There is just something about an unsolved mystery, isn’t there? Sure, it’s great when you eventually find out why something happened the way it did. Still, man, the idea of an event taking place without an immediate plausible explanation just sends those debating skills into overdrive and makes the conspiracy theories pile up. Below are just some examples of mysteries that will probably be debated for a long time to come.

10 The Mummy That Wasn’t

Back in 2000, Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan battled for ownership of what they believed to be the mummified remains of a 2,600-year-old Persian princess. Police found the mummy during a raid of a Baluchistan chieftain home in Kharan, Pakistan and was to be sold on the black market for millions. When she was discovered, the mummy’s head was adorned with a golden crown, and there were gold ornaments in her coffin, which truly made it seem that an archaeological wonder had been found. However, not everyone was convinced that the mummy was the real deal. Professor Ahmad Dani, director of the Institute of Asian Civilizations in Islamabad, claimed to have known from the beginning that the mummy was not all it was cracked up to be.^[1]

He was not wrong. After a detailed study of the remains, it was soon discovered that the body was not 2,600 years old and not a Persian princess. It was revealed that the coffin she rested in was not as old as her remains were believed to be and that the mat she was laid on was possibly a mere five years old. The Persian mummy was now believed to be the body of a 21-year-old female murder victim—her neck, jaw, and back broken. Finally, it was confirmed, with the help of radiocarbon testing, that the victim had died in 1996. The “mummy” was buried in 2005 without the victim ever being identified.

9 Dutch Students’ Deaths

On 1 April 2014, two Dutch students, Lisanne Froon and Kris Kremers, waved goodbye to the family hosting them during their long-planned trip to Panama and walked off with the family dog for a hike along the Baru volcano. They posted on Facebook that they were going to walk around Boquete before tackling the hiking trail.

That evening, the host family noticed the dog traipsing back into the house, but there was no sign of the two young women. Assuming they may have decided to stay overnight on the trail, the family waited until morning. However, when they discovered that Kris and Lisanne never showed up for their private walking tour of Boquete, the family immediately contacted the police. Kris and Lisanne’s parents arrived in Panama five days later and waited anxiously for news of their children as police and detectives scoured the forest for ten days.^[2]

It took 10 weeks for a break in the case. A local woman turned up at the police station with a blue backpack she had found on a riverbank in the Boco del Toros region. Inside the backpack were Lisanne’s passport, sunglasses, two pairs of bras, a water bottle, and some cash. Police also found a camera and both girls’ cell phones in the backpack. When they scrolled through the phones, they found that there had been 77 attempts to call the police and emergency services in both Panama and the Netherlands. Due to the lack of signal in the area, these calls did not go through. On one of the phones, they found several photos of the trail and surrounding forest. There were also photos taken on 8 April of the girls’ belongings scattered over some rocks and a disturbing photo of the back of Kris’ head showing blood streaming from her temple.

Two months later, bones were found in the forest. DNA tests confirmed that the bones belonged to the two missing girls. Later in 2014, they were publicly declared dead of a hiking accident. Police never found out how they died or if someone was responsible for their deaths.

8 Leatherman

Historian Dan DeLuca spent most of his life researching a deceased homeless man’s life. Ever since he stumbled upon his grave in the Sparta Cemetery in Ossining, New York, DeLuca had been fascinated with the man known as Leatherman. He learned that the inscription on Leatherman’s gravestone incorrectly referred to the deceased as Jules Bourglay of Lyons, France. He also knew that Leatherman had been a source of mystery for people in Westchester County and western Connecticut since the 1850s.^[3]

Leatherman was said to have had a strange ritual that contributed to much of the speculation surrounding him. Once a month, he would walk 360 miles between the Hudson and Connecticut rivers. Being homeless, he was dressed very modestly in patchwork garments and wooden shoes and very rarely spoke to anyone. He slept in the forest and sometimes in caves, but he would never stay inside a building for more than a couple of minutes. He often asked for food as he passed by a farmhouse, and the occupants were amazed at his appetite. He could eat a staggering amount while remaining standing at the front door.

The press began following Leatherman’s movements and chronicled his travels for over 30 years. In modern times the research into this mysterious man continues. Pearl Jam got caught up in the mystery and wrote a song about him. Leatherman’s real name and age at that time remain unknown, as does his place of birth and where he grew up.

7 Nina Craigmiles’s Blood-Stained Crypt

Nina Craigmiles was born to Myra Adelia Thompson Craigmiles and John Henderson Craigmiles on August 5, 1864. As she grew, Nina learned to love riding in a horse-drawn buggy. During one such outing with her grandfather on St. Luke’s Day in 1871, the buggy they were riding in was hit full-on by an oncoming train as they were crossing the railroad tracks. Seven-year-old Nina was killed on impact.

While her family grieved, Nina’s father changed his will to include a clause that stated he wished to be buried inside the mausoleum where Nina’s ashes rested. John Craigmiles also ensured that an Episcopal church was built in Nina’s memory, which included the marble mausoleum in the churchyard to keep Nina’s ashes in. The church was named St. Luke’s Memorial Episcopal Church and was consecrated in 1872.^[4]

John died in 1899 and was buried, as requested, inside Nina’s mausoleum. Sometime later, red stains started appearing on the outside of the mausoleum. Efforts to clean the stains failed, and when the marble blocks were replaced, the stains simply reappeared. In modern times, sightings have been reported of a little ghost girl in 1800s clothing, playing outside the mausoleum. The red stains, whom many believe to be blood, are still visible on the Craigmiles Mausoleum in Cleveland and tourists love relating the story. However, the cause of the stains remains a mystery.

6 The Circleville Letters

In 1976, several Circleville, Ohio residents began receiving strange letters detailing personal information about their lives. The letters contained threats of violence and personal information that, in some cases, only the recipient was aware of. Many of these letters were hatefully written with vulgarisms and lewd artwork. None of the Circleville letters had any return address, and all appeared to come from somewhere within Columbus. Every single letter was written in the same distinct style—block letters—and might have been an attempt to cover up the author’s personal handwriting.

Bus driver Mary Gillispie was accused of a supposedly non-existent affair with the superintendent of schools. The writer told Mary that they had been observing her house and knew she had children. It was postmarked in Columbus, Ohio, but had no return address. Within eight days, Mary received a similar letter. She kept the letters to herself, until her husband, Ron, received one as well. The letter stated that if Ron did not stop his wife’s affair, his life would be in danger. The couple believed that the letter writer was Ron’s brother-in-law, Paul Freshour, and the letters stopped after they sent accusatory letters to Freshour—at least for a time.

