The largest shipwreck in the world in terms of the number of victims. The worst disasters in history

Below is a list of the ten biggest natural disasters in human history. The rating is based on the number of deaths.

Earthquake in Aleppo

Death toll: about 230,000

The ranking of the largest natural disasters in the history of mankind opens with an earthquake in Aleppo with a magnitude of 8.5 on the Richter scale, which occurred in several stages near the city of Aleppo in northern Syria on October 11, 1138. It is often referred to as the fourth earthquake in history in terms of the number of deaths. According to the references of the Damascus chronicler Ibn al-Qalanisi, approximately 230,000 people died as a result of this catastrophe.

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake

Number of victims: 225,000–300,000

An underwater earthquake that occurred on December 26, 2004 in the Indian Ocean off the western coast of North Sumatra, 250 kilometers southeast of the city of Banda Aceh. It is considered one of the strongest earthquakes of the XX-XXI centuries. Its magnitude, according to various estimates, ranged from 9.1 to 9.3 on the Richter scale. Arising at a depth of about 30 km, the earthquake caused a series of devastating tsunamis, the height of which exceeded 15 meters. These waves caused enormous destruction and claimed the lives of, according to various estimates, from 225,000 to 300,000 people in 14 countries. The coasts of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand suffered the most from the tsunami.

Death toll: 171,000–230,000

The Banqiao Dam is a dam on the Ruhe River, Henan Province, China. On August 8, 1975, due to the powerful typhoon Nina, the dam was destroyed, thereby causing flooding and a huge wave 10 km wide and 3–7 meters high. This disaster, according to various estimates, claimed the lives of from 171,000 to 230,000 people, of which about 26,000 died directly from the flood. The rest died from subsequent epidemics and famine. In addition, 11 million people have lost their homes.

Number of victims: 242,419

The Tangshan earthquake, measuring 8.2 on the Richter scale, is the deadliest earthquake of the 20th century. It happened on July 28, 1976 in the Chinese city of Tangshan at 3:42 local time. Its hypocenter was located near the industrial city of a millionaires at a depth of 22 km. Aftershocks with a power of 7.1 did even more damage. According to the Chinese government, the number of victims was 242,419 people, but according to other sources, about 800,000 people died, and another 164,000 were seriously injured. The earthquake also affected settlements located at a distance of 150 kilometers from the epicenter, including Tianjin and Beijing. More than 5,000,000 houses were completely destroyed.

Flood in Kaifeng

Death toll: 300,000–378,000

The Kaifeng flood is a man-made disaster that hit Kaifeng in the first place. This city is located on the south bank of the Yellow River in the Chinese province of Henan. In 1642, the city was flooded by the Yellow River after the Ming Dynasty army opened the dams to prevent the advance of Li Zicheng's troops. Then about 300,000-378,000 people died from the flood and the subsequent famine and plague.

Indian cyclone - 1839

Death toll: over 300,000

The fifth place in the ranking of the largest natural disasters in history is occupied by the Indian cyclone - 1839. On November 16, 1839, a 12-meter wave caused by a powerful storm completely destroyed the large port city of Koringa, in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. More than 300,000 people died then. After the disaster, the city was never rebuilt. Now in its place is a small village with a population (2011) - 12,495 inhabitants.

Death toll: approximately 830,000

This earthquake, with a magnitude of approximately 8, occurred on January 23, 1556 in the Chinese province of Shaanxi, during the reign of the Ming Dynasty. More than 97 districts were affected by it, everything was destroyed on an area of ​​​​840 km, and in some areas 60% of the population died. In total, the China earthquake claimed the lives of approximately 830,000 people - more than any other earthquake in human history. The huge number of victims is due to the fact that the majority of the population of the province lived in loess caves, which were destroyed or flooded by mudflows immediately after the first shocks.

Number of victims: 300,000–500,000

The most destructive tropical cyclone in history that hit the territories of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and the Indian state of West Bengal on November 12, 1970. An estimated 300-500 thousand people died from it, mainly as a result of a 9 m high storm surge that flooded many low-lying islands in the Ganges delta. The sub-districts of Thani and Tazumuddin suffered the most from the cyclone, killing more than 45% of the population.

