Because the sinking of the Titanic has generated a great deal of publicity, many people have come to believe that it was the worst ship disaster of all time. It wasn't. The greatest loss of life on a single ship occurred when the German liner the Wilhelm Gustloff was torpedoed by a Russian submarine in January 1945. The Wilhelm Gustloff was a converted luxury liner serving as a hospital ship. On the fateful night it was sunk, it was crammed with refugees, mostly women and children, and about 1,600 military personnel. Although there is no surviving record of the actual number of people on board, the most widely accepted estimate claims there were 8,600 of whom 7,700 were killed. There were only 903 survivors.
Prior to World War II, the Wilhelm Gustloff was the flagship of Germany's fleet of passenger liners. It had been docked for four years when the commander of the German submarine fleet ordered the evacuation of submarine personnel because of the approach of the Russian army. In January 1945, people started boarding the ship. With the German army collapsing, submarine personnel, injured soldiers, and refugees eagerly clambered aboard to escape the advancing Russians. The loading was chaotic and many parents were separated from their children. Life preservers were available for only slightly more than half of the passengers.
It was -14 degrees Fahrenheit when the ship left the harbour, and layers of ice began covering the deck.
The ship was just 28miles from the Baltic town of Leba when the Russian torpedoes hit. People panicked and many plunged overboard into the icy water. Other passengers were trampled to death in the ensuing panic. Most of the ice-covered lifeboats couldn't be lowered and of those that could, some were snagged by the bowline and spilled screaming people into the water. Other passengers chose suicide and shot themselves rather than suffer death through drowning. Thousand clung to the ship screaming for help as it sank faster and faster until it slipped beneath the waves. Then the screaming stopped and there was a deathly silence.
The greatest single ship disaster of all time was over in less than an hour.
Although approximately 1,500 people died when the Titanic sank, not many people know that in addition to the Wilhelm Gustloff, there were 19 other ship disasters that resulted in a greater loss of life than the Titanic.
The Goya, a converted German passenger ship, was hit by Russian torpedoes just before midnight on April 16, 1945. The ship broke in half almost immediately. Its masts splintered and fell, crushing passengers on the decks. Icy water rushed into the holds, drowning everyone in them. The Goya sank in just four minutes, with the deaths of 6,200 people.
A converted German passenger liner, the General von Steuben, was also sunk by a Russian submarine in 1945. Crammed with wounded soldiers and refugees, it sank in just 7minutes. Between 2,700 and 3,500 passengers died.
The Cap Arcona was another converted German passenger ship, loaded with inmates from evacuated concentration camps. In 1945 it was sunk by a British fighter bomber while moored in the harbor. Between 5,000 and 7,000 people lost their lives.
These three German ships alone account for the deaths of between 13,900 and 16,700 people.
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