Shipwrecks that have gone down in history…
Written by Maria Eleni Patsarou B4, Marilena Roussou B4,
Chrisallida Skaramaga B5
It's not just the Titanic that became a legend after its sinking on April 15, 1912. There are other ships that went down in history for different reasons. Their legend, however, was created when they sank.
1. MV Dona Paz, Philippines, 1987: 4,375 dead.
Whatever could go wrong went wrong concerning the Dona Paz ferry on December 20, 1987. The number of deaths is truly unreal, making this tragedy not only the largest naval accident in history but one of the largest in general. Only earthquakes and tsunamis have surpassed the number of deaths of this accident. How did this happen? First of all, passengers, as one understands by the number of deaths, were overwhelmingly enormous. The ship could carry 1,424 people and crew, but that day had more than 4,400 on it! As if this was not enough, the ship was in a collision course, on the way from the Tankloban to Manila, with a small tanker, immediately bursting on fire. It was night, so most passengers were asleep. Yet even those who were awake had no hope. The ship sank in two hours from the time the fire broke out and most of them dived in the water. The sea may not have been too cold even though we were in the heart of December because of its latitude, but it was even more dangerous: sharks. The Philippine authorities learned about the incident eight hours after and ... it took another eight hours to organize a rescue mission! Eventually, only 21 Dona Paz passengers and 13 of Vector staff were saved. Of the bodies that were collected, only 21 were identifiable and only one of them had a ticket for the ship, making the authorities believe that it is likely that the actual number of passengers and thus the dead would be even bigger! However, this tragedy never got so much publicity like the wreck of the Titanic! It's different to die as a rich British or American and another a poor Filipino!
