due to the danger of being attacked by Soviet submarines, which were constantly on duty in this area, the convoy was moving close to the coast, and the guard ships covered it more seaward.
Submarine M-118

At 13.57, an explosion is heard at the starboard side of the second Salzburg, and a column of water rises above the superstructure and masts.
The covering ships began to search for a boat seaward from the convoy, but to no avail. At this time, the captain of the Salzburg received the command to run the ship aground. However, already 13 minutes after the explosion, the ship sits down with its hull on the ground. Only the masts and the pipe remain above the water.
"Lokotenent-commander Verses Eugen" continued to accompany the Bulgarian transport, and "Sublokotenent Giculescu Ion" and the minesweeper approached the Salzburg in distress.
At this time, the M-118, which was between the shore and the convoy during the attack, began to move, and the pilots of the patrol aircraft noticed the muddy track stirred up by the propellers. When the headquarters received a signal about the discovery of a submarine, the minesweeper was ordered to catch up with the convoy and protect it from a possible new attack, and the Giculescu Ion Sub-Cotenent headed for the place where the boat was discovered. From the air, the boat was hunted by a German seaplane BV-138 from the 3rd squadron of the 125th reconnaissance air group. After dropping a series of depth charges from a Romanian gunboat, oil stains appeared on the water and wooden debris floated up.
Seaplane BV-138

At 15.45, the commander of the convoy from the gunboat "Lokotenent-commander Stikhi Eugen" sent another radiogram to the headquarters, in which he reported that the "Salzburg" sank in shallow water, only masts and superstructures remained above the water, and bad weather, strong wind and swell on the sea, as well as the disadvantage life-saving appliances make it difficult to carry out rescue operations. Only after this message, at 16.45, the German boat minesweepers "FR-1", "FR-3", "FR-9" and "FR-10" were sent from Bugaz to the place of the ship's sinking, and at 17.32 they reported that ". ..70 Russians are hanging from the masts.”
The Romanian command of the naval forces of the region turned to the help of local fishermen, who were alerted and sent to sea. Fishermen rescued 42 prisoners of war from the water.
At 20.00, the Bulgarian steamship Tsar Ferdinand and escort ships entered the port of Sulina, delivering part of the rescued, including 13 Salzburg crew members, 5 German gunners from the calculation of the anti-aircraft gun of the deceased ship, 16 guards and 133 prisoners of war.
Boat minesweepers "FR-1", "FR-3", "FR-9" and "FR-10" rescued another 75 prisoners of war.
In total, 6 Germans and 2080 Soviet prisoners of war died on the Salzburg transport.
M-118 did not go on the air anymore, did not return to the base.
13. "Titanic" (UK) - 1514 dead.
We told readers about it in detail in articles:

14. "Hood" (UK) - 1415 dead.

He died heroically in the battle in the Danish Strait - a naval battle of the Second World War between the ships of the Royal Navy of Great Britain and the Kriegsmarine (the naval forces of the Third Reich). The British battleship Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser Hood tried to prevent the famous German battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen from breaking through the Denmark Strait into the North Atlantic.
At 0535 hours on 24 May, lookouts from the Prince of Wales spotted a German squadron at a distance of 17 miles (28 km). The Germans knew of the enemy's presence from hydrophone readings and soon also noticed the masts of British ships on the horizon. Vice Admiral Holland had a choice: either continue to escort the Bismarck, waiting for the arrival of the battleships of Admiral Tovey's squadron, or attack on his own. Holland decided to attack and at 05-37 gave the order to approach the enemy. at 0552 Hood opened fire from a range of approximately 13 miles (24 km). "Hood" continued to close with the enemy at full speed, trying to reduce the time of falling under mounted fire. In the meantime, the German ships fired on the cruiser: the first 203-mm shell from the Prinz Eugen hit the middle part of the Hood, next to the aft 102-mm installation and caused a strong fire in the supply of shells and missiles. At 05:55, Holland ordered a 20-degree turn to port so that the aft turrets could fire on the Bismarck.
At about 06:00, before completing the turn, the cruiser was covered by a volley from the Bismarck from a distance of 8 to 9.5 miles (15 - 18 km). Almost immediately, a giant fountain of fire appeared in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe main mast, after which there was powerful explosion, which tore the cruiser in half.
German battleship Bismarck

