The La Bourgogne was built in 1885 at the Société Nouvelles de Forges et Chantiers de Médditerranée in La Seyne-sur-Mer, France for the Compagnie Generale Transatlantique better known as the French Line. She was a sleek looking ocean liner with four auxiliary sail rigged masts and twin funnels. La Bourgogne like many other passenger ships of the era, was…
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 with…
21 June 2008 There were storm warnings, but the ferry sailed despite them. Seven stories high and nearly 24,000 tons, she was rated to handle Storm Condition 2 winds on the 20 hour journey from Manila to Cebu, the major city in the southern part of the Philippines, 355 miles away as the crow flies.…
This British ocean liner was commandeered by the government during World War II. It was sunk on June 17th, 1940, resulting in the loss of over 4,000 lives, possibly many more. This is considered to be the worst loss of life in the sinking of a single British ship, and the bloodiest single engagement for…
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 with…
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. The…
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…
