Sunken ships - how many are there at the bottom of the seas and oceans? What secrets did they take with them? Seven shipwrecked cruise ships

Not long ago, one of the most expensive and unprecedented projects in history was completed, which cost 600 million euros and involved more than 500 people from 24 countries around the world - the recovery of the cruise ship Costa Concordia, which partially sank off the coast of Tuscany (the island of Giglio).

Such an operation is almost unprecedented. The cases where such an amount of force was used can be counted on one hand. However, neither the risks associated with lifting the liner nor its high cost shook the engineers’ confidence that the lift was necessary.

History of the Costa Concordia wreck

On January 13, 2012, the liner was on the route 7 Night Winter Mediterranean, which involves leaving the port of Civitavecchia to Savona, the last cruise involved the liner calling at the ports of Barcelona, ​​Marseille and several other Italian ports.

January 13, 2012, 22:00 CET the ship was near the island of Giglio (Tuscany, Italy), most of passengers were having dinner at the restaurant at that time. It was then that the Costa Concordia hit a reef, resulting in a hole of about 30 meters. The rescue operation began.

From this moment, disagreements begin between the participants in the events - passengers and personnel of the liner. It is worth noting that all data can be interpreted from the position of individual people, and there are many of these positions (if not to say that almost everyone has their own), but the essence is still the same. As the victims of the crash say, after the collision, the ship tilted, causing panic among most of the passengers; the reaction of the ship’s captain was not long in coming and the loudspeaker announced problems with the liner’s generator.

Despite the fact that further events will not develop in better side, the captain of the ship continues to adhere to this point of view. Despite this, the evacuation continues and passengers gather en masse near the boats. As many passengers note, the liner staff failed to organize a smooth loading onto the boats. According to the investigation, which was carried out later, it turned out that the captain of the ship, Schettino, was among the first to leave the ship.

After loading onto the boats and launching, the personnel and passengers were transported to the shore, where the victims were provided with first aid. It is worth noting the help of local residents, who provided the passengers with warm clothes, food and allocated places to stay for the night. Passengers occupied schools, churches and hotels.

Victims of the Costa Concordia cruise ship sinking

On the morning of January 14, 2012, Costa Concordia lay on its starboard side, touching the bottom. Organized search work missing persons.

As of January 17, the number of victims was 11 people, and 25 people were listed as missing. By early February, search operations in the submerged part of the ship were stopped due to the risk to scuba divers conducting search and rescue operations. And by the end of March, information was received about 30 dead and two missing.

Causes of the passenger airliner accident and punishment for those responsible

As the investigation found, the cause of the accident was a collision of the liner with a reef; among other things, a technical failure of the liner’s equipment cannot be ruled out. Experts were outraged by the fact that despite the fact that the liner passes this route 52 times a year, there was a deviation from the course by 3-4 miles. This can be explained by the initial statements of the captain of the liner, Francesco Schettino, who said that having shifted to the side coastline he wanted to greet his friend (former captain of Costa Concordia) who lives on the island. However, later, Schettino retracted his testimony and shifted the blame to the company manager, who, according to him, insisted that the ship come closer to the shore.

Decoding the black box showed that the ship was too close to the shore, the start of the evacuation occurred too late, in addition, the captain never sent a distress signal, which delayed the start of the rescue operation. Until July 17, 2013, Schettino was under house arrest by court order. On this moment The trial is underway, the prosecutor's proposed sentence is 2,697 years in prison.

Liquidation of consequences and rise of Costa Concordia

Just three days after the ship sank, an oily liquid began to leak from the vessel; experts reassured the public with assurances that it was not fuel. Fuel pumping began as there was a possibility that the ship would slide off the cliff. If this happened, more than 2,000 tons could end up at sea. Naturally, such a prospect did not make anyone smile. However, already on March 24 it was announced that the fuel had been pumped out, and literally a month later a tender was held to lift and evacuate the vessel, which was won by Titan Salvage.

The plan for raising the vessel is quite simple, but it required significant investments, and the operation itself involved high risk failure of the event, which was discussed more than once by both the company’s engineers and leading experts. In mid-2013, work continues to prepare for the lifting of the vessel.

On September 16 at 9 am, the operation to raise the Costa Concordia began. The length of the liner is 290 meters, the angle of roll was 70 degrees, and the water level was 20 meters. The planned operation time is ideally 12 hours. Below is a graphic plan for lifting the liner.

