Here are 11 Interesting Facts About Sunken Ships and Subs.
There are 22 Sunken WWII German U-Boats off the Eastern Coast of the United States.
In 1986, Soviet Submarine K-219 sank with 34 nuclear warheads aboard. Those warheads are no longer there. In 1988, when a Soviet hydrographic research ship found several missile silo hatches had been forced open, and the missiles, along with the nuclear warheads they contained, were gone.
The Caparthia, the ship that rescued the survivors of the Titanic’s sinking, was sunk by German torpedoes during WW1 when it was part of a convoy going to Boston.
A treasure hunter named Tommy Thompson located a ship that sank in 1857 called the SS Central America. The ship carried several tons of gold, and in 1987, he recovered over $1 billion worth of gold from it. He never paid back his crew or investors, and hasn’t been seen in years.
Two years after Titanic sank, the Empress Of Ireland sank in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and lost 68.5% of all passengers (0.5% more than Titanic). The event was buried in the papers because of WWI.
In 1991, when the cruise ship Oceanos sank, the crew abandoned ship, leaving the passengers behind. They were all saved by guitarist Moss Hills, who radioed for help and directed the rescue operation.
The largest single ship sinking that resulted in the loss of over 9000 lives was the Wilhelm Gustloff on January 30, 1945. It has widely been labeled as an “untold story.”
The Caparthia, the ship that rescued the survivors of the Titanic’s sinking, was sunk by German torpedoes during WW1 when it was part of a convoy going to Boston.
The greatest maritime loss of life in U.S. history is not the Titanic, but a steamboat disaster in 1865. After Union POWs returning from the horrors of Andersonville crowded The Sultana on their way home, 3 of the 4 boilers exploded, sinking the ship on the Mississippi river and killing 1,700 people onboard.
In WWII, Japan used underwater manned suicide torpedoes called Kaiten to destroy American ships. If they were successful, they blew up. If they missed, they sank to the bottom of the ocean.
The only thing that is keeping China from claiming part of the South China Sea is an old partially-sunken WWII era US warship which the Filipino government refuses to decommission, thus making it an extension of its government.
