30+ of the World’s Most Dangerous Shipwrecks
This article appeared in www.carterfive.com and has been published here with permission.The Titanic
On April 15th, 1912, the “unsinkable” British luxury cruise liner RMS Titanic hit an iceberg and sank 450 miles off Newfoundland. Over 1,500 souls were lost, and the infamous ship has captured imaginations ever since.
In June 2023, Titan, a submersible operated by OceanGate, went missing during an expedition to view the wreck site 12,500 feet under the Atlantic. A massive rescue mission was launched, and the world held its collective breath, but sadly it was too late. Tragically, the submersible had imploded, taking the lives of all five occupants.
RMS Carpathia
One of the first ships to arrive at the sinking Titanic was the British passenger liner RMS Carpathia. Her crew rescued 706 survivors from lifeboats. However, The Carpathia went to a similarly watery grave when a German U-boat slammed three torpedoes into her side during World War I.
Luckily, only five people lost their lives. In 1999, Argosy International Ltd found The Carpathia. She lay in 600 feet of water, 200 miles west of Land’s End, sitting upright on the ocean bed.
MV Doña Paz
On December 20th, 1987, Philippine passenger ferry MV Doña Paz was en route to Manila when it caught fire and sank after colliding with fellow Philippine oil tanker MT Vector. The collision is the deadliest peacetime maritime disaster in history, claiming 4,386 lives. Only 26 survived.
The overcrowded ferry had no radio and no lifejackets for passengers. The wreck was located in the shark-infested Tablas Strait in April 2019 by the RV Petrel. She is known as ‘Asia’s Titanic’.
The Wilhelm Gustloff
On January 30th, 1945, a Soviet submarine torpedoed the German military transport ship, the Wilhelm Gustloff. Over 9,400 people perished when she sank into the frigid waters of the Baltic Sea. Only 1,252 were saved, making it the deadliest maritime disaster in history.
Today, the Wilhelm Gustloff lies 12 nautical miles off Stolpe Bank near Poland. Treasure hunters searched for the ship’s legendary Lost Amber Room for years. But now the Polish Maritime Office has forbidden diving within 1,600 feet of the wreckage.
Grab your flippers and join us as we dive into deep, murky, shark-infested waters to check out the world’s most dangerous shipwrecks. We’ll go treasure hunting amongst Kublai Khan’s ancient sunken fleet, the Spanish Armada, and discover $60 million of real pirate treasure. We’ll uncover silver pieces of eight, dodge torpedoes, and plunge the depths to learn about the most famous ships of them all, The Titanic and the USS Indianapolis, made famous in Jaws.