Death toll: about 900,000

This devastating flood occurred on September 28, 1887 in Henan Province, China. The reason for this was the torrential rains that had been falling here for many days. Due to the rains, the water level in the Yellow River rose and destroyed the dam, near the city of Zhengzhou. The water quickly spread throughout northern China, covering an area of ​​approximately 130,000 square kilometers. km, taking the lives of about 900 thousand people, and leaving about 2 million homeless.

Number of victims: 145,000–4,000,000

The largest natural disaster in the world is the flood in China, or rather a series of floods that occurred in 1931 in South-Central China. This catastrophe was preceded by a drought that lasted from 1928 to 1930. However, the following winter was very snowy, with a lot of rain in the spring, and during the summer months, the country suffered from heavy rains. All these facts contributed to the fact that the three largest rivers in China: the Yangtze, the Huaihe, the Yellow River overflowed their banks, taking the lives of, according to various sources, from 145 thousand to 4 million people. Also, the largest natural disaster in history caused epidemics of cholera and typhus, and also led to famine, during which cases of infanticide and cannibalism were recorded.

Why do people kill each other? The reasons can be explained in terms of natural selection or cruel necessity - when it comes to the struggle for resources or self-defense (ultimately, both there and there it is about survival). Another thing is that millennia of civilization development have led humanity to the conclusion that killing is bad, immoral and destructive.

Why does the program sometimes break down and a person starts killing for the sake of killing? Where do cruel people obsessed with death come from? Let's try to tell you about the ten most cruel maniacs in history.

John Wayne Gacy

This man is known as the "killer clown" (it was his story that prompted Stephen King to create one of the most terrible horror films - "It"). His life was, so to speak, quite typical for a maniac - as a child, Gacy survived a rape, his father was an alcoholic who abused his family.

For the first time, John Wayne Gacy went to jail at the age of 26 - for the rape of a teenage boy. Instead of 10 years, he served a year and a half: he was released for good behavior. The mistake of the penitentiary system cost America dearly. Once at large, Gacy bought a Pogo clown costume and began to earn extra money at city holidays in the suburbs of Chicago.

From 1972 to 1978, he raped and killed more than 30 people. These were young guys whom Gacy brought to his home, tortured and killed. They arrested him in 1978. The remains of 29 victims were found in the basement of his house. The jury sentenced John Wayne Gacy to 12 deaths, the only one of which was carried out on May 10, 1994.

Jeffrey Dahmer

Cannibal and murderer Jeffrey Dahmer was also sexually abused and bullied as a child. However, for the time being, he was an ordinary teenager - until he developed a strange habit of collecting animal corpses, which he placed in jars of formaldehyde.

For the first time, Dahmer killed at the age of 18 - a young man, a casual acquaintance, became his victim. The killer stunned him with dumbbells, strangled him, and then cut the body into pieces and buried them under the house. After that, life went on as usual, as if nothing had happened. Dahmer married, studied, was expelled for drunkenness, served in the army, worked ...

In 1987 he killed again and could no longer stop. In four years, he raped and killed 17 people. Once he brought home another victim, but a young man named Tracy Edwards managed to get out and call the police. Later, during a search in Dahmer's house, photographs of corpses, the bodies themselves and parts of the bodies with which the refrigerator was stuffed, were found. There was a skeleton in the closet, and three male torsos in the barrel of acid.

Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced to fifteen life terms, but lived in prison for only three years - in 1994 he was beaten to death by a cellmate.

Ted Bundy

Theodore Bundy showed great promise - he was smart and talented, studied well and was in good standing with professors. It is unknown what went wrong. But in 1974, at the height of the academic year at the university, Bundy began to skip classes and was soon expelled. Around the same time, women began to disappear without a trace on the West Coast.

The exact number of victims of Ted Bundy is unknown. During the investigation, he confessed to 30 murders of women, but there could be more. Bundy met young girls, smiled charmingly and asked for help - he often used the trick with fake plaster to pretend that he was not able to cope on his own. The girl willingly helped him, for example, to carry the suitcase to the car, got into it to continue the acquaintance - and after that she was already doomed.