Ron Gillispie died a few weeks later in a suspicious car accident as the letters continued, now being sent to more residents ordering a more thorough investigation into the crash. After a botched attempt on Mary Gillispie’’s life six years later, police arrested Freshour for attempted murder. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison as his gun was used in the boob-trap device meant to kill Mary. While in prison, the letters continued, still postmarked from Columbus, even though Freshour was nowhere near there, nor were any letters sent from the prison. The writer of the letters is still unknown, although there have not been any letters received since 1994.

While Unsolved Mysteries was filming this story, they received a postcard, apparently from the letter writer. It read “Forget Circleville Ohio: Do Nothing to Hurt Sheriff Radcliff: If You Come to Ohio You El Sickos Will Pay: The Circleville Writer.”^[5]

5 Mysterious Vatican Disappearance

When 15-year-old Emanuela Orlandi finished her second year of high school in Rome in 1983, she chose to continue with flute lessons at the Tommaso Ludovico da Victoria School. On 22 June 1983, Emanuela asked her brother, Pietro, to accompany her on the bus to the music school, but he had prior commitments. She arrived late to class that day and later telephoned her sister to inform her that she had been given a job opportunity to become a representative of Avon Cosmetics. The rep who had presented her with the opportunity spoke to her before her music lesson, causing Emanuela to run late. Later that day, Emanuela told a friend of hers about the job, before getting into a BMW and riding off.^[6] Emanuela Orlandi was never seen again.

Many false leads materialized over the years, as did an abundance of theories on what may have happened to the young girl. Some believe that a Bulgarian neo-fascist youth group abducted her. Others claim that she is living in a Muslim community in Paris. Even more outrageous theories include that her kidnapping was part of a plot to kill St. John Paul II or could even be linked to the seedy underbelly of Rome.

In 2017, an Italian journalist claimed to have stolen a document from the Vatican which suggested that the Holy See arranged Emanuela’s disappearance. The Vatican immediately claimed, “fake news.”

In July 2019, the Vatican excavated the tombs of two 19th century German princesses in the Pontifical Teutonic College cemetery after an anonymous tip was received that Emanuela’s remains were buried inside them. Instead, they found completely empty tombs, meaning the remains of the princesses are in question as well. During these excavations, two sets of bones were found under a stone slab and were inspected and determined to be too old to be the remains of Emanuela Orlandi. The Vatican closed its investigation, but the mystery still remains—what happened to Emanuela?

4 Kathy Hobbs Premonition

When Katherine Marie Hobbs was eight years old, her parents divorced. As if this wasn’t bad enough for the young girl, her best friend died while they were both in middle school. Soon after, Katherine or Kathy as her family called her, started having disturbing premonitions that she would not live past 16 years of age.^[7]

Kathy and her sister Theresa moved to a Las Vegas suburb with their mother where Kathy made new friends and eventually woke up on her sixteenth birthday on 20 April 1987 feeling greatly relieved that nothing terrible had happened to her. As the days passed after her birthday, Kathy grew confident that her premonitions were nothing more than a figment of her imagination.

On July 23, 1987, Kathy left her house to buy a novel at the local supermarket a block and a half away. Her mom kissed her goodbye in case she fell asleep before Kathy returned.

The next morning, Kathy’s mom knocked on her bedroom door only to discover it was empty. Kathy never made it back home. Her mother filed a missing person’s report immediately. Nine days later, a hiker found Kathy’s body near Lake Mead. When police were called, they discovered rocks at the murder scene with Kathy’s blood on them, indicating that the teenager had been hit in the head repeatedly. The news devastated Kathy’s mother and sister. Later, while cleaning out her bedroom, they found letters written by Kathy to each family member. The letters were dated a month before Kathy’s sixteenth birthday. In them, she wrote that she loved them dearly and that they shouldn’t be upset or dwell over her death.

Kathy Hobbs’ murder remains unsolved, even though a serial killer named Michael Lee Lockhart was a prime suspect and eventually executed for another murder.

3 Titanic Poisoning

On the last day of filming the movie, Titanic, in Nova Scotia, James Cameron suddenly felt inexplicably ill and disoriented. When he started vomiting, he realized something was very wrong. Once he got back to the set, he found he wasn’t the only one feeling strange as some of the cast and crew were vomiting or crying and some even laughing.

At Dartmouth General Hospital, things took an even weirder turn when a crew member stabbed Cameron in the face with a pen. At the same time, others started stealing unoccupied wheelchairs and wheeling themselves up and down the hospital corridors. Cameron, who was bleeding from the pen stab wound, couldn’t stop laughing.

Once the hospital staff ruled out food poisoning, they realized that chowder consumed by more than 60 people on set had been laced with PCP.^[8]

Theories abounded, one of which had it that a dismissed crew member tried to take revenge by poisoning the food. Officially the mystery remains long after the case was closed in 1999 due to a lack of suspects.

2 Miniature Coffins

In 1836 a group of boys set off for Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh, Scotland to hunt rabbits. Intrigued by a concealed cave, the boys decided to peek inside. After pulling away the stones covering the entrance, they stumbled upon 17 miniature coffins, each with a wooden doll inside. The dolls had big eyes and were dressed in cotton clothing.^[9]

When the discovery was reported in the Scotsman newspaper, the article mentioned that the coffins were decorated with funeral trappings. It seemed that they had been placed inside the cave recently.

As is always the case with unexplained discoveries, multiple theories were presented to try and explain the coffins. Some people thought it might be children playing a trick, while others mused that witches might have used the coffins for rituals. Yet another theory said that the coffins may have been part of an ancient custom to give sailors who died at sea a Christian burial. A dark theory suggested that the coffins may have been set up in tribute of killers William Burke and William Hare who murdered 17 people.

The true purpose of the coffins and who placed them in the cave remains a mystery.

1 The Handless Monk

In 2017, archaeologists made the startling discovery of a medieval dolphin skeleton on an islet off the coast of Guernsey. The following year, they made an even more baffling discovery: that of a male skeleton with no hands. Following an investigation, it was found that the skeleton of the man, believed to be a monk, was buried at a much later time than the dolphin, and the two incidents were not related.^[10]

Archaeologists initially believed the islet, Chapelle Dom Hue, used to be much larger and home to a few Christian monks during the Middle Ages. One of the theories surrounding the mystery of the skeleton has it that the monk may have suffered from leprosy and had his hands cut off because of it. However, some experts feel this is unlikely and don’t believe that the man was a monk. The details on the skeleton’s clothing indicate the body may have been buried in the 17th century, long after monks would have inhabited the islet.

The skeleton discovery remains shrouded in mystery for the time being, as experts are still in the process of examining the remains and investigating a different theory which states that the man may have been a sailor who died at sea and was thrown overboard before washing up on the islet.

On April 10, 1912, RMS Titanic set sail on her maiden voyage from Southampton, calling at Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown, Ireland, but never made it to its final destination of New York, USA.

