List of maritime disasters


The list of maritime disasters is a link page for maritime disasters by century.
For a unified list by death toll, see.

Pre-18th century

Peacetime disasters

All ships are vulnerable to problems from weather conditions, faulty design or human error. Some of the disasters below occurred during periods of conflict, although their losses were unrelated to any military action. The table listings are in decreasing order of the magnitude of casualties.
YearCountryDescriptionDeathsImage
1694 England – the third-rate was lost in a fierce storm on 1 March 1694 off Gibraltar. There were two survivors from a crew of 500.498
1120Kingdom of EnglandWhite Ship – Ship carrying the heir to the English Throne and the Duchy of Normandy, and more than 300 others. Drunk crew ran it aground in the English Channel. There were two survivors, and the loss was followed by 20 years of civil war over the English crown.300
1647 Dutch Republic – On 27 September 1647, Captain Bol mistook the Bristol Channel for the English Channel and ran it aground off the Mumbles, Wales where it broke apart. Of 107 passengers aboard, 21 survived.86

Wartime disasters

Disasters with great loss of life can occur in times of armed conflict. Shown below are some of the known events with major losses.
YearCountryDescriptionLives lostImage
Roman RepublicFirst Punic War – In the First Punic War, between the Roman Republic and Carthage, a Roman fleet that had just rescued a Roman army from Africa was caught in a Mediterranean storm.90,000+
1274
1281		Mongol EmpireKamikaze – The Mongol fleet destroyed by a typhoon.100,000+
1588Spanish Armada – On 8 August 1588, Philip II of Spain sent the Armada to invade England. Spain lost 15,000–20,000 soldiers and sailors, mainly in storms rather than battle.15,000–20,000
1589English Armada – Also known as the Counter Armada or the Drake-Norris Expedition, was a fleet of warships sent to the Iberian Coast by Queen Elizabeth I of England in 1589, during the Anglo-Spanish War and the Eighty Years' War. It was commanded by Sir Francis Drake as admiral and Sir John Norreys as general. The campaign resulted in the defeat of the English fleet and eventually to a withdrawal with great losses both in lives and ships.11,000–15,000
1588 – On 28 October 1588, as part of the Spanish Armada, the Spanish galleass Girona was sunk in a gale off Ireland. Of the estimated 1,300 people aboard, nine survived; 260 bodies were washed ashore.1,300
1564Mars – A Swedish warship that was sunk 18 kilometres north of Öland during the Northern Seven Years' War. The crown ship of King Eric XIV of Sweden's fleet. The gunpowder store exploded and as many as 1,000 people, including Swedes and the invading Lübeckians, died.900–1100
1692Kingdom of France – On 3 June 1692, in the Battle of La Hougue, the French flagship was attacked by 17 ships at Pointe du Hommet. The ship managed to repel them with artillery fire, but a fire ship set its stern afire and the fire soon reached its powder rooms. The people of Cherbourg came to the rescue, but there was only one survivor from 883–950 crew.882–949
1676 – In the Battle of Öland in 1676, the warship capsized while turning. Gunpowder aboard ignited and exploded. Of the estimated 800 aboard, 42 survived.758
1545 – The warship sank in the Battle of the Solent on 19 July 1545. The cause is unknown, but believed to have been due to water entering its open gunports. About 500 people were lost.480–520
1591England – After being captured in battle, the English galleon was lost in a storm near the Azores in 1591. An estimated 200 Spanish sailors who captured it were lost.200
1678Kingdom of FranceLas Aves disaster – on 11 May 1678 a French fleet commanded by Adm. Jean II d'Estrées was wrecked on the Las Aves archipelago in the Caribbean Sea due to an error in navigation. Nine of the fleets 30 ships were lost. Estimates of the lives lost vary wildly, from 24 to more than 1,500.24–1,500

18th century