Bundy was arrested in 1975 after an attempted kidnapping of Carol DaRonch. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison. At that time, Bundy managed to escape. He could not lead a normal life for a long time and in January 1978 - two weeks after the escape - he broke into the women's hostel and there in 20 minutes he killed two women and badly maimed another.

Ted Bundy was arrested almost by accident, but the police quickly realized that they were facing the most terrible man in America. He was charged with the murders - the court sentenced Bundy to death. Over the next few years, he told the FBI more and more details about the brutal crimes he committed, hoping that the execution would be postponed for some more time. He was eventually executed in 1989 in the electric chair.

Gary Ridgway

It is noteworthy that Ted Bundy, already sentenced to death, in a conversation with an FBI agent, made a fairly clear psychological portrait of the alleged maniac who operated in the early 80s in the United States. The editors of the site notes that according to this description, it was possible to catch Ridgway even then, but Bundy did not listen, and Ridgway was at large for another 17 years.

Gary Ridgway, nicknamed the “Green River Killer,” killed at least 70 women in two decades and is considered one of the bloodiest and most brutal maniacs in the world. He was arrested after one of the victims managed to break free and flee. Ridgway began to confess to the murders, and the number of his victims rose from 42 (of which the police knew) to 71. In 2003, he was sentenced to 48 life terms without parole.

Andrey Chikatilo

An inconspicuous engineer named Chikatilo lived in the city of Shakhty and did not attract the attention of the police for years. It never occurred to anyone that this little man could be guilty of the brutal murders of young women and children. From 1978 to 1984, 32 people disappeared or were found brutally murdered in the Rostov region.

The first time Chikatilo was arrested in 1984 - he molested young girls at the bus station in Rostov. At the same time, a completely different person, a certain Anatoly Kravchenko, who in 1983 slandered himself under torture in the police, had already been executed for the murder of one of his victims.

The first arrest ended in nothing for Andrei Chikatilo - due to a mismatch in blood types and sperm, there was no evidence against him. Maniac stayed at large for another six years and was arrested in 1990. On the tenth day, he began to give confessions and spoke about dozens of tortured victims. On the conscience of Chikatilo at least 52 murders. He was shot on February 14, 1994.

Pedro Alonso Lopez - the most brutal maniac in history

This man has been “flaunting” in the Guinness Book of Records for several decades as the most cruel maniac in the world. The editors of the site find out.rf sincerely hope that no one else will take this place.

It is believed that this man is responsible for more than three hundred murders that were committed in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. Pedro Alonso Lopez, who is called the "monster of the Andes", lived as a child with an overage pervert who sheltered him - after the boy was thrown into the street by his own prostitute mother.

At the age of 18, Lopez brutally took revenge on the "benefactor" by raping and killing him with a gang of friends. For this crime, Lopez received 8 years in prison. After his release, he went to Peru and there he began to kill and rape. The main victims were teenage girls. From 1975 to 1978, according to some sources, he killed at least a hundred people.

The police in the poor countries of Latin America do not have much influence. According to rumors, Lopez was ordered to get out of the country by a Peruvian crime boss. The killer left the country but continued his atrocities in neighboring Ecuador. One day, the girl he grabbed broke free and ran away, and Lopez was detained. The authorities did not believe their ears when the maniac began to paint his crimes in colors.

Psychopath and murderer Pedro Lopez decided to prove to the police that he really killed a lot of people. He showed the burial place of his victims - an inspection showed that there were the remains of at least fifty girls and women. Lopez was sentenced to 20 years in prison, the maximum sentence in Ecuador. According to rumors, he was either transferred to compulsory treatment, or even released at all.

If you like to tickle your nerves with scary stories, we suggest you switch from real horror to fictional ones: life is already full of horror and pain. Read about the scariest horror movies.
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Every year, many disasters of a different nature occur in the world due to natural phenomena, technical failures, errors of specialists and many other unfavorable factors. All of them often lead to tragic consequences.
They will forever remain in the memory of those people who lost their loved ones. In memory of those who provided any assistance in the center of events, and all those who could not help, but were worried about the fate of people in trouble. This article lists the worst disasters that have ever happened in history: on water, in the air, and on land.

