Ships sink for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes they aren’t constructed well, sometimes they are constructed well but the fury and unpredictability of nature takes its toll, and other times a ship may be sunk by another ship. Of course, this usually happens in war although ship on ship collisions are fairly common, especially in busy ports. Shipwrecks have a certain appeal to us. They are mysterious and always have been. Stories and legends have surrounded them and treasure hunters have made it their life’s work to try to find them and discover their secrets. Sometimes the ship can’t be found, and even if it can, it may be really hard (or even impossible) to get to. The fact is, ship wrecks are numerous. There are so many sunken ships at the bottom of the ocean in some places that people have even labeled them “ship graveyards”. Of course, while some ship wrecks have inspired spooky legends and horror stories, others seem to have a bright and redemptive side. In some areas they are even used to create reefs and promote biodiversity by expanding maritime habitats. Whatever the case may be, we are sure you will enjoy these 25 interesting facts about sunken ships.
Featured Image: wikipedia
During the Battle of Samar, an American destroyer charged the Japanese Navy and did so much damage before it was sunk that the passing Japanese ships saluted it.
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia In 1987, treasure hunter Tommy Thompson found a ship named the SS Central America that had sunk more than a hundred years earlier. After recovering nearly $1 billion of gold he disappeared and has not been seen since.
Source: forbes.com, Image: pixabay One of the few things preventing China from claiming the entire South China Sea is a partially sunken WWII ship that the US handed to the Philippines. Because of this, the Philippines retain a claim to Second Thomas Shoal.
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia Instead of handing their Navy over to the Nazis, the Danish military sank a majority of their ships.
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia In 1773, Wolraad Woltemade, a farmer near Cape Town, rode his horse out to rescue sailors caught aboard a sinking vessel. He did this 6 times but on the 7th time his horse was too tired and everybody drowned.
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia During WWII, the Japanese used manned suicide torpedoes called kaiten to destroy allied ships.
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia Unsinkable Sam was a cat that served on various ships during WWII. Three of those ships sank and he survived each time.
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia The MS Estonia was a ferry that sank in the Baltic Sea in 1994. Since raising the wreck proved too hard, it was entombed in concrete and today it is illegal to dive to the site.
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia The only known report of a train colliding with and sinking a ship happened in Newcastle shortly after the opening of the Victoria Tunnel.
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia In 1703, Thomas Atkins was swept off the deck of his sinking ship onto another sinking ship. A second wave then swept him onto a lifeboat.
Source: Stockwin's Maritime Miscellany, Image: wikipedia The USS Tang was one of America's most successful submarines during WWII before it sank itself with its own torpedo.
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia In 1974, the CIA spent nearly $4 billion to construct a ship equipped with a nearly 5km claw in order to raise a sunken Soviet submarine.
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia Vasa, a Swedish ship that sank in 1628, was found to have been constructed using 2 sets of rulers. One set used Swedish feet (12 inches) and other set used Amsterdam feet (11 inches).
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia Karl von Müller, a German captain during WWI would allow the passengers of the boats he was going to sink enough time to abandon ship.
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia Titanic was not the greatest loss of life in US maritime history. In 1865 a steamboat carrying returning Union POWs sank and more than 1,700 people died.
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia The chef of the Jascon 4 survived in an air pocket for 3 days after the ship sank until he was found by divers.
Source: huffintonpost, Image: pixabay In 1986 a Soviet sub (K-219) sank with more than 30 nukes onboard. When the Soviets finally reached the wreck 2 years later, they found that the hatches had been forced open and the nuclear warheads were gone.
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia A German U-Boat (U-1206) once sank because its toilet malfunctioned.
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia The greatest maritime disaster in world history was the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff (more than 9,000 deaths).
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia Unfortunately, the story of the Wilhelm Gustloff has been lost to history for several reasons, the most significant being that it happened during WWII and it was a German ship.
Source: wilhelmgustloff.com, Image: wikipedia There are more than 20 sunken German submarines off the eastern coast of the US.
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia In 2000, Russian submarine Kursk (K-141) sank and all aboard perished because the Russians refused offers of assistance from the US, British, and Norwegian navies.
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia In 1779, the US Captain John Paul Jones refused to surrender to the British. Finally, with his ship burning and sinking, John and his men made it onto a British vessel and took it over.
Source: navy.mil, Image: wikipedia When the Oceanos cruise ship began to sink in 1991, the crew abandoned ship but guitarist Moss Hills took over and directed the rescue effort.
Source: oceanosinking.com, Image: wikipedia Only two years after the sinking of the Titanic, the Empress of Ireland sank in the Saint Lawrence River killing over a thousand people. Because of WWI, its story was largely forgotten.
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia 