SEE ALSO: 10 Eerie Facts About The Titanic

Tragically, the famous vessel collided with an iceberg at 11.40pm on April 14, which led to her sinking into the North Atlantic Ocean at 2.20am on April 15th, 1912. Consequently, more than 1,500 passengers and crew lost their lives and only 705 people survived.

Despite much of the world viewing the luxury liner as “unsinkable”, there were a handful of people who had visions about the maritime disaster. Read the 10 premonitions about the sinking of RMS Titanic.

10 Morgan Robertson

Futility was written by Morgan Robertson 14 years prior to the sinking of RMS Titanic. However, despite being steeped in fiction, the book’s plot eerily resembles the real maritime disaster in 1912. It tells the story of the largest luxury liner in the world, which is called Titan, which sank into the North Atlantic Ocean following a collision with an iceberg.

Morgan Robertson stated he did not possess any psychic abilities, as the novel was based on his knowledge of shipbuilding trends and understanding of the dangers of modern ships. Yet, the similarities are more than a little uncanny. After all, both the fictional and real liners were believed to be “practically unsinkable”, and they were both the same size at roughly 270 meters long, were capable of reaching speeds of 20 knots, and featured a barely legal number of lifeboats. What’s more, they both sank 400 nautical miles away from Newfoundland, Canada, on an April evening.^[1]

9 Edith Corse Evans

Edith Corse Evans was a first class passenger on RMS Titanic, who was returning to New York City following a trip to Europe to visit her cousins in Paris, France. She traveled alongside a group of sisters: Mrs John Murray Brown, Mrs E. D. Appleton and Mrs R. C. Cornell, who became acquainted with Colonel Archibald Gracie.

When Titanic struck an iceberg, men aboard the ship attempted to reassure the ladies that the vessel was unsinkable. However, Edith told Colonel Gracie that a fortune teller had once warned her to “beware of water” and she was convinced that there was truth behind the prophecy. Despite the warning, varying accounts stated Edith gave up her seat in a lifeboat for one of the sisters she was traveling with, as her friend had children waiting for her at home. She was one of four first-class female passengers to die in the disaster.^[2]

8 George and Edith Vanderbilt

George Washington Vanderbilt II was a prominent member of the Vanderbilt family, who was traveling aboard RMS Titanic with his wife, Edith. The couple would often travel the world to adorn their home with antiques, Oriental carpets, tapestries and artwork.

Despite their footman, Edwin Charles Wheeler, loading their belongings onto RMS Titanic two days prior, as the couple had planned to travel in a first-class cabin, a family member warned them against doing so, stating: “… so many things can go wrong on a maiden voyage”. The Vanderbilts, therefore, rebooked onto Olympic, with Edwin choosing to travel aboard the ship with his employers’ belongings and sadly lost his life during the sinking.^[3]

7 Esther Hart

The Hart family were traveling aboard RMS Titanic as second class passengers, as they were planning to start a new life in Winnipeg, Canada. At the time of the maiden voyage, Eva Hart was only seven years old. Despite being so young, Eva’s memories of the tragedy never faded. It was her belief that a premonition by her mother, Esther, saved her life, as she believed deeming a ship unsinkable was “flying in the face of God”. In fact, Esther was so scared of the events that might unfold that she would sleep during the day to remain vigilant in her cabin at night. As she heard a bump, the family had a chance to quickly escape the ship. However, Eva’s father, Benjamin, refused to climb into a lifeboat to allow women and children to flee, and he gave his coat to his wife to keep his family warm.^[4]

6 Jonathan Shepherd

Jonathan Shepherd served as a junior second assistant engineer aboard RMS Titanic, and reportedly had unshakeable fears about joining the liner on her maiden voyage. However, he had reasons to worry, as he had been involved in a naval collision a year earlier, as he was onboard RMS Olympic in 1911 when she collided with HMS Hawke, a British warship.

His father was interviewed by the Northern Daily Telegraph weeks after the fateful night, and stated his son was “down in the dumps” prior to the voyage. When he asked his son: “What are you afraid of? Are you afraid of death?” Jonathan replied, “No, I’m not afraid of death, but I don’t want to go”. His father also stated: “My lad did not want to go on Titanic, he would rather have stopped on Olympic.”

On the fateful evening, Jonathan helped the ship’s engineers to rig pumps inside boiler room number five; however, a slip on a raised access plate led to him breaking his leg. While Frederick Barrett, the lead fireman, and Herbert Harvey, an engineer, helped Jonathan to the pump room, the bulkhead breached and he sadly drowned in the rising water.^[5]

5 Henry Wilde

Henry Wilde was never supposed to serve on RMS Titanic, as he was originally posted as Chief Officer aboard RMS Olympic, Titanic’s sister ship. However, he was ordered to await instructions at Southampton for joining the luxury liner on her maiden voyage. He did, however, have some misgivings about the famous ship, as he posted a letter to his sister at the stop at Queenstown, Ireland, which read, “I still don’t like this ship… I have a queer feeling about it”.

When the liner collided with an iceberg at 11.40pm on April 14, 1912, Wilde reportedly worked tirelessly to load lifeboats. He also used a gun to prevent stockers from taking over a lifeboat, which allowed women and children to escape from the sinking liner. He was last spotted attempting to free collapsible A and B lifeboats from the roof of the officers’ quarters. He died during the sinking and, if discovered, his body was never identified.^[6]

4 Alex Mackenzie

Despite boarding RMS Titanic at Southampton before it set sail, Alex Mackenzie heard a voice that warned him he would lose his life if he remained aboard the liner. The 24-year-old was walking along the gangway when a voice in his head warned him not to travel on the vessel; however, when he looked around, there was no-one present. Shaking off the warning, he continued walking only to hear it for a second and then third time, with each warning sounding stronger than the last. It was then that he decided to abandon the voyage and return to his hometown of Glasgow, Scotland.

The young Scot had received either a second or third class ticket from his grandparents. As he had wasted the expensive ticket, his family were less than pleased about his return; however, they were soon relieved at his decision when news of the disaster broke.^[7]

3 John Coffey

A 23-year-old John Coffey joined RMS Titanic at Southampton, as he had signed onto the vessel to serve as either a stoker or a boiler-room fireman, which offered a salary of £5 per month. Despite being scheduled to complete a return crossing of the Atlantic, he chose to depart the liner during her stop at Queenstown, Ireland, which was his hometown.

He stated many weeks later that he chose to leave the ill-fated ship as he experienced a strange foreboding about the voyage. Despite his bold decision, Coffey continued with his maritime career, as he signed onto work on RMS Mauretania a few months after Titanic’s sinking.^[8]

2 Edith Rosenbaum

Edith Rosenbaum, also known as Edith Russell, was a 33-year-old first class passenger, who was traveling on RMS Titanic after reporting on fashion at Paris’ Easter Sunday Races. While she did state the liner was “the most wonderful boat you could think of”, she also posted a letter to her secretary from Queenstown, which read, “I’m going to take my very much needed rest on this trip, but I cannot get over my feeling of depression and premonition of trouble. How I wish it were over!”