The Hood's stern sank quickly. The bow part rose and swayed in the air for some time, after which it also sank (at the last moment, the doomed crew of the bow tower fired another salvo). The Prince of Wales, half a mile away, was bombarded with the wreckage of the Hood.
The cruiser sank in three minutes, taking 1,415 people with her, including Vice Admiral Holland. Only three sailors were saved, who were picked up by the destroyer HMS Electra, which approached two hours later.
15. "Lusitania" (UK) - 1198 dead

The Lusitania left Pier 54, New York, at noon on Saturday, May 1, 1915.
On May 5 and 6, the German submarine U-20 sank three ships, and the Royal Navy sent out a warning to all British ships: "Submarines active off south coast Ireland". Captain Turner received this message twice on May 6 and took all precautions: watertight doors were closed, all windows were battened down, the number of observers was doubled, all boats were uncovered and dumped overboard to speed up the evacuation of passengers in case of danger.
On Friday 7 May at 11:00 the Admiralty transmitted another message and Turner corrected course. He probably thought that the submarines should be on the open sea and would not come from the coast, and the Lusitania would be protected by proximity to land.
At 13:00, one of the sailors of the German submarine U-20 noticed a large four-tube vessel ahead. He informed Captain Walter Schwieger that he had spotted a large four-tube ship traveling at about 18 knots. The boat had little fuel and only one torpedo, the captain was about to return to base, as the boat noticed that the ship was slowly turning to starboard towards the boat.
Captain U-20 Walter Schwieger (will die in 2.5 years along with the submarine U-88 off the coast of Denmark)
The Lusitania was about 30 miles (48 km) from the Irish coast when she entered the fog and reduced her speed to 18 knots. She went to the port of Queenstown - now Cobh - in Ireland, to which there were 43 miles (70 km) of the way.
At 14:10 the lookout spotted an approaching torpedo from the starboard side. A moment later, the torpedo hit the starboard side under the bridge. The explosion sent a column of steel sheathing and water flying upwards, followed by a second, more powerful explosion that caused the Lusitania to list heavily to starboard.
The Lusitania's radio operator sent out a distress signal nonstop. Captain Turner gave the order to abandon ship. Water flooded the longitudinal compartments of the starboard side, causing a 15-degree list to starboard. The captain tried to turn the Lusitania to the Irish coast in the hope of putting it aground, but the ship did not obey the helm, as the torpedo explosion interrupted the steering steam lines. Meanwhile, the ship continued to move at a speed of 18 knots, which caused water to enter faster.
About six minutes later, the Lusitania's tank began to sink. The roll to starboard greatly complicates the launching of the lifeboats.
U-20 on the Danish coast in 1916. Torpedoes exploded in the bow, destroying the ship

A large number of lifeboats capsized while loading or were overturned by the movement of the ship as they touched the water. The Lusitania carried 48 lifeboats - more than enough for the entire crew and all passengers - but only six lifeboats were launched safely, all on the starboard side. Several collapsible lifeboats were washed off the deck as the liner sank into the water.
Despite the measures taken by Captain Turner, the liner did not reach the shore. Panic broke out on board. By 14:25 Captain Schwieger lowered the periscope and went to sea.
Captain Turner remained on the bridge until he was washed overboard with water. Being an excellent swimmer, he lasted three hours in the water. From the movement of the vessel, water entered the boiler rooms, some boilers exploded, including those under the third pipe, which caused it to collapse, while the rest of the pipes collapsed a little later. The ship went about two miles (3 km) from the place of the torpedo attack to the place of death, leaving a trail of debris and people behind her. At 14:28, the Lusitania capsized with her keel up and sank.
Comparison of the Lusitania and the submarine that destroyed her. Drawing from the journal Nature and People, 1915

The liner sank in 18 minutes 8 miles (13 km) from Kinsale. 1,198 people died, including almost a hundred children. The bodies of many of the victims were buried in Queenstown in Kinsale, the city near the site of the sinking of the Lusitania.
On January 11, 2011, Audrey Pearle, the last surviving passenger of the liner, who was only three months old at the time of his death, died at the age of 95.

