Amazing Sinking Ships Captured on Film

foreign we're all used to seeing sinking ships in the movies it's often really dramatic stuff ships exploding sliding out a view beneath the waves as people flail about on the surface but sometimes surprisingly real life could be even more dramatic Than Fiction ladies and gentlemen after a short break I'm still your friend Mike Brady from ocean liner designs and today I'm very excited to have partnered with Getty Images to go through their archive and find some incredible real-life footage of sinking ships caught on film [Music] thousands and thousands of ships have sunk through history but it was only recently that the camera has been around to be able to capture the drama of it all there's nothing that quite grips the imagination of a sinking ship some more so than others in 1956 the world's eyes were glued to their television screens as news came out from America and one of the newest most luxurious ships afloat had been lost beneath the waves after a collision that had cost some 46 lives now this is probably one of the most widely reported on-sinkings of all time because it happened with aircraft and helicopter Crews buzzing around filming the whole thing the SS Andrea dorio is a spectacular Floating Palace of a ship built for the Italian line with the rise of the airliner and a slowing down of Migrant numbers out of Europe Italian line intended to court the traveling public by building ships that were of exceptional quality and luxury instead of competing with Queen Elizabeth's size and United States immense speed Andrea Doria and her running mate christophorto Colombo were designed with comfort in mind over 12 million dollars in today's currency was spent on her interior design and Decor alone and of course the ship was fitted with all the modern safety features one could hope for all of this glamor and luxury mattered for little when in a dense fog on the 26th of July 1956 just five years into her service career Andrea Doria was rammed midships by the Swedish liner Stockholm and she began to slowly sink what happened next was an absolute media sensation rescue ships including the French liner ildefons rushed to the site and helicopters buzzed around by the time the camera Crews got to her Andrea Doria was mostly evacuated and listing heavily over in the water completely helpless for her part Stockholm remained afloat and was steaming for home with a grotesque wound her bowel completely telescoped and crushed beyond recognition what played out was an orderly evacuation fortunately Andrea doria's safety features kept the ship afloat long enough for most aboard to evacuate safely tragically nearly 50 people lost their lives mostly in the initial Collision when the Stockholm's bow had plunged deep into passenger State rooms and public areas the Andrea doria's list grew even more as water rushed into the ship and soon the crew who had remained aboard were forced to abandon their posts when the situation proved helpless some 10 hours after the Collision Andrea Doria was finally Pulled Under the waves the footage captured of the sinking ship is nothing short of remarkable you can see the port propeller completely exposed as the ship rolls onto her side and sinks bow first well the 1 500 people were rescued from the sinking vessel and taken back to New York mostly aboard the IL de France followed closely by the Stockholm herself Stockholm famously limped into New York Harbor missing her entire bow section incredibly a 14 year old girl had been found badly injured in the crushed bow section of Stockholm but she was not one of its passengers she'd been on the Andrea dorio and her cabin was smashed in when the two ships parted she had been somehow tossed onto and caught up in Stockholm's wrecked forward end originally hailing from Mexico she called out for her mother in Spanish when a Spanish-speaking crew member of stockholms was found she'd asked I was on the Andrea dorio where am I now she survived the encounter but tragically her little sister and her stepfather did not although she was reunited with her mother who had also been injured in the impact and waited for news of her daughters in New York Andrea doria's wreck was visited by divers within a few weeks of the sinking located easily by a huge slick of leaking oil divers took down a special underwater camera and filmed The Descent until there lying on her side they found the wreck you can see a Lifeboat David still with its white paint the divers can be seen fighting the strong currents here's one swimming past one of the emergency lights that hung out over the side of the ship high above the water line to help guide lifeboats down as they launched in the end most of the fault for the doria's loss was attributed to her own crew for having sped through the fog ignored the laws of the sea as far as giving way and not properly following radar procedures in 2016 the underwater exploration company Ocean Gate completed a survey of the wreck using its cyclops one submersible revealing that the ship is decayed significantly in that the superstructure is almost completely collapsed now just a few years before the Andrea Doria had been lost a cargo ship had been battling its way through a very nasty storm this was the C1 class cargo ship named Flying Enterprise built in 1944 as an American Cargo vessel after the war she had been sold off by the government to the esbrandston company and used as a general cargo ship for about five years in December 1951 she was steaming from Germany banned for the US when on Christmas night an enormous storm arose and battered the ship she fed badly in the Gale in an enormous wave possibly a