On September 17, after 19 hours, the operation was finally completed successfully; it was possible to bring the ship into a horizontal position. Following the results of the operation, Franco Porselaki, vice president of ARNIVAL CORPORATION, reported that everything went perfectly, and most importantly, no harm to the environment was noticed. However, despite the fact that the ascent was completed successfully, experts do not consider it necessary to relax and remind that this is not the end. In the spring, the liner will have to be transported to the shipyard, where the Costa Concordia will be dismantled.

Nowadays, the most famous or largest sunken ships, resting at the bottom of the seas and oceans, are of interest not only to archaeologists, but also to adventurers of all stripes, treasure hunters, and simply curious tourists. Each wreck of a sunken ship contains its history; they allow you to look into different depths of the past and see what has been resting at the bottom for centuries, untouched by man. Life left these ships a long time ago, but they can tell about terrible pictures of disasters and its last moments. The UN has calculated that a huge flotilla of 3 million sunken ships now rests on the bottom of the world's oceans. The causes of the disasters were storms, wars, anthropogenic factors, and some ships were sunk on purpose.

1. Titanic

At the time of its construction before the First World War, it was the largest liner on the planet. But the “unsinkable” ship could not even complete its first voyage, colliding with an iceberg in 1912 and sinking 370 miles southwest of Newfoundland. The “unsinkability” of the Titanic could not oppose anything to the power of nature, and its dimensions were ridiculous in comparison with the size of the ice block encountered, which predetermined the disaster in which 1,517 passengers of all classes and ages went to the bottom of the sea.
The collision with the iceberg was the result of the negligence or incompetence of the sailors who controlled the colossus, who believed too early in the unsinkability of the Titanic. Since the ship sank at great depths, its wreckage was discovered only in 1985 as a result long search. Now this place is protected by UNESCO. Environmental conditions quickly destroy the remains of the ship. All that was left of the drowned passengers was their shoes, and the sea creatures perfectly gnawed their bones. As for the ship itself, they have been working on its destruction continuously for more than a century. salty water and bacteria.

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2. "Mary Rose"

The Mary Rose is about 500 years old. After its construction, the English king Henry VIII poetically called it “the purest flower that ever sailed a ship.” But a year later, in 1545, the “flower” managed to take part in three wars, increased in size and was modernized. He had to fight the French flotilla near the Isle of Wight. But the British overdid it, filling it with heavy cannons, as a result of which it sat too low in the water, and when it began to list under the influence of the wind, it scooped up water with its lower deck and sank.
The depth in this place was only 12 meters, so at first the Mary Rose was clearly visible from the surface. It is believed that approximately 700 sailors went to the bottom with the ship. Then the ship's location was lost and found again only in 1970. In 1982, the British raised the wreckage of the ship from the bottom, restored it, and now its reconstruction is exhibited in the Portsmouth Museum.

3. "Prince Albert"

This ship was deliberately sunk in 1987 in Honduras near the Coco View resort. The Prince Albert was used as a transport to transport Civil War refugees from Nicaragua to the island of Roatan. After that for a long time The ship was laid up in the harbor, gradually rusted and sank into the water. Therefore, realizing that if there was no action, the ship would simply sink at the pier, its owner decided to tow it a little further from the shore, where it sank, making it at the same time an excellent attraction for divers.

4. "Dona Paz"

This unremarkable ferry was involved in the deadliest shipwreck in history, in which 4,386 people died in 1987. This ferry was built in Japan, and it was designed to carry only 608 passengers. But in the Philippines they thought differently, and when it collided with the Vector oil tanker near Manila, a fire broke out. Both ships sank in the shark-infested waters of Tablas. Dona Paz, nicknamed the Asian Titanic, rests at a depth of 545 meters.

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5. "Arizona"

This American warship, built in the early 20th century, was sunk during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. A memorial was later erected on its skeleton. Arizona was attacked by 10 Japanese bombers, who managed to make 4 direct hits. The battleship had no chance to survive, since one of the bombs hit the ammunition compartment. As a result, a monstrous explosion occurred, the blast wave from which extinguished the flames on the Vestal ship, which was burning nearby.
On this dark day for America, 1,177 Arizona sailors died, which is about half of all the victims of that famous attack on Pearl Harbor. Bubbles of engine oil still float up from the flooded engine compartment of the ship every day, forming rainbow spots on the surface that are shown to tourists vacationing in Hawaii.