On April 16, 1945, exactly 117 years after the death of Francisco Goya, the Goya ship was sunk by a torpedo attack carried out by a Soviet submarine. This catastrophe, which claimed 7,000 lives, was the largest shipwreck in world history.

"Goya"

"Goya" was a Norwegian cargo ship requisitioned by the Germans. On April 16, 1945, it did not work out in the morning. The bombardment to which the ship was subjected became a grim omen of the coming catastrophe. Despite the defense, during the fourth raid, the projectile still hit the bow of the Goya. Several people were injured, but the ship remained afloat and it was decided not to cancel the flight.

For "Goya" it was the fifth evacuation flight from the advancing units of the Red Army. During the four previous campaigns, almost 20,000 refugees, wounded and soldiers were evacuated.
The Goya went on its last flight loaded to capacity. Passengers were in the aisles, on the stairs, in the holds. Not everyone had documents, so the exact number of passengers has not yet been established, from 6000 to 7000. All of them believed that the war was over for them, made plans and were full of hope ...

The ships (Goya was escorted by a convoy) were already at sea when, at 22:30, surveillance noticed an unidentified silhouette on the right side of the ship. Everyone was ordered to put on rescue residents. There were only 1500 of them on board the Goya. In addition, on one of the ships of the group, the Kronenfels, there was a breakdown in the engine room. Waiting for the end of the repair work, the ships lay adrift. An hour later, the ships continued on their way.
At 23:45, the Goya shuddered from a powerful torpedo attack. The Soviet submarine L-3, following the ships, began to act.
Panic broke out on the Goya. Jochen Hannema, a German tanker who became one of the few survivors, recalled: “Water rushed out of the huge holes formed as a result of torpedo hits. The ship broke into two parts and began to sink rapidly. All that was heard was the eerie rumble of a huge mass of water.
A huge ship, devoid of partitions, sank in some 20 minutes. Only 178 people survived.

"Wilhelm Gustlow"

On January 30, 1945, at 21:15, the S-13 submarine discovered in the Baltic waters the German transport Wilhelm Gustlov, accompanied by an escort, carrying, according to modern estimates, over 10 thousand people, most of whom were refugees from East Prussia : old people, children, women. But also on the Gustlov were German submarine cadets, crew members and other military personnel.
Submarine captain Alexander Marinesko began hunting. For almost three hours, the Soviet submarine followed the giant transporter (the displacement of the Gustlov was over 25 thousand tons. For comparison: the steamer Titanic and the battleship Bismarck had a displacement of about 50 thousand tons).
Having chosen the moment, Marinesko attacked the Gustlov with three torpedoes, each of which hit the target. The fourth torpedo with the inscription "For Stalin" got stuck. The submariners miraculously managed to avoid an explosion on the boat.

Avoiding the pursuit of the German military escort, the S-13 was bombed by over 200 depth charges.

The sinking of the Wilhelm Gustlov is considered one of the largest disasters in maritime history. According to official figures, 5,348 people died in it, according to some historians, real losses could exceed 9,000.

Junyo Maru

They were called the "Ships of Hell". These were Japanese merchant ships used to transport prisoners of war and workers (in fact, slaves, who were nicknamed "romushi") to the territories occupied by the Japanese during the Second World War. The “ships of hell” were not officially part of the Japanese navy and did not have identification marks, but the allied forces drowned them no less fiercely from this. In total, 9 "Ships of Hell" were sunk during the war, on which almost 25 thousand people died.

