Worst 9 Cruise Ship Accidents

1)      Titanic

Probably the worst maritime tragedy of all times, you cannot talk about ship accidents without mentioning the ill-fated Cruise ship Titanic. On her maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York, USA, Titaniccollided with an iceberg after four days into sailing. The collision led to its sinking and resulted in the death of 1517 people in 1912.

2)      SS Morro Castle

Of all the cases of fire on board cruise ships, the SS Morro Castle fire case was probably the worst and the most gruesome in the history of maritime industry. Luxury cruise ship of the 1930s, Morro Castle was en route New York when the ship caught fire. Due the building material of the ship and lack of firefighting equipment and skills, the ship was burnt down severely killing a total of 137 people on board.

3)      Royal Pacific cruise

The August of 1992 witnessed the sinking of Greek owned Royal Pacific after a collision with a fishingtrawler due to low visibility. The collision took place when Royal Pacific was passing thought the Straits of Malacca and the fishing trawler, Terfu 51 rammed in to the cruise ship. Due to the sheer disregard of the crew to save the passengers as many as 30 people died and 70 people were injured out of the 530 passengers on board.

4)      Club Royale

A luxury Casino cruise ship, Club Royale gambled and lost the bet to a heavy storm resulting in its sinking in August of 1995. The 234 feet vessel succumbed to violent lashing of Hurricane Erin about 90 miles east of Port Canaveral, Florida.

Fortunately no passengers were on board during this tragedy but only 8 of the 11 crew members were saved that day.

5)      Oceonos

This Greek-owned ship sank off South-Africa’s eastern coast in 1991. The rough sea conditions resulting in a tumultuous storm caused the ship to roll from side to side and eventually water started to flood the vessel resulting in its sinking. No one was killed and after a successful rescue mission all 571 passengers onboard the ship were saved.

6)      Pacific Sun

P&O owned Pacific sun was returning to Auckland from the islands of Vanuatu when it ran into a tumultuous storm almost 400 miles north of New Zealand. Although no deaths were reported more than 40 people were injured and hurt due to intense rolling of the ship which literally flung people from one to another.

7)      Star Princess

Owned by Princess Cruise, a major fire broke on board Star Princess on the 23^rd of March 2006. In the wee hours of morning the captain sounded the emergency signals waking up the passengers, which was then followed by an organized and successful evacuation procedure. No casualties were reported, however the cause of the fire was found to be a cigarette which was left burning on the balcony.

8)      Norwegian Dawn

Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Dawn was on its way back to New York after a trip to the Bahamas when the vessel was hit by a freak 70 foot high wave. The cabins were flooded and people even on the 10^thfloor reported getting soaked due to the wave.

9)      Louis Majesty

Owned and operated by Louis Cruise Lines, Louis Majesty is a luxury cruise ship which reported getting hit by rogue waves which claimed the life of two passengers and injuring several others. The 8 meter highwaves collided with the side of the ship and flooded the vessel resulting in many smashed windows in the saloon area.