On December 20th, 1987, the MV Doña Paz collided with the oil tanker MT Vector killing over 4300 passengers on the overcrowded Doña Paz. It is the worst peacetime maritime disaster in history.
Category: Pacific Shipwrecks
The Sinking of the SS Pacific
The SS Pacific was a sidewheel paddle steamer, which by 1875 had 25 years of service up and down the west coast of the US and Canada. In November of 1875, she collided with the sailing vessel Orpheus, and was fatally damaged. Only two aboard the Pacific survived, and an estimate of 325 perished. It is the greatest loss of life in the history of the waters nicknamed The Graveyard of the Pacific.
The Toya Maru
The Toya Maru was a Japanese commercial ferry operating between the island of Honshu and Hokkaido in Japan. Built by the Japanese National Railways and launched in 1947, the ship was 118.7 m (389 ft) long and 15.85 m (52.0 ft) wide, with a capacity of 1,128 passengers and a crew of 120. On September…
The Frances H. Leggett
On September 18, 1914, the freighter Francis H. Leggett sank during a devastating gale off the coast of Oregon, killing 60 people.