It is worth saying that the British and Americans could not have been unaware of the "cargo" that was transported on the ships, since the Japanese ciphers were deciphered.

The biggest disaster occurred on September 18, 1944. The British submarine Tradewind torpedoed the Japanese ship Junyo Maru. Of the life-saving equipment on the ship, stuffed to capacity with prisoners of war, there were two lifeboats and several rafts. On board were 4.2 thousand workers, 2.3 thousand prisoners of war Americans, Australians, British, Dutch and Indonesians.

The conditions in which the slaves had to survive on ships were simply horrendous. Many went crazy, died of exhaustion and stuffiness. When the torpedoed ship began to sink, there was no chance for the ship's prisoners to escape. The boats accompanying the "ship of hell" took only the Japanese and a small part of the prisoners on board. In total, 680 prisoners of war and 200 romushi remained alive.

This was the case when the living envied the dead. The miraculously escaped captives were sent to their destination - to build a railway to Sumatra. The chances of surviving there were not much greater than on the ill-fated ship.

"Armenia"

The cargo-passenger ship "Armenia" was built in Leningrad and was used on the Odessa-Batumi line. During the Great Patriotic War in August 1941, "Armenia" was converted into a medical transport ship. The board and deck began to be “decorated” with large red crosses, which, in theory, were supposed to protect the ship from attacks, but ...

During the defense of Odessa, "Armenia" made 15 flights to the besieged city, from where more than 16 thousand people were taken on board. Last flight"Armenia" was a campaign from Sevastopol to Tuapse in November 1941. On November 6, having taken on board the wounded, almost the entire medical personnel of the Black Sea Fleet and civilians, "Armenia" left Sevastopol.

At night, the ship arrived in Yalta. The captain of the "Armenia" was forbidden to make the transition to Tuapse during daylight hours, but the military situation dictated otherwise. The port of Yalta did not have cover to protect against German air raids, and German troops were already on the near approaches to the city. And there wasn't much choice...

At 8 am on November 7, "Armenia" left Yalta and headed for Tuapse. At 11:25 a.m., the ship was attacked by a German He-111 torpedo bomber and sank less than 5 minutes after the torpedo hit the bow. Between 4,000 and 7,500 people were killed along with "Armenia", and only eight managed to escape. Until now, the causes of this terrible tragedy are controversial.

"Dona Paz"

The death of the Doña Paz ferry is the largest shipwreck that occurred in peacetime. This tragedy became a cruel lesson denouncing greed, unprofessionalism and sloppiness. The sea, as you know, does not forgive mistakes, and in the case of the Danya Paz, mistakes followed one after another .
The ferry was built in Japan in 1963. At that time it was called Himeuri Maru. In 1975, he was sold to the Philippines for a profit. Since that time, he has been exploited even more than mercilessly. Designed to carry a maximum of 608 passengers, it was usually packed to capacity, seating between 1,500 and 4,500 people.

Twice a week, the ferry carried passengers on the route Manila - Tacloban - Catbalogan - Manila - Catbalogan - Tacloban - Manila. On December 20, 1987, the Doña Paz left on her last voyage from Tacloban to Manila. This flight was filled with a maximum of passengers - the Filipinos were in a hurry to the capital for the New Year.

At ten in the evening of the same day, the ferry collided with the huge tanker Vector. From the collision, both ships literally broke in half, thousands of tons of oil spilled into the ocean. The explosion caused a fire. The chances of salvation were reduced to almost zero. The situation was aggravated by the fact that the ocean at the site of the tragedy was teeming with sharks.

One of the survivors, Paquito Osabel, later recalled: Neither the sailors nor the ship's officers reacted in any way to what was happening. Everyone demanded life jackets and boats, but there were none. The lockers where the vests were kept were locked, and the keys could not be found. The boats were thrown into the water just like that, without any preparation. Panic, chaos, chaos reigned«.