rogue smashed into her bow and cracked her Hull flying Enterprise was carrying tons and tons of cargo ranging from Iron Ore coffee and even 12 Volkswagen cars and 10 passengers all now are engraved dangers the ship was smashed by monster waves and left drifting then horrifyingly the cargo shifted and the ship leaned over three or so days later the ship was listing way over to 45 degrees and a distress signal had been issued the British vessel and the Sherborne arrived on station first but incredibly flying into prizes Captain Carlson was reluctant to evacuate his passengers to a British vessel instead of an American one reasoning behind this isn't entirely clear the ship was carrying some interesting materials to be sure including zirconium which was used in the US nuclear program so maybe Carlson was reluctant to risk this material falling into the hands of a British Salvage crew whatever the case in the end an American warship arrived on scene but only just in time because the flying Enterprise was clearly losing its fight to stay afloat attempts to tow the flying Enterprise were made but in the end Captain Carlson abandoned his post and she sank dramatically beneath the waves the newsreel cameraman captured the whole drama the superstructure began to dip below she rolled onto her side Le bow still full of air lifted High into the sky before being dragged down one male passenger lost his life in the drama and flying Enterprise founded some 300 miles or 560 kilometers off Cornwall in the end about a fourth of the ship's cargo was salvaged Captain Carlson was hail as a hero for his efforts to save the beleagued ship despite his strange reluctance to disembark his passengers aboard a British vessel he was even given a ticker tape parade in New York he died an old man and had his ashes scattered at flying Enterprises wreckside and the whole drama presents us some of the most dramatic ship sinking footage ever captured on camera now aside from the Andrea Doria very very few ocean liners have ever actually been captured syncing on film but again it was the 1950s that proved itself to be the decade for that kind of thing when in 1953 The Dutch ocean liner clip Fontaine sank after colliding with a mystery object clip Fontaine had been built just before the outbreak of the second world war decently sized motorship she was powered by diesels and sat at around 10 500 gross registered tons and 520 feet or 158 meters in length the ship escaped the Nazi invasion during the second world war and served as a troop ship for almost seven years before finally being overhauled and introduced as a civilian ocean liner at the end of the war sailing from Amsterdam to Southern and Eastern Africa in 1953 the ship encountered some unknown underwater object what this even was remains a mystery to this day but it's thought to have been a reef or even the remains of a half sunken War wreck clip Fontaine rumbled in the water and began to flood rapidly Sinking by the bow her Captain ordered the boats uncovered and loaded with passengers fortunately the union Castle steamship bloemfontaine Castle was at hand to help with the evacuation and all passengers were got aboard safely not only that but a photographer aboard the ship managed to capture the final moments on film as the stricken Dutch liner plunged into the ocean and a Stone Rose dramatically up into the air this was watched in stunned ore by bloemfontaine castles passengers and clip fontaine's survivors who struggled to row their lifeboats in the choppy Seas in the end all 234 passengers were evacuated safely in their six lifeboats in a calm and orderly manner over the course of just one hour which is a pretty impressive effort Flash Forward from the 1950s to the year 1968 when a brand new very modern roll-on roll-off passenger Ferry was caught in a particularly nasty storm and lost with 53 lives wahine was a gorgeously proportioned and superbly modern style of Passenger and car ferry when first introduced in 1966. she was designed to carry passengers on the inter-island route New Zealand where the two main islands of the nation are separated by the notoriously volatile Cook Strait dozens of ships had been lost in the stretch of water some with very serious loss of life wahine was so modern comfortable and big that her introduction resulted in the retirement of two much older fairies on the route just two years after her introduction in April 1968 wahine set out from Littleton for a normal overnight Voyage to Wellington with 610 passengers and 123 crew on board while she was underway the unthinkable happened two massive violent storm fronts collided over New Zealand and merged creating an extra tropical Cyclone which has stood as the worst recorded in New Zealand's history wins roared in at 275 kilometers or 171 miles per hour tearing roofs off of houses and blowing trucks clean into the air at Sea wahine battled the wind and the waves but with a huge swell and barely under control the ship lost her radar and was pushed clean onto a reef she slammed and dragged her entire 8 000 ton bulk along the reef gouging out her still plates and opening her side clear to the water passengers mastered and put on their life jackets but outside the winds howled and the sea was driven into spray with the ship grounded fast and not in any danger of sinking her Captain dropped anchors and determined to try to cling to the Rocks until the wind and the weather died down enough to affect a rescue for around six and a half hours wahine held there until she was swung around and blown into deeper water she now began to list heavily into the pounding waves and the captain had no choice but to order his vessel