After the ship struck an iceberg, Edith managed to escape in Lifeboat 11 with her small toy pig, and its music reportedly provided passengers with much comfort. She was safely rescued from the lifeboat four hours later, and traveled extensively throughout her life, surviving various tornadoes, car accidents and another shipwreck.^[9]

1 William T. Stead

William T. Stead was an English newspaper editor, who was traveling to New York via RMS Titanic to address a conference at Carnegie Hall, which was at the request of President William Howard Taft. Despite joining the vessel as a first class passenger, Stead had seemingly predicted the ship’s end many years earlier, as he wrote a short piece of fiction called “How the Atlantic Mail Steamer Went Down” in 1886. It told the story of a transatlantic liner that had sunk when carrying 916 passengers. It also depicted a horrifying scene of people drowning due to a lack of lifeboats, which he believed could one day become a reality.^[10]

The RMS Titanic was capable of carrying up to 2,435 passengers and 900 crew members. If the lifeboats were loaded to their full capacity, it would have been enough to accommodate one-third of the people aboard the luxurious liner.

10 Creepy Premonitions About The Sinking Of The Titanic

Tragically, many seats sat empty as the lifeboats departed from the sinking vessel, which led to an unnecessary loss of life. Despite the treacherous conditions in the North Atlantic Ocean, many passengers and crew managed to survive the sinking of the world-famous ship. Read the following ten incredible survival stories from RMS Titanic.

10 Charles Joughin

Charles Joughin was 30 years old when he served as chief baker on RMS Titanic, earning a monthly wage of £12, which resulted in him being one of the best-paid crew members aboard the liner. When RMS Titanic collided with an iceberg at 11.40 pm on April 14, 1912, he was off duty in his bunk but soon ordered his bakers to send 50 loaves of bread to the lifeboats before enjoying some liquor in his room.

When he arrived at the boat deck, he was assigned to Lifeboat 10 to escort women and children from the sinking vessel. However, he refused a seat in the boat and returned to his room once again to enjoy a drop more liquor. Once he returned to the boat deck, every lifeboat had gone, and he began helping passengers and crew to throw deck chairs overboard into the freezing North Atlantic Ocean.

As the ship began to descend into the water, Charles claimed he swam away from the sinking vessel. It is widely believed the liquor helped Joughin to remain calm during the disaster and decreased feeling in his body when he struck the icy-cold water. While many people often died within a few minutes of entering the water, Joughin reportedly spent two hours floating in the darkness and then climbed onto an overturned lifeboat. He was eventually rescued by RMS Carpathia and later testified, “I was all right barring my feet, they were swelled.”

9 Charles Herbert Lightoller

Second Officer Charles Herbert Lightoller was on duty from 6:00pm until 10:00pm on the night of the sinking. Before being relieved of his watch by First Officer Murdoch, he instructed for Sixth Officer Moody to call the crow’s nest to request the men keep a lookout for small ice and to pass word to other watches.

Falling asleep in his cabin, Lightoller was awakened at 11.40 pm by a grinding vibration and headed to the deck in his pajamas. After talking to Third Officer Herbert Pitman, who had also been disturbed by the collision, both men concluded the ship must have struck something in the water. Lightoller returned to his cabin to quickly dress and soon convinced Captain Edward J. Smith to lower the lifeboats, as he had been involved in various shipwrecks during his seafaring career. He then assisted women and children into the boats and even used an empty gun to threaten a group of men who attempted to take over Lifeboat 2.

Lightoller was also ordered by First Officer Wilde to escape the ship on Lifeboat 2, but replied “Not damn likely” and instead chose to remove Collapsible B, despite the waters starting to rise onto the deck. However, when RMS Titanic plunged forward, he dived into the sea and was forced to swim clear but was almost sucked down with the ship by the grating of the large ventilator shafts. Fortunately, the water hit the still, hot boiler, which blasted Lightoller back to the surface, and he quickly climbed onto the nearby Collapsible B, which he had previously removed from the Titanic before it went under. However, he experienced another near-miss, as a forward funnel broke free from the Titanic and narrowly missed him. As Collapsible B eventually gained many survivors, it started to slowly sink, and he ended up making his way into Lifeboat 12. When RMS Carpathia arrived to rescue survivors, Lightoller refused to enter the ship until every passenger and crew member were safe, making him the last survivor to be rescued.

8 Richard Williams Norris

Richard Williams Norris was an accomplished tennis player from Geneva, Switzerland traveling on RMS Titanic with his father, Charles Duane Williams. Richard was planning to participate in a tennis tournament in America before studying at Harvard University. Following the liner’s collision with an iceberg, the men made no attempt to escape the foundering ship and instead retired to the gymnasium to talk to instructor McCawley and other passengers.

When the ship descended into the ocean, both Richard and his father were forced to swim for their lives. Tragically, the tennis star watched as his father and others in the water were crushed by a forward funnel that had collapsed into the water. However, the wave from the funnel pushed Richard forward and toward Collapsible A, which he held onto until he was helped into Lifeboat 14. Despite sustaining injuries to his legs, Richard became the United States singles champion in 1914 and 1916, a 1920 Wimbledon men’s double champion, and a 1924 Olympic gold medalist.

7 Harold Bride

Harold Bride was a junior wireless operator on RMS Titanic, serving as assistant to Jack Phillips, the chief operator. Both men were responsible for sending and receiving Morse code messages using Marconi’s radio telegraph system. In addition to delivering iceberg warnings to Captain Edward J. Smith throughout the day, the two men undertook shifts to transmit passengers’ messages to their loved ones back home.

However, when RMS Titanic struck an iceberg, Captain Smith ordered the two men to send SOS messages for help. At the time, both Bride and Phillips were not concerned about the collision; however, they soon realized the gravity of the situation. While Phillips spent the rest of the night sending SOS messages to nearby ships, Bride would update Captain Smith on the progress of communicating with potential rescue liners.

As RMS Titanic started to sink, Captain Smith relieved them from their duty; however, the operators chose to remain at their post. When the water began to enter the wireless room, Harold Bride began helping passengers and crew to launch a collapsible lifeboat. At the same time, Phillips continued his attempt to send distress signals to nearby liners. Bride was washed off the deck but fortunately landed underneath an overturned boat, which he climbed into along with fifteen other men. As the boat was waterlogged, the men were eventually assisted into other lifeboats, where they remained until RMS Carpathia rescued them. Despite suffering from serious injuries, Harold Bride assisted with Carpathia’s wireless communications during his time on the ship and also sent many personal messages from survivors.

