(http://www.MaritimeCyprus.com) On 7 October 1985, four members of the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro when it was in the Mediterranean Sea en route from Alexandria, Egypt to Port Said. The Achille Lauro left Genoa, Italy, on October 3 for a 12-day cruise of the Mediterranean Sea. Aboard were 748 passengers and several…
(http://www.MaritimeCyprus.com) The cruise ship Prinsendam was built in 1973 for Holland America Line. It was somewhat smaller than average size for its day, carrying about 350 passengers and 200 crew. Just after midnight on 4 October 1980, a fire broke out in the engineroom as the ship was transiting the Gulf of Alaska. Shortly thereafter, the master sent…
(http://www.MaritimeCyprus.com) EL FARO was a United States-flagged, combination roll-on/roll-off and lift-on/lift-off cargo ship crewed by U.S. merchant mariners. She was lost at sea with all hands on October 1, 2015, after losing propulsion near the eyewall of Hurricane Joaquin. El Faro departed Jacksonville, Florida, bound for Puerto Rico at 8:10 pm EST on September 29, 2015, when then-Tropical Storm Joaquin was several hundred miles to the east. Two days…
(http://www.MaritimeCyprus.com) The Tōya Maru was a Japanese train ferry constructed by the Japanese National Railways which sank during a typhoon in the Tsugaru Strait between the Japanese islands of Hokkaidō and Honshūon September 26, 1954. The Japanese National Railways announced in September 1955 that 1,153 people aboard were killed in the accident. However, the exact number of fatalities remains…
(http://www.MaritimeCyprus.com) The sinking of the ferry vessel MS Estonia in the Baltic Sea is an accident that will haunt the maritime domain for long years and even beyond. Caused by myriad reasons, this Baltic Sea accident was an event so unprecedented that the extent of the damages caused, both to life and to property, is…
(http://www.MaritimeCyprus.com) The Senegalese government-owned ferry capsized off the coast of The Gambia on September 26, 2002, resulting in the deaths of at least 1,863 people. The sinking of the ferry Le Joola is thought to be the second-worst non-military maritime disaster in number of lives lost, after the Doña Paz. The ferry was reportedly loaded to overcapacity,…
(http://www.MaritimeCyprus.com) On the 7th Sept. 1776, during the Revolutionary War, the American submersible craft Turtle attempts to attach a time bomb to the hull of British Admiral Richard Howe’s flagship Eagle in New York Harbor. It was the first use of a submarine in warfare. Submarines were first built by Dutch inventor Cornelius van Drebel in the early 17th century, but it…
