In Titanic's Shadow

While the victims of the Titanic disaster at 1,507 persons accounted for a huge loss of life, a matter wich, with other influencing factors, has resulted in an enduring fascination with that tragedy, each of the ships described here had a greater number of casualties, in some cases more than five times as many. In total, these 27 merchant ship sinkings resulted in a staggering loss of life at sea - more than 96,000 in total, a staggering 3,840 per ship. While the circumstances of their losses were different to those of the Titanic, the outcome in each was no less tragic. Thus, while it is not the intention to diminish the gravity of the Titanic case, these far less well-known tragedies do give 'the worse disaster at sea' a sobering perspective. Yet, despite the fact that the Titanic disaster ranks behind so many other losses, so powerful has her name become as representation of extreme misfortune, that it was the inevitable choice to describe some of these other events.

Auteur

DAVID L. WILLIAMS's background is in professional industrial photography and technical publications. He was previously responsible for the entire aircraft and hovercraft in-service support operation of Westland Aerospace. He spent time working aboard lighthouse tenders and cable layers and is an Associate of the British Institute of Professional Photographers and member of the World Ship Society. He has written over 30 books on shipping and related subjects, including Great Passenger Ships that Never Were, Made on the Isle of Wight and Cabin Class Rivals for The History Press. He lives on the Isle of Wight.

Résumé
While the near 1,500 victims of Titanic accounted for a huge loss of life, each of the ships here had a greater number of casualties, in some cases more than five times as many. In total, these 27 merchant ship sinkings resulted in a staggering loss of life at sea more than 96,000 in total, 3,840 per ship. While the circumstances were different to Titanic, the outcome in each case was no less tragic. Yet, despite the fact that Titanic ranks behind so many other losses, so powerful has her name become that it was the inevitable choice to describe some of these other events, 'Germany's Titanic' and 'The Titanic of Japan' being two examples. Ships include the Lancastria, Britain's worst maritime disaster with 3,000 lost; the Ryusei Maru, a Japanese 'Hellship' loaded with 6,000 Allied POWs, torpedoed by a US submarine; and the Wilhelm Gustloff, a German liner packed with 7,800 civilians, sunk by a Russian submarine. There were no survivors and this tragedy was the worst maritime disaster of all time.