In Titanic's Shadow

Download or read book In Titanic's Shadow written by David L. Williams and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2012-10-01 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While the near 1,500 victims of Titanic accounted for a huge loss of life, each of the ships here had a greater number of casualties, in some cases more than five times as many. In total, these 27 merchant ship sinkings resulted in a staggering loss of life at sea – more than 96,000 in total, 3,840 per ship. While the circumstances were different to Titanic, the outcome in each case was no less tragic. Yet, despite the fact that Titanic ranks behind so many other losses, so powerful has her name become that it was the inevitable choice to describe some of these other events, 'Germany's Titanic' and 'The Titanic of Japan' being two examples. Ships include the Lancastria, Britain's worst maritime disaster with 3,000 lost; the Ryusei Maru, a Japanese 'Hellship' loaded with 6,000 Allied POWs, torpedoed by a US submarine; and the Wilhelm Gustloff, a German liner packed with 7,800 civilians, sunk by a Russian submarine. There were no survivors and this tragedy was the worst maritime disaster of all time.