6. "Republic"

This was the name of an ancient American paddle steamer that participated in Civil War and sank in 1865. On his last voyage he was carrying coins of gold and silver, but he sank him strong hurricane. Fortunately, the passengers and crew of the ship were saved, but traces of its wreckage were lost from view for 140 years.
Odyssey Marine Exploration, a company specializing in the search for sunken treasure ships, discovered the Republic in 2003 at a depth of 518 meters. She won the main prize - 51,000 American gold and silver coins, which today are worth approximately $180 million. In addition, many valuable artifacts were recovered from the wreckage.

7. Lusitania

Another world-famous shipwreck of a passenger ship. The beautiful liner Lusitania was called the “sea greyhound” for its speed, but this did not save her from the terrible disaster that occurred in 1915. On May 7, this ship encountered a torpedo sent by a German submarine. The Lusitania disappeared underwater in less than half an hour, taking 1,198 people with it.
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8. "Bismarck"

The German warship Bismarck was appreciated even by its enemies, calling it a masterpiece of military shipbuilding. But this “masterpiece” managed to survive only 3 months after launching. In May 1941, the British military successfully attacked it. Ironically, the large and modern Bismarck turned out to be easy prey for the old British torpedo bombers.
To prevent the enemy from getting the military novelty, the ship’s crew decided to sink it, and about 2,000 sailors drowned along with it. The location of the Bismarck was determined by Dr. R. Ballard in 1989; it lay at a respectable depth of 4700 m. He had previously discovered the Titanic. The swastika is still visible on the deck of the ship, and its guns even now seem to be aiming at the victorious enemy.

9. "Andrea Doria"

This beautiful liner was built in 1951. The ship was luxurious and provided excellent conditions for each of the 1,241 passengers. He could have swum and floated, but it was only in July 1956 that the ship found itself in thick fog. There was practically no visibility, and the crew steered the ship blindly. The Swedish cargo ship Stockholm also had to do the same, as a result of which they met at one point. Both ships were severely damaged as a result of the collision, but the Swedish “truck” turned out to be stronger and remained afloat, but the “Andrea Doria” began to sink. She did this much longer than the Lusitania (11 hours), so all passengers, with the exception of those who died during the incident, were saved.

10. "Rhone"

In the water area Caribbean Sea near the British Virgin Islands on seabed lies the wreckage of the ancient postal and passenger ship "Rhone". He drowned here in 1867, and the cause was a strong hurricane and storm that literally broke the ship in half. The ship was in Salt Island Harbor that October day, but the hurricane came too suddenly and was too menacing. As a result of the disaster, 123 people on board the ship were killed. Nowadays, even being on the seabed, this ship cannot complain of boredom - it has been made a local attraction, to which tourists who are interested in scuba diving are constantly brought.

In one second, a cruise can turn from a fantastic idyll into a nightmarish ordeal. Since 1980, 16 cruise ships have sunk worldwide, 99 have run aground since 1973, 79 ships have had fires since 1990, and 73 have suffered various other accidents. Since 2000, there have been more than 100 incidents of accidents in which the ship was left adrift on the high seas, deprived of energy, listing, almost capsizing, and many other incidents that posed a risk to the lives of passengers. Here are the worst cruise ship disasters of the last 100 years.

1. 100 years ago, on April 14, 1912, the luxury liner Titanic sank off the coast of Nova Scotia during its maiden voyage. The unsinkable Titanic set sail on April 10 and met its end in the form of an iceberg 4 days later, taking the lives of 1,513 passengers and crew members. But although negligence and pride led to the disaster, the captain and the cruise line should not be blamed for everything. In recent astrological studies, it was discovered that in 1912 the Moon approached the Earth at its closest distance to the Earth in 1,400 years, which led to increased currents that brought a large number of icebergs

2. While cruising the St. Lawrence River, the Canadian passenger liner Empress of Ireland collided with the Norwegian coal carrier Storstad and sank 14 minutes later at a depth of more than 40 meters. This disaster took 1012 lives and became the worst maritime disaster in Canadian history.

3. Laconia departed Southampton on December 19, 1963 for an 11-day Christmas cruise to the Canary Islands, carrying 1,022 people. On December 22, a steward saw smoke coming from under the door of a hair salon. The cabin was completely engulfed in flames, and the fire immediately spread to the corridor to the general cabins. The steward tried to control the fire with fire extinguishers, but the fire spread too quickly. 128 people died.