In 1931, China experienced the worst flood in history. The Yangtze River ranks third among major rivers, with about 700 different rivers flowing into it. Every year, during the rains, it overflowed and caused damage.

In August 1931, the Yangtze River and the neighboring Yellow River burst their banks, merging into one powerful stream, destroyed the dams. This led to a global flood. They, destroying everything in their path, flooded 16 Chinese provinces, which is about 300,000 hectares of land.


More than 40 million people were affected, left without shelter, clothing and food. The water did not come down for about 4 months. As a result of prolonged famine and disease, the death toll exceeded 3.5 million people. To prevent such a tragedy, two protective dams were later built and two reservoirs created.

fertilizer plant

In 1984, the largest environmental disaster in history occurred in the Indian city of Bhopal. On the night of December 3, one of the tanks with the poisonous gas methyl isocyanate exploded at a chemical plant producing fertilizers. The tank volume was 40 tons.

Presumably, the cause of this accident was a safety violation. In the tank with methyl isocyanate, heating has occurred, which has reached a critical temperature. As a result, the emergency valve burst in it, and the gas escaped from the tank.


Due to the strong wind, the gas cloud quickly spread over 40 square kilometers. Unsuspecting, sleeping people were eating away at their eyes and lungs. Over the first week, more than 3000 thousand people. In subsequent years, 15,000 people died from diseases. And about 100,000 people needed treatment.
The uncleaned area of ​​the chemical plant is still infecting people. Thousands of people suffer from toxic contamination, many children are born with abnormalities.

Chernobyl tragedy

One of the worst nuclear accidents occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986. The accident had a hazard level of 7 on the scale of nuclear events.

The nuclear power plant was located near the city of Pripyat, which was built specifically for the workers of the station. At that time, more than 47,000 people lived in it. In the early morning of April 26, there was a powerful explosion of a nuclear reactor in the building of the fourth power unit.


The ill-conceived and erroneous actions of the station engineers during the tests of the turbogenerator led to this. As a result of the accident, the nuclear reactor was completely destroyed, and a fire started in the building of the power unit, which was extinguished for more than a week. 600 firefighters died while extinguishing it, having received the largest dose of radiation.

The consequences of the accident were frightening, thousands of people lived their calm, measured lives just a few kilometers from the accident and did not know what had happened. Information about the accident was not disseminated for the first day, but when the release of radioactive substances reached a critical level, they began to evacuate Pripyat and nearby settlements.

About 800,000 people participated in the liquidation of the accident. According to unofficial data, half of the liquidators received a lethal dose of radiation.

Boat trip

In 1987 there was the largest disaster on the water. On December 20, the Philippine ferry Dona Paz, carrying passengers, collided with the tanker Vector, which was carrying more than 8,000 thousand barrels of oil.

As a result of the impact, the steam broke in half, and oil poured from the holes in the tanker. A fire started almost instantly, both ships and the surface of the water burned. Fleeing, people jumped into the water, where fire and sharks were waiting for them.

Rescuers arrived only after 8 hours, only 26 people survived. The death toll has exceeded 4200 people. The exact cause of the accident has not been established.

deadly tsunami

On December 26, 2004, the most powerful tsunami in history occurred in the Indian Ocean. Due to a strong underwater earthquake with a magnitude of 9 points, at a depth of 30 kilometers, a rock shift occurred, which gave rise to this devastating tsunami. At that time, there was no system in the Indian Ocean that would detect tsunamis, so this tragedy could not be prevented.

In a few hours, waves up to 20 meters high reached the coast, crushing everything in their path. Within hours, the waves brought incredible destruction to Thailand, India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

In total, the tsunami reached the coasts of 18 countries. It took more life 300,000 thousand people, 15,000 people went missing and about 1.5 million people were left homeless. Restoration work lasted about five years, houses, schools and resort areas were rebuilt. After the tragedy, an evacuation system was organized and a tsunami warning system was created.