The rescue operation began only eight hours after the tragedy. 26 people were caught from the sea. 24 are passengers of the Donji Paz, two are sailors from the tanker Vector. Official statistics, which cannot be trusted, speak of the death of 1,583 people. More objective, independent experts claim that 4,341 people died in the disaster.

"Cap Arkona"

"Cap Arcona" was one of the largest passenger ships Germany, displacement - 27,561 tons. Having survived almost the entire war, Cap Arkona died after the capture of Berlin by the Allied forces, when on May 3, 1945 the liner was sunk by British bombers.

Benjamin Jacobs, one of the prisoners at Cap Arcona, wrote in his book The Dentist of Auschwitz: " Suddenly the planes appeared. We clearly saw their insignia. "It's the English! Look, we are KaTsetniki! We are prisoners of concentration camps!” we shouted and waved our hands at them. We waved our striped camp hats and pointed to our striped clothes, but there was no compassion for us. The British began to throw napalm at the shaking and burning Cap Arcona. On the next run, the planes descended, now they were at a distance of 15 m from the deck, we could clearly see the pilot's face and thought that we had nothing to be afraid of. But then bombs rained down from the belly of the plane... Some fell on the deck, others into the water... Machine guns fired at us and at those who jumped into the water. The water around the sinking bodies turned red".

On board the blazing Cap Arcona, more than 4,000 prisoners were burned to death or suffocated by the smoke. Some prisoners managed to break free and jump into the sea. Those who managed to avoid the sharks were picked up by trawlers. 350 prisoners, many of whom suffered from burns, managed to get out before the liner capsized. They swam ashore, but became victims of the SS. In total, 5594 people died on Cap Arcone.

"Lancasteria"

About the tragedy that occurred on June 17, 1940, Western historiography prefers to remain silent. Moreover, a veil of oblivion covered this terrible catastrophe on the day it happened. This is due to the fact that on the same day France surrendered to the Nazi troops, and Winston Churchill decided not to report anything about the death of the ship, as this could break the morale of the British. This is not surprising: the Lancaster disaster was the largest mass death of the British during the Second World War, the number of victims exceeded the sum of the victims of the deaths of the Titanic and Louisitania.

Liner "Lancastria" was built in 1920 and after the outbreak of the Second World War was operated as a military ship. On June 17, he evacuated troops from Norway. The German bomber Junkers 88, which noticed the ship, began bombing. The liner was hit by 10 bombs. According to official figures, there were 4,500 soldiers and 200 crew members on board. About 700 people were saved. According to unofficial data published in Brian Crabb's book on the disaster, it is said that the number of victims is deliberately underestimated.

The world is familiar with many shipwrecks that shocked with their scale and horror of what happened. A lot of terrible shipwrecks that caused significant human casualties are also known in Russian history.

Top worst shipwrecks of the 20th century

As is known, modern ships equipped with the means to save a person's life. However, this was not always the case. Especially many large shipwrecks occurred in the last century.

Some water disasters have occurred far out to sea, and some have occurred offshore due to reef collisions. The consequences can be frightening. Next, consider some of the most terrible shipwrecks in the history of mankind.

Steamboat "Sultana" (SS Sultana)

The wooden paddle steamer "Sultana" was built at the American shipyard in Cincinnati and launched in 1863. The ship suffered distress on April 27, 1865 on the Mississippi River near Memphis due to the explosion of a steam boiler.

Soldiers released from captivity were transported on the ship. 1653 people became victims of the disaster, 741 people were saved. This shipwreck in terms of the number of victims is the largest catastrophe of the 19th century.

Ferry "Donja Pas"

One of the largest shipwrecks of the 20th century occurred in 1987 - we are talking about the Doña Paz passenger ferry. For more than two decades, he regularly transported people, cruising along the coast of the Philippines and Japan.

Colliding with the tanker, the ferry literally broke in half. A fire broke out and the passengers died in the fire. The number of victims of this terrible shipwreck is 4375 people.

