These Are the Worst Disasters in Naval History

The USS Maine, a battleship, blew up without warning in Havana harbor on Feb. 15, 1898, killing 266 men. The U.S. government claimed the USS Maine had been attacked by Spanish interests because of tensions between the two countries. Briefly thereafter, the U.S. declared war on Spain. The war eventually triggered the U.S. ownership of the Philippines and Puerto Rico.

RMS Lusitania was sunk by a German U-boat on May 7, 1915. A total of 1,198 lives were lost. Was this a naval disaster? RMS Lusitania was a passenger ship, which the Germans claimed it carried British munitions. Among the major repercussions of the sinking of Lusitania is that many of the passengers were American. The event pushed America closer to joining the war.

The sinking of German military transport MV Wilhelm Gustloff by a Soviet submarine on Jan. 30, 1945, was probably the deadliest sinking of a single ship. Over 9,000 people were killed, half of which were children. Many of the people onboard were fleeing the advancing Soviet army. Those onboard were people from several nations, including Poland and Croatia. Prior to the war, the MV Wilhelm Gustloff was a cruise ship.

ARA General Belgrano was an Argentine cruiser, sold to the South American country by the U.S. Navy during the Falklands War. The war began with the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands, which were U.K. territories and lasted from April 2 – June 14, 1982. ARAGeneral Belgranowas was considered among the largest threats to the Royal Navy. It was sunk on May 2, 1982, by a British submarine. Over 300 lives were lost. Without the ship, the effectiveness of the Argentine military effort was badly crippled, and they kept most of the balance of its ships in port.

The Indianapolis, a heavy cruiser, delivered internal components for the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. A Japanese submarine sank it on June 30, 1945. Over 500 men died, many of them from shark attacks. Among the horrible lessons of the Indianapolis is that the Navy could completely lose track of one of its largest ships for an extended period. It took five days for the first rescuers to find the ship.

One of the greatest sea battles of all time was the Battle of Jutland in World War I. Fought between the German and British navies, one result was the destruction of the huge HMS Invincible. Between the British and German navies, over 8,000 men were killed. The sinking of the Invincible proved that battleships, considered nearly indestructible, could be sunk in a matter of minutes when hit in areas where they kept munitions.

Napoleon hoped to heavily damage the British Navy, which was the primary threat to his control of the major ports around Europe. The Orient was the French flagship during The Battle of the Nile. Fought on Aug. 1-3, 1789, the British fleet was under the command of Horatio Nelson, one of the most important officers in British naval history. The British had 13 ships to the French 14. One of the key moments of the battle was when the Orient exploded, leaving the French without their largest ship.

The Bismarck was the pride of the German navy. Launched in 1939, it had huge 15 inch guns. In early 1941, the British decided to pursue and sink the Bismarck so it could not menace the Atlantic shipping lanes with North America. In the Battle of the Denmark Strait, the Bismarck sank the U.K. battlecruiser HMS Hood on May 24. Over 1,400 sailors were killed. British ships found the Bismarck and sank it three days later, killing another 2,200 men.

By far the largest disaster in American naval history, the bombing of the Hawaiian naval base of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 was the event that brought the U.S. into World War II. Over 2,400 Americans were killed. The surprise attack by the Japanese damaged a number of ships, including eight battleships that were the pride of the U.S. navy. Without the USS Arizona, USS Oklahoma, USS West Virginia, USS California, USS Nevada, USS Tennessee, USS Maryland, USS Pennsylvania, the disaster left America almost defenseless in the Pacific.

The Battle of Midway was fought between aircraft carriers of the Japanese and American navies. The battle was critical to the fate of which country would control the Pacific Ocean. The U.S. Navy was almost completely crippled by Pearl Harbor. If the Japanese had won the engagement, it would require years for America to retake the Pacific, if it could at all. Nations involved: Japan and U.S.