On Jan. 13, 2012, the Costa Concordia, an Italian cruise ship ran aground and overturned. The vessel, carrying 3,206 passengers and 1,023 crew members, struck an underwater rock off the coast of Tuscany during its first leg of a cruise around the Mediterranean Sea.
From the Costa Concordia cruise ship to the Golden Ray cargo ship, take a look back at some of the biggest maritime disasters around the world in modern history.
On Jan. 13, 2012, the Costa Concordia, an Italian cruise ship ran aground and overturned. The vessel, carrying 3,206 passengers and 1,023 crew members, struck an underwater rock off the coast of Tuscany during its first leg of a cruise around the Mediterranean Sea.
After a six-hour rescue effort, most of the passengers on the Costa Concordia were brought ashore. 32 people died in the disaster, and Captain Schettino was later found guilty of manslaughter after abandoning the ship prematurely.
The Sewol ferry disaster happened on the morning of April 16, 2014, when a passenger ferry boat carrying 476 passengers, including 250 high school students, sank in South Korea. 304 people died in the disaster.
In this screenshot handout of a helicopter camera provided by the Republic of Korea Coast Guard, the ferry is seen sinking as rescue crews work off the coast of Jindo Island on April 16, 2014, in Jindo-gun, South Korea. The captain and three crew members of the Sewol ferry were charged with murder and the other 11 crew members were indicted for abandoning the ship.
On June 1, 2015, the Eastern River cruise ship, carrying 454 people on board, capsized during a severe thunderstorm in the Yangtze River in Jianli, Hubei Province, China.
A total of 442 people have been confirmed dead after the cruise ship capsized in China. The Eastern Star sinking, which held mostly elderly passengers, was the country’s worst maritime disaster in over six decades.
In this handout provided by Santa Barbara County Fire Department, the 75-foot Conception scuba diving vessel, based in Santa Barbara Harbor, burns after catching fire early Sept. 2, 2019, anchored off Santa Cruz Island, California. Thirty-four people were left dead, while five crew members were rescued, according to published reports.
The fire on the Conception dive boat started in the early morning of Sept. 2, 2019, while passengers and crew members were sleeping. Of the 39 people on board, six crew members and 33 passengers were killed. Five crew, including the captain, were able to escape.
The Golden Ray, a massive cargo ship, caught fire and capsized on the St. Simons Sound off the coast of Georgia in the early hours of Sunday, Sept. 8, 2019. The 656-foot-long cargo ship was transporting automobiles, South Korea’s foreign ministry said.
The cargo ship had 24 people on board when it capsized off the coast of Georgia, including 23 crew members and one pilot. The U.S. Coast Guard initially rescued 20 people early Sunday morning. Four members were trapped in a different part of the ship and were all rescued Monday, Sept. 9, 2019.