6 George Beauchamp

George Beauchamp was lucky enough to survive two of the worst maritime disasters in history: the sinking of RMS Lusitania and RMS Titanic. To secure a job as a fireman stoker on Titanic, George lied about his age to the White Star Line, as he claimed he was 32 when he was ten years older.

Following the collision with an iceberg, he was permitted to leave the engine room and assisted women and children into Lifeboat 13. He was then instructed to row the boat away from Titanic. However, he initially struggled to keep the lifeboat away from the sinking vessel and prevent water from seeping in. Fortunately, he pulled on the oars to travel away from RMS Titanic as quickly as possible. George was also onboard RMS Lusitania when a German U-boat torpedoed her in 1915 during WWI. Unsurprisingly, he chose to work on much smaller boats throughout the rest of his life.

5 Ella White

Ella White was a first-class passenger who boarded RMS Titanic at Cherbourg, France. She was accompanied by her companion, Marie Grice Young, and her maid, Amelia Bissette, and manservant, Sante Ringhini. Despite the exceptional amenities onboard the liner, such as the Olympic dining room and state-of-the-art gym, Ella remained in the cabin she shared with Marie throughout the voyage. She only left it when disturbed by the ship’s collision, which she later described as if it had traveled over a thousand marbles.

Soon after, she entered Lifeboat 8 with her maid. Despite clashing with the seamen on the ship, Ella’s battery-operated cane helped guide the lifeboat to safety, which she typically used to help her maintain her balance. She reportedly held the cane high to illuminate the pitch-black sky, and it also helped them appear as a floating lighthouse in the North Atlantic Ocean. The cane also helped safely guide the lifeboat toward RMS Titanic in search of survivors in the water. While the gadget might fail to impress many people nowadays, it was viewed as cutting-edge technology during 1912.

4 Ruth Becker

Ruth Becker was only 12 years old when she joined RMS Titanic on her maiden voyage, making her one of the youngest passengers aboard the ship. She was traveling with her mother, Nellie, her brother, Richard, who had fallen ill, and her younger sister. To increase Richard’s chances of survival, the family was advised to travel to Benton Harbor, Michigan, to seek medical treatment. However, her father, Allen Oliver Becker, remained in her hometown of Guntur, India, with plans to join them at a later date.

While the Becker family were captivated by the beauty of the ship, their journey took a turn for the worst when it struck an iceberg on April 14. Consequently, Ruth’s mother and her two youngest children entered Lifeboat 11; however, there was no seat left for Ruth; however, she soon entered Lifeboat 13. However, as the lifeboat was lowered, it was nearly crushed by Lifeboat 15, which was being lowered into the ocean at an alarming rate. Fortunately, a member of the crew cut Lifeboat 13’s ropes, which allowed it to escape Lifeboat 15 in time. Ruth was eventually rescued from the lifeboat by RMS Carpathia and, after many anxious hours, she was reunited with her mother and siblings.

3 Edward and Ethel Beane

Following RMS Titanic’s collision with an iceberg, women and children were escorted into lifeboats to escape the sinking vessel. Wives were reluctantly pulled away from their husbands, while children were forced to wave goodbye to their fathers, who they never saw again. However, Edward and Ethel Beane managed to survive one of the worst maritime disasters in history.

The couple were honeymooning on RMS Titanic but were torn apart when Ethel was forced to leave her new husband on the ship and enter a lifeboat. Like many men on the liner, Edward had no choice but to jump overboard, and he swam in the icy-cold ocean until a lifeboat, fortunately, picked him up. However, many men were not so lucky and tragically succumbed to hypothermia. Despite the odds against them, Edward and Ethel were reunited on the rescue ship, RMS Carpathia.

2 The Titanic Waifs

When women and children were instructed to enter a lifeboat on April 15, 1912, a father placed his two young sons into collapsible D, which was the last lifeboat lowered into the water. The curly-haired boys were then cared for by 22-year-old Mary Kelly from Castlepollard, Ireland, who comforted them with song.

When the French boys arrived in New York after being rescued by RMS Carpathia, their identities were unknown. Various newspapers then published stories about the orphans to appeal to any family they might have in France or another country, and they were referred to as “The Titanic Waifs” by the press. Soon after, Marcelle Navratil came forward as the mother of three-year-old Michel and two-year-old Edmond Roger. It turns out their father, Michel Navratil, had kidnapped his children from the south of France and boarded the vessel under the pseudonym of Louis Hoffman. While he lost his life in the sinking, the boys were transported back to France with their mother.

1 William Carter II

The Carter family boarded RMS Titanic as first-class passengers and were returning to Rhode Island after a trip to Europe. They were also traveling with their pet dog and their servants, Alexander Cairns and Augusta Serreplaà. When women and children were escorted into lifeboats on the night of the sinking, the Carter family waited their turn before being instructed to enter Lifeboat 4. However, eleven-year-old William Carter II was stopped from doing so by Second Officer Charles Lightoller, as he was too old to enter.

Not willing to leave her young son behind on the sinking ship, William’s mother, Lucille, reportedly removed her hat and placed it on top of William’s head to disguise him as a girl and ensure his survival. Despite weeping at the thought of leaving his dog behind, William escaped the ill-fated liner with his mother and sisters, and he lived to the grand age of 84 years old.

Every life lost following the sinking of the RMS Titanic was a tragedy. While it is impossible to know each passenger’s story, various reports and testimonies have helped the world learn more about the victims who perished at sea.

Due to a lack of lifeboats, a fast-sinking vessel, and missed communication with nearby vessels, more than 1,500 people lost their lives following the liner’s collision with an iceberg on April 14, 1912, which sank within 2 hours 40 minutes on April 15, 1912. Continue reading to learn about ten of the most tragic stories from the Titanic.

Related: 10 Children Survivors Of The Titanic And Their Chilling Stories

10 The Fortune Family

The Fortune family from Winnipeg, Canada, were first-class passengers on the Titanic. Mark Fortune planned a trip to different corners of the globe as a present for his wife, Mary, and their four children, and they traveled on the luxury liner for their passage home.

Tragically, this was the last trip the family experienced together. When the Titanic collided with an iceberg on April 14th, Fortune’s daughters, Alice and Mabel, entered Lifeboat 7 and gave their jewelry to him and their 19-year-old brother, Charlie. Mary and daughter Ethel also entered the lifeboat, the first to be launched from the liner. The two men, stranded on board the sinking vessel, sadly lost their lives in the disaster. The Fortune women reportedly returned to the home Mark had built; however, they struggled to live in the 36-room Tudor-inspired mansion. It was an unwanted reminder of the men they had lost during the Titanic’s maiden voyage.^[1]

9 The Allison Family

Hudson and Bess Allison, who taught Sunday school and Bible classes, started Allison Stock Farm and built a family home near Winchester, Ontario, in 1911. As Hudson was on the board of the British Lumber Corporation, the whole family traveled to England for a director’s meeting. During their visit, they enjoyed a trip to the Scottish Highlands, bought furniture for their farm, and recruited new staff members.