Liner "Wilhelm Gustloff"

The cruise ship "Wilhelm Gustloff" belonged to one of the largest tour operators in the Third Reich. It was launched in 1937. The ship departed 50 cruises, and the cost of tickets was so low that even the working class could afford to travel on board it.

During the Second World War, the liner served as a hospital, and later became a barracks for submariners. In early 1945, the ship was torpedoed by a Soviet submarine. According to official figures, 5348 people died in that shipwreck. Historians also call a different number of victims - at least 9 thousand people.

The wreck of the Titanic

Who doesn't know about the Titanic? It seems that everyone has heard about this sensational shipwreck. The ship made only one voyage, which ended in disaster in 1912. Titanic according to the site, is included in the rating of the largest ships.

The victims of the shipwreck were 1513 people. Only 711 passengers survived. The Titanic sank under water in 160 minutes. This terrible disaster was reflected in the cinema: in 1997, the film of the same name was directed by James Cameron. The main roles in the film were played by Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Cruise ship Costa Concordia

Costa Concordia is one of the largest European ships. Maritime disaster occurred on the night of January 13-14, 2012 in the Tyrrhenian Sea, near the Italian island of Giglio, during a cruise in the western Mediterranean. There were 4,229 people on board when the ship hit reefs and capsized. The crash killed 32 people.

6 people found guilty in Costa Concordia crash

The main culprit was the captain of the liner Francesco Schettino, who was sentenced to 16 years in prison. After this incident, the rules of maritime navigation and the passage of pre-trip briefings by passengers were tightened.

The worst shipwrecks in national history

Several major shipwrecks are also known in Russian history, and all of them caused huge human casualties. It is impossible not to recall the collapse of "Armenia", "Admiral Nakhimov" and "Novorossiysk". A terrible tragedy for our country and the whole world was the death of the Kursk submarine, the shipwreck of the Bulgaria and Komsomolets.

"Armenia" sank in the fall of 1941 near the Crimea in just four minutes. The ship was transporting evacuated residents and wounded Red Army soldiers. Five thousand people died, and only 8 passengers could survive.

One of the largest water disasters in the USSR was the crash of the Admiral Nakhimov. He went from Novorossiysk to Sochi, carrying 1243 people. Due to the fact that the steamer rammed a grain carrier, it had a hole, and it sank in 7 minutes. This shipwreck occurred at the end of August 1986, and 423 people died then.

The name "Novorossiysk" in the USSR was given to a ship that previously belonged to the Italian Navy. At the end of October 1955, an explosion occurred in the bow of the ship, due to which a hole of 150 square meters was formed. meters. Novorossiysk sank with 604 people on board.

The ferry "Estonia" in September 1994, leaving the port of Tallinn, got into a storm, lost its bow, which caused it to fall on its side and drown. The rescue operation was complicated by a natural disaster that left 852 people missing and killed.

Our contemporaries know about the tragedy that happened to the Kursk nuclear submarine. The crash occurred in August 2000 due to explosions on board. The crew consisted of 118 people, there were no survivors.

In July 2011, there was another terrible shipwreck in Russian history - the sinking of the ship "Bulgaria", which was cruising along the Volga. With a capacity of 140 people, there were 208 passengers on board. About 120 people were killed, many of them children.

The Komsomolets submarine sank in the Norwegian Sea. This happened in April 1989 - the cause was a fire in the aft compartment. The crew consisted of 69 people, only 27 crew members managed to survive.

The worst water disaster in human history

Perhaps the worst water disaster in the history of mankind was the shipwreck of the German ship Goya in 1945. About 7 thousand people became its victims.

The crash of the Goya is called the bloodiest disaster. It happened during the Second World War. The ship was used as an evacuation ship. At night, a Soviet submarine caught up with the Goya and attacked the ship. After 10 minutes, the Goya ship, along with all the passengers, went under water. On land, major incidents with human casualties. We invite you to learn more about the worst disasters in history.
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Sea vessels have always been the subject of universal admiration, but often the world was shocked by their sudden death. The largest shipwrecks - how did they happen and how many human lives did they claim?

