What was the worst maritime disaster on record?

Answer 1

The worst maritime disaster of all time is the little known loss of the German liner MV Wilhelm Gustloff in January, 1945. She was fleeing Poland and the collapse of the Eastern Front laden with possibly as many as 10,000 German refugees when she was torpedoed by a Soviet submarine. Loss of life is estimated to have been between 7,700 and 7,800.

Wilhelm Gustloff is estimated to have been carrying close to four times her rated capacity, so she had not adequate rescue equipment for so many people, but it wouldn't have mattered. Like so many similar disasters (Lusitania in 1915 for example), being torpedoed on one side caused an almost instantaneous heavy list which made it impossible to launch.

Some sources give lower figures, with a death toll around 6,000, but either way, the disaster would still be the worst in history. There are several reasons possible why the sinking of Wilhelm Gustloff remains so little known. Among them: It was wartime, the worst war in history to date; Wilhelm Gustloff was full of fleeing Germans and Nazis and their families who had occupied land they had taken by force from other people, so history tends to judge them harshly; Germany lost the war, and since Germany started the war history tended to write off Wilhelm Gustloff as just another incident. Some historians, especially German historians, judge the Wilhelm Gustloff sinking to have been a war crime, but others argue that the Soviet skipper had no way of knowing that Gustloff was not a troop carrier and a legitimate target. History today considers that the loss of Wilhelm Gustloffwas just one more terrible, pointless consequence of a terrible war in which millions upon millions died.