Tag: Maritime History

Claiming the title of the most high-level shipwreck in history, Titanic is far more than a famous tragic story as it redefined the concept of maritime safety and led to the adoption of SOLAS Convention.

Almost seven months after the Japanese capsize bulk carrier MV Wakashio ran aground in an environmentally sensitive area off Mauritius, several scenarios as to what led to the incident have come to the surface, but an official cause of the accident is yet to be determined.

The Philippines has a long history of fatal maritime accidents. This time, SAFETY4SEA focuses on the deadly sinking of the ‘Princess of the Orient’. The ferry sank off Fortune Island, near the provinces of Cavite and Batangas, on September 18, 1998, claiming the lives of 150 people.

SAFETY4SEA remembers the hijacking of the cruise ship ‘Achille Lauro’ in 1985 by four heavily armed Palestinian militants who posed as passengers, resulting to the brutal murder of one passenger. The attack lasted only two days but spurred a global concern over the shaping dimensions of maritime terrorism.

Taking lives of over 1,000 people, the sinking of the RoRo ferry Al-Salam Boccaccio 98 remains a good example of study as poor emergency procedures resulted to deaths of over 1,000 people and spurred widespread criticism of the crew, as well as the owner company.

The fatal capsizing of the oil platform Alexander L. Kielland in the North Sea is the worst disaster in Norwegian offshore history since World War II. Losing one of its five legs amid a storm, the platform took lives of 123 people.

It has been over two years since the US Navy was shaken by two successive collisions involving US navy ships and claiming lives of 17 sailors. As part of its lessons learned series, SAFETY4SEA focuses today on the collision between the USS Fitzgerald with a merchant ship which pushed the US Navy to redefine its approach on safety.

Over 30 years after the Piper Alpha oil platform suffered multiple explosions off Scotalnd taking lives of 167 people, SAFETY4SEA analyzes the North Sea disaster which made the oil and gas industry to look safety in new terms.

The sinking of the Amoco Cadiz in 1978 came to claim again the title of the world’s worst oil spill, putting another dark spot in the environmental record of shipping.

At the time of the incident, the ship was carrying 989 people, of whom 852 lost their lives. When the MS Estonia sank it shook the shipping industry, due to its unprecedented extent in the number of victims, and the damage it was caused.