It is worth noting that ships sank for various reasons. Mainly due to the following:

• "human factor";
• malfunction of the ship's mechanisms;
• severe storms.

Great shipwrecks are, and therefore everyone should know about them.

The most famous shipwrecks: the sinking of the Titanic

The fame of the story associated with the "Titanic" for a wide range of public acquired after the release of the film of the same name. It is noteworthy that the plot of the film was based on real events. It is not known whether the love story that was discussed in the film was true, but the fact that the ship sank, taking a huge number of human lives with it, is true.

The Titanic was launched on May 31, 1911. At that time, the ship was considered the largest liner in history, and therefore its first voyage took place in a festive atmosphere.

Unfortunately, the Titanic only set sail once. The flight he followed had been passed by other ships thousands of times before, but in 1912 the ship sank unexpectedly.

The bulky liner could not withstand a collision with an iceberg on April 14. No one could name the exact reason: either it was an oversight of the workers, or a lack of equipment. One way or another, it took quite a bit of time to completely immerse in water - 160 minutes. This was a shock to the designers, as they placed great hopes on the ship, and the size of the liner itself delighted everyone.

There were more than two thousand people on the ship, of which only 711 survived. The lucky ones told many of the most amazing stories about what they experienced at the moment when they were told about the wreck of the ship. Unfortunately, life-saving equipment was sorely lacking, which led to the mass death of passengers.

The story of the Titanic has become a sensation, but the most famous shipwrecks on it do not end there, because in just 100 years there have been many similar events.

The worst shipwrecks of the twentieth century

In the history of navigation, other cases are known that are striking in their colossality. Their death was not made into a grandiose movie, like about the Titanic, but their crash was just as unexpected for the developers of the model and the families of the victims.

Remained forever at the bottom of the oceans and seas:

• "Yamato";
• "Salzburg";
• "Bismarck";
• "Cap Arkona";
• Junio ​​Maaru.

Great shipwrecks of history

And a few more ships that are well known in world history. One of them is the Wilhelm Gustloff passenger liner, which departed only fifty flights.

What is surprising is the cost of the tickets. Allow yourself to travel Wilhelm Gustloff even representatives of the poor working class could.

This ship belonged travel company Third Reich. Since the first liner was launched in 1937, he managed to survive a lot. He caught the Second World War, during which the "Wilhelm Gustloff" served as a hospital, and later participated in naval battles. On January 30, 1945, this liner was sunk by a torpedo from the Soviet Union.

Historians believe that there were about 9,000 people on board the liner at the time of the crash, although 5,000 were officially reported dead.

But even on the "Wilhelm Gustloff" the most terrible shipwrecks have not ended. Second World War took another great ship - " Armenia».

"Armenia" was a passenger-cargo ship, which was created in 1928 in the Soviet Union. This ship had really large dimensions and potential. Historians find it difficult to answer how many voyages the ship departed, but they know exactly when it sank.

It happened in 1941 near the Crimea. "Armenia" was flooded by German aircraft.

Striking and scary at the same time is the fact that the ship sank under water in just 4 minutes, taking 5,000 human lives with it.

Only eight passengers survived.

Finally

Historical experience made it possible to realize how important it is to comply with safety conditions when drawing up a plan for the construction and launching of a ship. Now sea vessels are equipped with a huge number of life-saving devices, which, even in cases of misfortune, enable people to survive. It remains to be hoped that the necessary measures are taken, and not a single modern ship will be included in the historical summary called "shipwrecks".

The wreck of ships... Such an incident is always shrouded in a halo of secrets, myths and legends. The famous shipwrecks are the black pages of history, which can be read only by looking into the depths of the sea. Sadly, majestic giant liners very often become victims of the raging waters of the seas and oceans.

The most famous shipwrecks became public knowledge. To date, there are many secret lists that name the most impressive ship disasters in the history of mankind. Below are just a few of those that have entered world history.