finally abandoned only the boats on the starboard side closest to the water could be lowered but then something horrifying happened the first boat was capsized on launching and its occupants were thrown into the ocean and mostly lost life rafts were launched but the tiny craft were no match for the Towering waves and many who clung to them were Swept Away the ship rolled onto her starboard side and sank in only 28 feet or 12 meters of water groups of bedraggled passengers made their way ashore Frozen nearly solid by the wind and the spray some who made it ashore even died of exposure simply waiting for Rescue incredibly all these scenes were captured on film as rescue ships arrived to reveal the pathetic Hulk of the beautiful modern wahine stranded on the Rocks leaning hard over was broken up where she lay and sold for scrap in the end it was found that some areas of judgment and approach to Wellington Harbor had been made but crucially if the captain had ordered the abandoning of his ship any earlier or any later then more lives would have been lost because the storm was just that bad and he had found the one time where it was relatively safest to abandon ship now this next incredible bit of footage is extremely rare because it shows something really bizarre the sinking of a light ship these little vessels carried large beacons and lit the way for approaching ships but it also often put them In Harm's Way in August 1967 the newop light ship 83 was being towed for refit in the North Sea when she was somehow hit by passing polish tanker and began to take on water the crew were evacuated but then thinking they could save their ship the engineers and a skipper went back on board to do their best the tow line was attached but it was just too late because the point of no return was reached the small ship rolled over onto her starboard side a nearby vessel potentially a British tug captured the whole thing on camera including these amazing scenes of light ships engineers and Captain simply awaiting rescue sitting on the side of their capsized vessel but in the end after a 40-year long career the light ships slipped beneath the waves and was lost forever finally we'll end on what is in my opinion probably some of the most incredible bit of footage ever taken of anything that's the destruction the HMS Barham HMS Barham was one of the five legendary Queen Elizabeth class battleships laid down and launched during the first World War she'd served as a British Flagship and was present with the epic battle of Jutland and modernized during the 20s and 30s she was back in The Fray for the Second World War in November 1941 Barham was sailing in Convoy with other warships from the first battle Squadron with a heavy Destroyer Escort when their engine noise was picked up by a German U-boat u331 maneuvered herself into a position to attack when it itself was detected by one of the lead destroyers the sonar contact was disregarded as an error or a false reading in the German submarine slipped through the net it virtually Point Blank Range u331 fired all four of her bow torpedo tubes into the barham's side at just 345 meters or 410 yards distance all four Torpedoes hit home in virtually the same spot on byram's Hull completely overwhelming any kinds of armor or anti-torpedo bulges and opening her machine spaces to the ocean the ship immediately began to roll onto a port side as her crew desperately tried to escape simply no time to lower the lifeboats sparrum simply rolled out from underneath them trapping many of the men inside then there's a funnel which still gouted thick black smoke began to slip beneath the waves there was a Flash and her powder magazines erupted like a volcano blowing out the side of a mountain Byram simply disintegrated as a main magazines detonated in a Flash hundreds of men who had still been clinging to the ship's side was simply vaporized horrifically some 862 men were lost with their proud ship [Music] from the Destroyer HMS Valiant the news cameraman filmed the entire thing in one shot but the world would not see this footage for years the catastrophic destruction of HMS Byron was thought by the British admiralty to have potential to be such a devastating blow to morale that any spread of its news was heavily censored several weeks later next of kin messages were sent out finally but any mention of the ship's loss was minimized and even then the letters included a warning not to discuss the vessel's loss three months later the admiralty was at last forced to admit that the ship had sunk for the newsreel footage of the explosion was kept Under Wraps until well after the war had ended and it was at last screened to a curious General Public foreign ladies and gentlemen it's your friend Mike Brady from ocean liner designs thank you so much for watching this video If you enjoyed it please leave a comment below don't forget to subscribe to the channel because we get new videos out weekly if you want to support my work and get really cool perks like behind the scenes and Early Access please visit my patreon in the link in the description below or sign up as a YouTube member come and join the crew as always stay safe stay happy I'll see you again next time

Channel: Oceanliner Designs

Views: 797,079

Keywords: great ocean liners, maritime history, ocean liners, famous oceanliners, ships documentary, history of ships, engineering, history, ships, documentary, origins explained, world history project, animated history, open educational resources, titanic, shipwreck, sinking, boats, ocean, disaster, tragedy

Id: lTTCBOsLC7g

Length: 18min 2sec (1082 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 13 2023