Cyclone named after a flower

The devastating cyclone Nargis passed through Myanmar on May 3, 2008. The wind speed reached 240 km/h. The tropical cyclone destroyed many small towns. And almost completely destroyed the large city of Yangon. The population was left without shelter and electricity.


As a result of the terrible natural disaster, the death toll amounted to 90,000 thousand people. More than 55,000 people were never found. In total, more than 1.5 million people were affected. Many countries came to the rescue of Myanmar by providing material and humanitarian assistance.

Cruelty of nature

A powerful earthquake destroyed part of the island of Haiti in 2010, the magnitude of which was 7 points. The first shocks were registered on January 12, 20 kilometers from the capital of Haiti. A number of strong shocks continued shocks with a magnitude of 5.9 points.
After a terrible shaking, more than 3 million people were left without a home. 60% of residential premises and many public buildings such as schools, hospitals, cathedrals were destroyed.


The death toll during the natural disaster and under the rubble was 222,570 thousand people, wounded 311,000 thousand people, and about 1,000 people who were never found.

Not a cheap flight

The crash of a Japanese Boeing 747 in 1985 is recognized as the worst air crash in the air. And it ranks second in the number of deaths. On August 12, in connection with the Japanese holiday, there were 524 people on board along with the crew.

The cause of the disaster was poor-quality repair of the aircraft. At the 12th minute of the flight, the keel of the aircraft comes off, the control system fails, and at an altitude of 1500 meters the aircraft crashes into a mountain.


Due to a strong fire at the crash site, the rescue operation did not begin until 14 hours later. Many of the wounded never received help. Rescuers found notes from passengers with appeals to their families. dead 520 people only 4 survivors.

This article describes only a small part of the disasters that are recorded in world history. Here are collected the most massive and tragic of them. All of them claimed the lives of millions of children, adults, old people of different nationalities and religions. After all, trouble is indifferent to gender, age and race.

17.04.2013

Natural disasters unpredictable, destructive, unstoppable. Perhaps that is why humanity fears them the most. We offer you the top rating in history, they claimed a huge number of lives.

10. The collapse of the Banqiao Dam, 1975

The dam was built to contain the effects of about 12 inches of precipitation daily. However, in August 1975 it became clear that this was not enough. As a result of the collision of cyclones, Typhoon Nina brought with it heavy rains - 7.46 inches per hour, which means 41.7 inches daily. In addition, due to clogging, the dam could no longer fulfill its role. In a few days, 15.738 billion tons of water broke through it, which swept through the surrounding area in a deadly wave. More than 231,000 people died.

9. Earthquake in Haiyan, China, 1920

As a result of the earthquake, which is on the 9th line in the top ranking deadliest natural disasters in history, affected 7 provinces of China. In the Hainan region alone, 73,000 people died, and more than 200,000 people died nationwide. Tremors continued for the next three years. It caused landslides and large ground cracks. The earthquake turned out to be so strong that some rivers changed course, in some natural dams appeared.

8. Tangshan Earthquake, 1976

It happened on July 28, 1976 and is called the strongest earthquake of the 20th century. The epicenter was the city of Tangshan, located in the province of Hebei, China. From a densely populated, large industrial city, almost nothing remained in 10 seconds. The number of victims is about 220,000.

7. Antakya (Antioch) earthquake, 565

Despite the small number of details that have survived to this day, earthquake was one of the most devastating and claimed more than 250,000 lives and brought enormous damage to the economy.

6. Earthquake in the Indian Ocean / tsunami, 2004

It happened on December 24, 2004, just in time for Christmas. The epicenter was off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, and Thailand were most severely affected. The second earthquake in history of magnitude 9.1 -9.3. it has been the cause of a number of other earthquakes around the globe, such as in Alaska. It also triggered a deadly tsunami. More than 225,000 people died.

5. Indian cyclone, 1839

In 1839, an extremely large cyclone came to India. On November 25, a storm nearly destroyed the city of Coringa. He destroyed literally everything he came into contact with. 2,000 ships that were parked in the port have been swept off the face of the earth. The city was not restored. The storm surges it attracted killed over 300,000 people.

