(http://www.MaritimeCyprus.com) On 15 June 1904, the excursion steamer General Slocum caught fire while operating on the East River in New York City. More than 1,000 passengers and crew lost their lives. It was one of the worst maritime disasters in US history. Congress responded by adopting a series of bills providing the Steamboat Inspection Service…
(http://www.MaritimeCyprus.com) The 76 meter long four-deck river passenger ship Eastern Star (Dongfangzhixing) capsized and sank on the Yangtze River in the Wuhan, Damazhou area. The vessel was carrying 405 passengers, 5 travel agents and 48 crew on a holiday cruise up the Yangtze from Nanjing to Chongqing when it was struck by a severe storm. The storm…
(http://www.MaritimeCyprus.com) This Canadian ocean liner sank in the Saint Lawrence River following a collision with a Norwegian collier in the early hours of May 29, 1914, due to heavy fog. It took just 14 minutes for the St. Lawrence River to swallow the Canadian Pacific’s RMS Empress of Ireland in the pre-dawn of May 29, 1914.…
(http://www.MaritimeCyprus.com) On May 7, 1915, the British ocean liner RMS Lusitania, which primarily ferried people and goods across the Atlantic Ocean between the United States and Great Britain, was torpedoed by a German U-boat and sunk. The sinking of the Lusitania enraged Americans and hastened the United States’ entrance into World War I. The Lusitania sunk within 18 minutes. Though…
(www.MaritimeCyprus.com) In 1865, the United States experienced its most significant marine casualty in terms of lives lost. Sultana was a Mississippi River side-wheel steamboat that exploded on April 27, 1865 in the greatest maritime disaster in United States history. An estimated 1,800 of her 2,427 passengers died when three of the boat’s four boilers exploded and she…
(http://www.MaritimeCyprus.com) M/V Sewol was a ferry that was built by the Japanese company Hayashikane Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd in 1994. She could carry 921 passengers, or a total of 956 persons, including the crew. She had a legal capacity for 180 vehicles and 154 regular cargo containers. The maximum speed of the ship was 22…
(http://www.MaritimeCyprus.com) On 16 April 1947, in the port of Texas City, Texas, the freighter GRANDCAMP, with a cargo of ammonium nitrate, small arms ammunition, machinery, and sisal twine, caught fire. The fire quickly spread to the nearby freighter HIGH FLYER, loaded with ammonium nitrate and sulphur. When the two ships exploded, it largely flattened…