4. Security personnel in front of the Italian ship Achille Lauro on October 10, 1985 in the harbor of Port Said, after the Egyptian authorities prohibited it from sailing to the Israeli port of Ashdod. On October 7, 1985, four Palestinian Liberation Front terrorists led by Yusuf Majid al-Mulki and Abu Abbas hijacked a ship carrying 450 passengers. The terrorists killed one hostage - 69-year-old American Jew Leon Klinghoffer, a disabled person confined to a wheelchair. He was shot and thrown overboard in front of his wife Marilyn.

5. Tugboats move the damaged ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 into dry dock in Boston on August 12, 1992, after the ship ran aground during a cruise. No harm done.

6. The bow visor of the ferry Estonia is lifted from the bottom of the sea near the island of Utö in the Baltic Sea. The ship sank on the night of September 27–28, 1994, killing 852 of the 989 passengers and crew on board.

7. Aerial view of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro during a fire in the Indian Ocean. The Achille Lauro had already been captured by terrorists ten years earlier. Now, 30 miles east of the Horn of Africa, a fire broke out on the ship, which led to the death of 2 people.

8. The cruise ship "Norwegian Dream" at anchor in the southeast of England, after a collision with the Panamanian cargo ship "Ever Decent" on August 24, 1999. There were 2,400 people on board, of whom only three were injured. varying degrees gravity.

9. A rescue helicopter over the cruise ship Seabreeze in distress on December 17, 2000, 320 kilometers off the coast of Virginia. The Coast Guard managed to evacuate all 34 crew members before the relentless waves Atlantic Ocean dragged a 200-meter ship to the bottom.

10. The cruise ship Aurora in the port of Southampton, England on November 8, 2003, all 500 passengers suffered from acute digestive upset. Greece refused to help, and when the ship arrived in Gibraltar, Spain closed its borders until the ship abandoned it.

The cruise ship Sea Diamond evacuates passengers off the island of Santorini, Greece, April 5, 2007. The Greek Coast Guard carried out a large-scale operation to evacuate the ship's 1,200 passengers after it ran aground and then sank.

12. Life rafts from the Canadian cruise ship Explorer, which sank after colliding with an iceberg in Antarctic waters on November 23, 2007. 100 passengers and 54 crew members were rescued.

13. Cruise ship "Ecstasy" in the port of Miami on July 21, 2008. 60 people were injured as a result of a fire that broke out in the ship's laundry on July 20. The fire was extinguished and no evacuation was required.

14. Workers begin pumping diesel fuel from the ship Costa Concordia near the island of Giglio in the Mediterranean Sea on January 24, 2012. At the time of the crash, there were more than 4,000 people on board, of whom 25 are now officially considered dead.

15. The Costa Allegra is towed through a pirate-infested area. Indian Ocean after a fire on February 27 destroyed the air conditioning system, power supply and damaged the engines. There were more than 1,000 people on board.

History knows a lot shipwrecks According to researchers, there are currently about three million sunken ships in the world that have yet to be found. Most of the discovered vessels (about 148 thousand) are considered historical monuments and are protected by UNESCO as an underwater cultural heritage of humanity. However, there are also ships that ran aground not far from the shore; they still rise above the surface of the water, attracting tourists and photographers.

The ice-class cruise ship “World Discoverer” was built in 1974. It became famous for being one of the first to bring tourists to Antarctica and the Amazon River. The tragedy occurred on April 30, 2000, when the ship ran into an uncharted reef near the Solomon Islands. All passengers were evacuated, the Pioneer was towed aground, but it was never possible to pick it up. Over time, local residents plundered the ice ship; today this ship is a real local landmark.

The fate of the cruise ship “Mediterranean Sky” is no less tragic. It was built in 1952 in Newcastle (England) and sailed the ocean for 44 years. In 1997, the ship was arrested off the coast of the Greek city of Patras due to the bankruptcy of the owner company and towed to the Gulf of Eleusus, where it remains to this day. In January 2003, the liner tilted to one side and sank under water.

For the bulk carrier Captayannis, which was transporting sugar, a collision with a tanker that occurred on the River Clyde in Scotland in 1974 was fatal. As a result, the tanker was not damaged, but the captain of the Captayannis had to run his ship aground. The litigation continued for quite a long time, and in the meantime the “sugar” ship turned into a home for sea ​​creatures and birds.