As the Allison family wished to return to the U.S. with friends, they altered their travel plans and booked the Titanic as first-class passengers, paying for three Upper Deck cabins while their two new servants traveled second class.

When the Titanic hit an iceberg, Alice Cleaver, a nursemaid for 11-month-old Hudson Trevor Allison, stepped into Lifeboat 11 with the baby. Unaware Alice had rescued her son, Bess Allison reportedly refused to leave the boat without him and stepped off a lifeboat with her two-year-old daughter, Loraine.

Major Arthur Peuchen commented to the Montreal Daily Star that Mrs. Allison left the boat to join her husband, as someone told her he was being lowered from the liner on the opposite side of the deck. However, Mr. Hudson was nowhere to be found. Tragically, Mr. and Mrs. Allison, and their young daughter, Loraine, died in the sinking.

Tragically, Trevor died in 1928, at age 18. In 1940, a woman named Helen Loraine Kramer came forward, claiming to be Loraine Allison, seeking the Allison family fortune. In 2013, DNA testing revealed that the woman was not Loraine.^[2]

8 The Rice Family

Margaret Norton was born in Athlone, Ireland, and married William Rice at 19 years old. In 1909, the couple moved to Washington, USA, but her husband sadly passed away in a railway accident. After receiving an insurance settlement, Margaret Rice decided to return to Ireland, where she lived with her five sons until 1911. However, she decided to start over in the United States again with her family and booked third-class passenger tickets on the Titanic’s maiden voyage. They boarded the liner at its final stop of Queenstown, Ireland, on April 10, 1912.

Tragically, Margaret and her children, aged between two and ten, sadly lost their lives in the maritime disaster. A passenger later recalled seeing Margaret in the third-class area of the liner, clutching her youngest child, Eugene, while her four other children held onto her skirt.^[3]

7 Ida and Isidor Straus

Those who watched James Cameron’s Titanic (1997) might recall the elderly couple who lay in bed holding each other as the ship sank into the ocean. The couple is loosely based on Ida and Isidor Straus, first-class passengers who chose to die together on the liner rather than separate. Isidor was a co-owner of Macy’s department store and remained aboard the sinking vessel so others could live.

While Ida had an opportunity to save herself by entering a lifeboat with other women and children, she made the brave decision to stay with her husband of 40 years. Isidor was offered a place in a lifeboat, as an officer reportedly said, “Well, Mr. Straus, you’re an elderly man…and we all know who you are… of course you can enter a lifeboat with your wife.” However, he replied, “No. Until I see that every woman and child on board this ship is in a lifeboat, I will not enter into a lifeboat myself.”

Ida then stepped out of the lifeboat and reportedly said, “We have lived our whole life together, and if you are going to remain on the boat and die as the boat sinks, I will remain on the boat with you. We will not leave one another after our long and wonderful marriage together.” Both Ida and Isidor lost their lives in the sinking.^[4]

6 The Sage Family

The Sage Family ran a bakery and shop in Hackney, England, before attempting a new life as Pecan farmers in Jacksonville, Florida. The family of 11 initially planned to travel to Philadelphia on a different liner but were forced to change to the Titanic following a coal strike. While the Sage family were reportedly reluctant to move away from England, the children’s father, John, insisted.

The family’s last movements on the Titanic are unknown. Yet, some witnesses reported seeing them on the deck. One of the daughters, either Dorothy or Stella, may have been offered a seat on a lifeboat but refused to leave the liner without her family. Tragically, every family member lost their life in the fateful event. It was the disaster’s biggest single recorded loss of life for one family.^[5]

5 Elin Ester Maria Braf

Twenty-year-old Elin Braf traveled with Alice Johnson, Alice’s two children, and another Swedish woman, Helmina Nilsson. She was journeying to America to visit her sister, Annie Hammar, in Chicago. On the night of the Titanic’s sinking, they made their way to the ship’s upper deck to enter either lifeboat 13 or 15.

While Alice, her daughter, and Helmina stepped into the boat, Elin appeared to freeze with fear and refused to enter. As Elin was clutching Alice’s son, Harold, the young mother called out for him, who was soon pulled from Elin’s arms and placed into the lifeboat. However, Elin remained on the sinking vessel and tragically lost her life in the disaster.^[6]

4 The Goodwin Family

Five days after the Titanic sank into the North Atlantic Ocean, the crew from Mackay-Bennett, a rescue ship, removed the body of a 19-month-old boy. The newborn was transported to a cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and a headstone erected over his grave read “unknown child.” The young boy’s identity remained a mystery for many years, as no parents ever came forward for the child.

In 2007, researchers finally discovered his identity, which was Sidney Leslie Goodwin. Born in Edmonton, England, to Fredrick and Augusta Goodwin, Sidney was one of six siblings traveling on the Titanic with his parents. The family were third-class passengers aboard the luxury liner and planned to start a new life in Niagara Falls. Scheduled to travel on another ship, the Goodwins were later transferred to the Titanic (due to a coal strike, just like the Sage family). Tragically, every member of the family perished in the maritime disaster, like many third-class passengers. Only Sidney’s body was recovered from the water.^[7]

3 Thomas Millar

Thomas Millar, an assistant deck engineer, endured his fair share of heartache before climbing aboard the Titanic. His wife, Jeannie, had passed away three months earlier, and he decided to join the crew to provide for his sons, 11-year-old Thomas Jr. and 5-year-old William Ruddick. It was his goal to start a new life in America with his children once settled. In the meantime, they remained in their aunt’s care in a village located on the outskirts of Belfast, Northern Ireland. Before setting sail for America, Thomas handed his sons a penny each and instructed them not to spend it until his return.

Unfortunately, Thomas never returned to bring his children to America, as he sadly lost his life aboard the ship. His children remained under the care of their aunt and received an allowance of five shillings per week from the National Disasters Relief fund. The pennies remain in the family’s possession to this day.^[8]

2 Ramon Artagaveytia

Ramon Artagaveytia was born into a passionate seafaring family. Days before his grandfather’s death, Ramon’s father received an inscribed oar, which read:

“Knowing how to use it, you will never be hungry. Your ancestors have always survived thanks to the sea. This is your destiny. Follow it.”

Born in Montevideo, Uruguay, Ramon had experienced tragedy at sea before stepping onto the Titanic. The first-class businessman survived the sinking of the America liner in 1871, one of 65 passengers to survive as he jumped into the sea. While many survivors suffered horrific burns following the ship’s fire, Roman struggled with PTSD.