4. Cyclone Bola, 1970

After Cyclone Bola swept across the lands of Pakistan, more than half of the arable land was polluted and spoiled, a small part of the rice and grains were saved, but famine was no longer avoided. In addition, about 500,000 people died from the heavy rains and floods that it caused. Wind force -115 meters per hour, hurricane - category 3.

3. Shaanxi earthquake, 1556

The most destructive earthquake in history happened on February 14, 1556 in China. Its epicenter was in the Wei River valley and about 97 provinces were affected as a result. Buildings were destroyed, half of the people living in them were killed. According to some reports, 60% of the population of Huasqian province died. A total of 830,000 people died. The tremors continued for another six months.

2. Flooding of the Yellow River, 1887

The Yellow River in China is extremely prone to flooding and overflowing. In 1887, this led to the flooding of 50,000 square miles around. According to some reports, the flood claimed the lives of 900,000 - 2,000,000 people. Farmers, knowing the characteristics of the river, built dams that saved them from the annual floods, but in that year, the water swept away the farmers and their homes.

1. Flood of central China, 1931

According to statistics, the flood that occurred in 1931 was scariest in history. After a long drought, 7 cyclones came to China at once, bringing hundreds of liters of rain with them. As a result, three rivers burst their banks. The flood killed 4 million people.

For hundreds of years of sailing on various ships, sailboats and barges across the expanses of the seas and oceans, there have been many kinds of accidents and shipwrecks. Films have even been made about some of them, the most popular of which, of course, is the Titanic. But which shipwrecks were the largest in terms of the size of the ship and the number of victims? In this ranking, we answer this question by presenting the biggest maritime disasters.

11

The rating opens with a British passenger liner that was torpedoed by the German submarine U-20 on May 7, 1915, in a zone designated by the Kaiser government as a zone of submarine warfare. The ship, sailing with a painted over name and not raising any flag above it, sank in 18 minutes, 13 kilometers from the coast of Ireland. 1198 people died out of 1959 who were on board. The destruction of this ship turned the public opinion of many countries against Germany and contributed to the entry of the United States into the First World War two years later.

10

Single-screw steamer, had a capacity of 7142 register tons, a length of 132 meters, a beam of 17 meters, a maximum speed of 11 knots. On April 12, 1944, a steamship with explosives with a total mass of more than 1,500 tons stood up for unloading at the pier of the port of Bombay. There were other cargoes on board - 8,700 tons of cotton, 128 gold bars, sulfur, wood, machine oil, etc. The ship was loaded in violation of safety regulations. At about 2 p.m., a fire started on board, and no actions contributed to its elimination. At 16:06 there was an explosion, from which a tidal wave was formed of such force that the Jalampada ship, with a displacement of almost 4,000 tons, ended up on the roof of a 17-meter warehouse. After 34 min. there was a second explosion.

Burning cotton scattered within a radius of 900 meters from the epicenter and set fire to everything: ships, warehouses, houses. A strong wind from the sea drove a wall of fire to the city. The fires were extinguished only after 2 weeks. It took about 7 months to restore the port. Official statistics announced 1376 deaths, 2408 people were admitted to hospitals. The fire destroyed 55,000 tons of grain, thousands of tons of seeds, oil, oil; a huge amount of military equipment and almost one square mile of city blocks. 6 thousand firms went bankrupt, 50 thousand people lost their jobs. Many small and 4 large ships, dozens were destroyed.

9

It was with this ship that the most famous disaster on the water occurred. The British White Star Line steamer was the second of three Olympic-class twin steamers and the largest passenger liner in the world at the time of construction. Gross tonnage 46,328 register tons, displacement 66,000 tons. The ship is 269 meters long, 28 meters wide and 52 meters high. The engine room had 29 boilers and 159 coal fireboxes. Maximum speed 25 knots. On its maiden voyage on April 14, 1912, it collided with an iceberg and sank 2 hours and 40 minutes later. There were 2224 people on board. Of these, 711 people were saved, 1513 died. The Titanic disaster became legendary, several feature films were shot based on its plot.