Ships that have been wrecked

For many, the first thing that comes to mind is a story that shocked the whole world with its tragedy. It eclipsed every other shipwreck. This is the story of the "Titanic" ... Although this story has grown over time with a lot of conjecture and conjecture, everyone is still interested in learning about what really happened. The crew were so blinded by the majesty of their ship and its superiority over other ships that for a time everyone became overconfident.

Possible causes of the tragedy

At that time, many said that a ship had finally been built that could not be sunk. But reality turned out to be unpredictable. One night, the ship was moving at full speed along its route, and only at the very last moment the sailors were able to notice the top of a huge block of ice rising above the surface of the water. Urgent attempts were made to move the ship aside, but it was too late: the ship was wrecked. Almost at full speed, the Titanic hit an iceberg with its starboard side.

The ship breaks in half

Gradually, the lower tiers in the forward compartment of the ship begin to flood. Almost half of the vessel is filled with cold water Atlantic Ocean. A counterweight is created on the ship, as a result of which it is half immersed in water. The body can not withstand the monstrous load and breaks in half. Both parts of the broken ship lose power and sink. Eyewitnesses of the tragedy recall that terrible day with trepidation, but still some facts remain in the shadows. For example, class discrimination of passengers.

Could more have been saved?

Some witnesses claim that individual lifeboats were only half full of passengers. Only a few people sat in them, who set sail as soon as possible, in fear that the boat would overflow and sink. As a result, far fewer passengers were saved than could have been. However, do not forget that heroic deeds also took place that night. Many risked their lives to help others escape. Be that as it may, this disaster has become a symbol of arrogance.

complicated story

Another, no less tragic collision occurred with the steamer "Admiral Nakhimov". It became the big sensation of the twentieth century. The warm day of August began with the arrival at the port cruise ship. The city of Novorossiysk said goodbye to passengers who were soon to go on an exciting trip. Around the same time, a ship called "Pyotr Vasev" was planning to enter the port. The crews of both ships were warned about each other and had to act carefully, no one had any idea that the ships would soon crash.

Who is guilty and does it make sense to find out now?

As a result of short negotiations, it was decided to disperse on the right sides at the exit from the port. However, something went wrong, namely, the automatic course setting system failed. Technique is imperfect, this should never be forgotten. Shipwrecks are clear evidence of this. When it was noticed that the ship was moving at full speed directly towards the Admiral Nakhimov, the situation almost completely got out of control.

Dry cargo ship "Pyotr Vasev" crashed into a passenger liner and made a hole in its board measuring eight by ten meters. in eight minutes. Some of the circumstances under which the ship was wrecked raised questions among many. Why did a passenger ship sink to the bottom like a stone, if, according to the rules, it must have sufficient buoyancy to survive on the surface of the water for at least an hour after the crash? In addition, information was received that the captain had complied with the order of the port dispatcher and changed the route of the vessel. There will be many gaps and white spots in this story.

However, the most inconsolable fact is the death of almost half a thousand people. Perhaps the scale of the disaster would not have been so terrible if it had been possible to launch lifeboats. But what could be done in just eight minutes? It takes at least half an hour to organize the boarding of people in one boat. And this is under favorable conditions.

In the case when the crash of the ship "Nakhimov" took place, there was neither time nor factors allowing people to escape in boats. Time after the disaster, it becomes increasingly difficult to find out the true circumstances of the crash. Surely the true facts lie in the depths of the water, so it makes no sense to speculate, because time, like human lives, cannot be returned back.

These are just two stories, but they are not the only ones. The following list of the most famous shipwrecks will show that wrecks largest liners- far from uncommon.

• SS America.
• "Pioneer of the World"
• "Mediterranean sky".
• MB Captayannis.
• BOS 400.
• Fort Shevchenko.
• "Evangelia".
• "SS Maheno".
• "Santa Maria".
• "Dimitrios".
• "Olympia".

The ships were built over the years, solemnly left their native ports against the wind and eventually sank, ran aground, leaving only fragments and piles of iron in memory of themselves.