Before stepping onto the Titanic, Ramon wrote a letter to his cousin, Enrique, stating, “The sinking of the America was terrible! Nightmares keep tormenting me. Even in the most quiet trips, I wake up in the middle of the night with terrible nightmares and always hearing the same fateful word: Fire! Fire! Fire! I have gotten to the point where I find myself standing in the deck with my lifebelt on.”

According to Julian Padro y Manent, a surviving second-class passenger, he and two Urugyuan brothers were amused that Ramon took the Titanic’s collision seriously. One of the men, Mr. Francisco M. Carrau, reportedly advised him against climbing into a lifeboat to avoid catching a cold. Tragically, Roman and the two brothers lost their lives in the disaster.^[9]

1 Denis Lennon and Mary Mullin

Denis Lennon and Mary Mullin from Currycreaghan, Ireland, fell head over heels in love in 1911. After living with her family in 1911, they made plans to run away together after Mary dropped out of convent school. The smitten couple originally booked to make the voyage aboard Cymric. However, due to the coal strike (again), they boarded the Titanic at Queenstown as third-class passengers under the names Denis and Mary Mullin.

Mary’s brother, Joe, and possibly her mother, attempted to track the couple down with a loaded firearm, but they arrived at the dock too late. Despite escaping the family’s fury, Denis and Mary never made it to America. The couple lost their lives aboard the sinking ship.^[10]

While less well known than the sinking of the Titanic, the ten nautical disasters on this list often eclipse the Titanic story in terms of sheer horror, scandal, and loss of life. With human nature itself proving either the salvation or doom of the castaways, here are tales of heroism, cannibalism, endurance, murder, and disappearance without a trace.

10 SS Arctic, 1854

If you are familiar with the sinking of the Titanic, then you are aware of the principle of “women and children first.” But what if that principle was ignored? On September 27th, 1854, the SS Arctic, a passenger paddle steamship of the Collins Line, entered a dense fog off the Newfoundland coast and collided with the French fishing vessel the Vesta. Attempts to patch the hole in the hull with sailcloth and mattresses failed, and over the course of four agonizing hours, the sea crept in, finally extinguishing the ship’s boilers and, with them, the pumps.

With 250 passengers and 150 crew on board, the Arctic’s six lifeboats were woefully inadequate to carry more than 180. At first, the process of loading the women and children went as planned—until panic began to spread amongst the ship’s crew. As discipline broke down, a wild melee ensued, and one boat after another was swarmed by mobs of men. One tipped over, sending most of its dozen occupants (mostly women) into the sea to drown. Desperate to restore discipline, the captain attempted to launch another boat on the opposite side of the ship, only to see it too filled with male crew rather than women and children.

The two remaining boats (and a makeshift raft built by loyal officers) were likewise taken by the ship’s crew, one boat stolen by the engineering staff who, brandishing firearms, told the crowd that they needed the boat to patch the hole in the ship. No sooner had the boat launched (only half full) when it rowed away, leaving the waiting women and children to their fate. Of the 400 aboard, only 85 survived (61 crew and 24 male passengers). All the women and children drowned.^[1]

9 SS Pacific, 1856

As if things could not get worse for Collins Line founder Edward Collins, who had lost his wife and two children in the sinking of the SS Arctic, her sister ship, the SS Pacific, disappeared into the Atlantic without a trace in January of 1856. Leaving Liverpool for New York City with 45 passengers and 141 crew, no word of the ship’s fate was ever heard again, save for a message in a bottle washed up on the coast of the Hebrides islands in 1861. Whether authentic or a hoax, the message within offers us one possible explanation for the Pacific’s destruction:

“On board the Pacific, from L’pool to N. York. Ship going down. Great confusion on board—icebergs all around us on every side. I know I cannot escape. I write the cause of our loss that friends may not live in suspense. The finder of this will please get it published.”^[2]

8 Empress of Ireland, 1914

Among the beneficiaries of updated lifeboat regulations in the wake of the Titanic disaster was the ocean liner RMS Empress of Ireland of the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company. Equipped with watertight doors and enough lifeboats to accommodate 280 more people than the ship was built to carry, the fact remains that when she collided with the Norwegian ship Storstad in a fog at the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River on the night of May 29th, 1914, she sank in scarcely 15 minutes, taking 1012 of the 1477 people aboard to their deaths.

The water poured into her side so quickly that there was no time to shut the watertight doors, and the list to starboard increased so quickly that it nullified the port side lifeboats, which could not be lowered. Many passengers sleeping on the starboard side drowned in their cabins, but some who made it to the boat deck were able to successfully launch five of the lifeboats.

Some five minutes after the collision, the power failed, plunging the ship into total darkness. Five minutes after that, with the useable lifeboats gone, the Empress of Ireland rolled onto her starboard side, allowing hundreds of the doomed to take refuge on the exposed port side hull, where they sat for a few agonizing minutes watching the frigid water slowly creep up the hull to claim them “like sitting on a beach watching the tide come in,” as one survivor put it.^[3]

7 Essex, 1820

While falling far short of the death toll of the Titanicor any other entry in this list, the tale of the whaling ship Essex eclipses all the rest in terms of sheer horror. The real-world inspiration for Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, the Essex, was twice rammed by a sperm whale in November 1820, some 2,000 miles west of the South American coast. The twenty-man crew was forced to take to three whaleboats with what food and water they could carry and set off to reach South America.

In two weeks, the food was gone, and water so scarce that they were forced to drink their urine. They were temporarily saved by water and food foraged on barren Henderson Island, but after eating the island dry, they set off once more in the boats, less three men who decided to stay. By January, the men in the boats began to die. The first two corpses were consigned to the sea, but when a third died, the men were so hungry they decided to resort to cannibalism. When more men died, they did likewise. Soon, even this dire infusion of food became insufficient, and the surviving men drew lots to see who was to be killed and eaten next.

A young 18-year-old named Owen Coffin drew the black spot and was soon shot and butchered by the others, one of whom died ten days later and was likewise consumed. It would not be until late February 1821 that the five dazed survivors were rescued off the coast of Chile, having eaten no less than seven of their comrades.^[4]

6 Sultana, 1865

Imagine this. You have just spent years in Andersonville, the notorious Confederate prison where starvation, disease, and ill-treatment have killed some 13,000 of your comrades (a staggering death rate of 29%). You have just learned the Civil War is over after four brutal years, and you have just been told that you are finally going home. And so some 1,953 released Union prisoners of war were crowded onto the groaning decks of the Sultana, a northbound Mississippi river steamboat designed to carry only 376 passengers. With some 177 additional passengers and crew aboard as well, the Sultana crept slowly up a Mississippi swollen by one of the worst floods in living memory.