The ocean liner SS America was built in 1940, participated in World War II, and then changed many owners. They wanted to turn the ship into a floating prison and sell it for scrap, but in the end they sold it to one of the Thai companies, which intended to turn it into a luxury five-star hotel in Phuket. For this purpose, the ship was even renamed “American Star”. However, the rosy plans were not destined to come true: while being towed, the ship was caught in a severe thunderstorm, the crew was evacuated by helicopter, but the ship could not be saved. Gradually, the liner collapsed and went under water; today it can only be seen at low tide.

Not every ship ends up on the seabed after a crash. Some of them get stuck.

World Discoverer
The ship was built in 1974. It was built for cruises in polar latitudes. Initially, the ship's hull was made in such a way that the ship could easily cope with polar ice. On April 30, 2000, the ship hit a reef that was not marked on the map and received damage “incompatible with life.”
The captain of the ship, in order to prevent the loss of life and prevent the ship from sinking, decided to run it aground. WorldDiscoverer was subsequently plundered by adventurers. At the moment, the ship is a popular place for admirers of maritime romanticism.

Mediterranean Sky
The ship was built at the Newcastle shipyards in 1952. It was used as a cruise ship. MediterraneanSky's last cruise took place in the summer of 1996. Subsequently, the company that owned the ship suffered financial collapse and the ship was seized.

In 1999, the vessel was transferred to the shores of Greece. After three years, it began to slowly take on water, and for this reason it was towed to shallow waters. In 2003, MediterraneanSky overturned on one side and remains that way to this day.

Captayannis
Greek ship used for transportation granulated sugar. In 1974, the ship was caught in a storm and collided with a tanker, which damaged its hull. As a result, a gap formed and the ship began to take on water.
The captain steered the Captayannis aground, where the ship became stuck. The next day the ship capsized. He is in this position now. Locals They call it the “sugar ship” and show it to tourists, with whom it is popular.

As a result, the tanker was not damaged. The litigation continued for quite a long time, and in the meantime the “sugar” ship turned into a home for marine life and birds.

America
The ship was built in the USA on August 31, 1939. The wife of the then President Eleanor Roosevelt was present at its launch. The ship set off on its maiden voyage in the summer of 1940. However, a year later it was requisitioned by the US Navy and converted for military purposes. Participated in World War II (1941-1946) under the name "West Point"
After the end of hostilities, America operated intercontinental passenger flights. After which the ship was sold to the Greeks, they resold it to Thailand in 1993. While towing the ship to its destination, a storm occurred, as a result of which the cable broke, and America was thrown into shallow water near Canary Islands. A couple of years later, the stern part of the liner broke off and sank.

La famille express
The Polish-made ghost ship was built in 1952. It was sold to the USSR and served in the Russian Navy until 1999. In our country it was called “Fort Shevchenko”, then the ship was sold, after which it received its current name.

The LaFamilleExpress was shipwrecked for unknown reasons. All that is known for certain is that the ship found itself in shallow waters in 2004. The ill-fated hurricane “Francis” is to blame for this. It happened in the Caribbean Sea near the island of Caicos. No attempt was made to free the ship. Now the ship serves as a local attraction for curious tourists.

Olympia
This is a commercial cargo ship. When the ship was making a voyage from Cyprus to Greece, it was attacked by pirates and successfully captured. It happened in 1979, corsairs ran the ship aground in the bay of the island of Amorgos. The authorities tried to get him out of there, but the attempts were unsuccessful. Now the ship is a local landmark.

HMAS Protector
The ship HMAS Protector was purchased by the South Australian government back in 1884 to protect the coastline from possible attacks. The ship passed the First world war and almost passed the Second. Ironically, the ship was lost in a collision with a tug in July 1943 while en route to New Guinea. The rusting remains of the ship can still be seen in the same place.

Steamship "Baron Gouch"
This ship transported civilian refugees during the First World War. He died due to the negligence of the crew. The observer left his post, and the ship ran into a mine. It sank almost instantly, burying several hundred passengers with it. This happened near the coast of present-day Croatia.

Vessel "Semiramis"(Andros Island, Greece) This passenger ship, which now looks like a gloomy ghost ship, ran aground off the Greek coast in 1954.