8

In the harbor of the Canadian city of Halifax on December 6, 1917, the French military cargo ship Mont Blanc, which was fully loaded with one explosive - TNT, pyroxylin and picric acid, collided with the Norwegian ship Imo. As a result of the strongest explosion, the port and a significant part of the city were completely destroyed. About 2,000 people died as a result of an explosion under the rubble of buildings and because of the fires that arose after the explosion. Approximately 9,000 people were injured, 400 people lost their sight. The explosion in Halifax is one of the strongest explosions arranged by mankind, this explosion is considered the most powerful explosion of the pre-nuclear era.

7

This French auxiliary cruiser served as a flagship and participated in the neutralization of the Greek fleet. Displacement - 25,000 tons, length - 166 meters, width - 27 meters, power - 29,000 horsepower, speed - 20 knots, cruising range - 4,700 miles at 10 knots. She sank in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Greece on February 26, 1916 after a torpedo attack by the German submarine U-35. Of the 4,000 people on board, 3,130 died, 870 escaped.

6

After 1944, this German passenger ocean liner was converted into a floating hospital, participated in the evacuation of mostly wounded soldiers and refugees from East Prussia from the advancing Red Army. The liner left the port of Pillau on February 9, 1945 and headed for Kiel, there were more than 4,000 people on board - wounded military personnel, soldiers, refugees, medical staff and crew members. On the night of February 10 at 00:55, the Soviet submarine S-13 torpedoed the liner with two torpedoes. The ship sank 15 minutes later, killing 3,608 and saving 659 people. When the liner was torpedoed, the submarine commander was convinced that in front of him was not a passenger liner, but a military cruiser.

5

The passenger ferry Dona Paz, registered in the Philippines, sank on December 20, 1987 at about 10 p.m. near the island of Marinduque after a collision with the tanker Vector. Approximately 4,375 people died in the process, making this the largest maritime disaster in peacetime.

4

This passenger-cargo ship of the "Adzharia" type was built at the Baltic Shipyard in Leningrad in 1928, and on November 7, 1941, it was sunk by the Germans near the coast of Crimea. The death toll was, according to various estimates, from 3,000 to 4,500 people. On the ship were several thousand wounded soldiers and evacuated citizens, including the staff of 23 military and civilian hospitals, the leadership of the pioneer camp and part of the party leadership of the Crimea. The loading of the evacuees was in a hurry, and their exact number is not known. There is a version that the cause of this maritime disaster was the criminal mistakes of the Black Sea Fleet command. The crowded motor ship, instead of making the transition to the Caucasian, was sent by the command to Yalta.

3

A cargo ship built in Oslo, Norway, launched on 4 April 1940. It was confiscated by the Germans after Norway was occupied by Germany. At first it was used as a conditional target for training the crews of German submarines. Later, the ship took part in the evacuation of people by sea from the advancing Red Army. It was armed with cannons. This ship managed to make four trips, in which 19,785 people were evacuated. On the night of April 16, 1945, the ship making the fifth trip was torpedoed by the Soviet submarine L-3, after which the Goya sank in the Baltic Sea. More than 6,900 people died in the disaster.

2

On May 3, 1945, a tragedy occurred in the Baltic Sea, the victims of which were approximately 8,000 people. The German liner "Cap Arkona" and the cargo ship "Tilbek", transporting prisoners from the evacuating concentration camps, were fired upon by British aircraft. As a result, more than 5,000 people died on the Cap Arkon, and about 2,800 on the Tilbeck. According to one version, this raid was a mistake on the part of the British Air Force, who believed that German troops were on the ships, according to another, the pilots were ordered to destroy everything enemy ships in the area.

1

The most on the water happened with this German passenger liner, which since 1940 has been converted into a floating hospital. During the Second World War, it was used as an infirmary, a hostel for the 2nd training brigade of submariners. The death of the ship, torpedoed on January 30, 1945 by the Soviet submarine S-13 under the command of A. I. Marinesko, is considered the largest disaster in maritime history - according to some historians, real losses could be more than 9,000 people.

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. With the joint efforts of the crew and passengers, some lifeboats 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 full of people. About an hour after the attack, the Wilhelm Gustloff completely sank.