All went well until 2 am on the 27th of April, 1865, when both of its faulty boilers suddenly exploded under the strain. The jet of scalding hot steam blew out the center of the boat, destroying the pilothouse and knocking down the smokestacks, trapping hundreds in the wreckage that soon caught fire. Those trapped under the collapsing decks were scalded or burned to death, while the hundreds of ex-prisoners who jumped overboard quickly drowned, unable to keep afloat in their weakened state. When the hulk of the Sultana finally sank by the Arkansas shore around 7 am, some 1,169 men had died, making this the greatest maritime disaster in U.S. history.^[5]

5 SS Central America, 1857

On September 9, 1857, the SS Central America, carrying 477 passengers, 101 crew, and over nine tons of newly mined gold from the California Gold Rush, found itself trapped in a hurricane off the coast of the Carolinas. For two days, she rode out the storm, her steam-powered paddle wheels keeping her pointed into the 100 mph (62 km/h) winds. But by September 11, the boilers were failing, the sails were torn to ribbons, and leaks had developed, which threatened to overwhelm the pumps.

When the boilers finally failed, the engines and pumps fell silent, and the ship was adrift at the mercy of the storm. Red-eyed passengers spent the long night passing buckets of water up through the dark ship, but they were fighting a losing battle with the sea. The eye of the hurricane brought momentary calm, allowing the doomed to contemplate their fate, but when the storm returned, the ship continued to sink by the stern.

In the morning light, another ship was sighted, and women and children were loaded into the lifeboats and set off through the perilous sea. In this way, some 153 people were saved, but when the Central America finally sank after its three-day struggle, it took some 425 souls with it.^[6]

4 SS Princess Alice, 1878

There could be nothing more pleasant than taking an evening excursion by paddle steamer up the river Thames, which is what some 700 Londoners were doing on the evening of September 3, 1878. Then the SS Princess Alice was cut in two by the oncoming collier SS Bywell Castle in Galleon’s Reach, just east of London. Those who had been below decks at the time of the collision had no chance of survival, as it took a mere four minutes for the broken ship to slip beneath the river.

Despite launching boats from both the Bywell Castle and riverfront residences and factories, hundreds of people, weighed down by Victorian clothing, were washed under and away by the currents. Terrible as this was, what happened next transformed the scene into an unfathomable horror. The pumping stations for the London sewer system output their raw sewage into the Thames at the very spot where the Princess Alice sank, and a mere hour before the disaster, over 90 million gallons of raw sewage had been dumped into waters already polluted by local gas works and chemical factories.

The Times cited a local chemist who reported the outflow as “two continuous columns of decomposed fermenting sewage, hissing like soda-water with baneful gases, so black that the water is stained for miles and discharging a corrupt charnel-house odour.” The toxic slime proved fatal even to those who did not drown in it. Of the 130 survivors of the disaster, some 16 died later from ingesting the putrid waters.^[7]

3 SS Atlantic, 1873

Prior to the 1912 loss of the Titanic, the White Star Line’s greatest catastrophe was the loss of the SS Atlantic on a different April night some 39 years earlier. En route to New York from Liverpool with 952 passengers and crew, the Atlantic was diverted to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to load more coal. Approaching what they believed to be the harbor entrance in a howling storm, the ship was, in fact, over 12 miles (19 kilometers) off-course, heading straight for underwater rocks.

Failing to spot a familiar lighthouse west of the harbor, the helmsman relayed his concerns to the officer of the bridge, only to be told to stay the course. When the ship struck the rocks and the hull was smashed inward, the passengers clung to the listing vessel and watched as one after another of the 10 lifeboats were launched, only to be crushed against the hull or swept away by the raging sea. With no other way off the swiftly capsizing ship, crewman John Speakman swam to nearby rocks with a line of rope, creating a lifeline by which the strongest were able to pull themselves to shore.

In this way, some 429 passengers and crew survived to watch the remaining 535 people drown, including all 156 women and 188 of the 189 children aboard the ship. Commemorated in artwork by Winslow Homer and Currier & Ives, the loss of the Atlantic was the deadliest civilian maritime disaster of its day, only eclipsed 25 years later by our next entry.^[8]

2 SS La Bourgogne, 1898

Speeding through a fog bank southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia, in the pre-dawn hours of July 4, 1898, the SS La Bourgogne, a French ocean liner bound from Le Havre to New York, was struck midship by the iron-hulled sailing vessel Cromartyshire. Those passengers sleeping on the starboard side either had no chance of escape from their berths or woke to find their compartments rapidly filling with water.

With the starboard side lifeboats damaged or destroyed by the collision, the crew attempted to launch the port side boats, only to find the task imperiled as the list to starboard increased and the port side rolled up into the air. As discipline collapsed, passengers and crew fought to gain space in the undamaged lifeboats, and within 30 minutes, the ship had settled and slipped stern first under the waves.

It was only when the sun rose, and the fog lifted that the crew of the Cromartyshire (still afloat) realized that the La Bourgogne had been far more damaged than herself and began to render assistance to the survivors. But it was too late. Of the 726 souls aboard, only 173 survived, and of those, all but 70 were male crew members. Of the 300 women aboard, all but one would perish, along with each and every one of the children.^[9]

1 Batavia, 1629

In June 1629, the Dutch East India Company’s ship Batavia struck a reef off Beacon Island, a remote coral island 50 miles (80.5 kilometers) west of Western Australia. While her fate was a common enough occurrence in the age of sail, it is what happened next that earned the Batavia a spot on this list. Though 40 people drowned, the rest of the 322 passengers and crew got ashore on a desert island only to find no fresh water and nothing to eat but birds.

When the captain, senior officers, and some crew embarked in the longboat on a 33-day journey to Batavia (modern-day Jakarta, Indonesia) to seek help, the hundreds of survivors elected one Jeronimus Cornelisz, a senior company merchant, to leadership. They could not have made a worse choice.

He ordered 20 of the soldiers to explore a nearby island, ostensibly to search for food, but then abandoned them to die. Then, confiscating all weapons and then all the food, he began a two-month reign of terror, marooning more of his rivals on nearby islands and forcing seven of the surviving women into sexual slavery. Then, with food becoming scarce, he began to openly murder the survivors. Around 110 men, women, and children were drowned, hacked, strangled, or beaten to death before the 20 soldiers, having refused to die on their desert island, set up a fort and refuge from the mutineers.

Cornelisz declared war on the soldiers, and a battle ensued. It was in the midst of this inter-island war that the Batavia’s captain returned in the rescue ship, arrested the mutineers, and tortured them into a confession. Cornelisz and his followers were executed, and the nightmare was finally over for the 122 souls that remained.^[10]