The largest catastrophes in the sea of the twentieth century

More than two thirds of the surface of our planet is occupied by the ocean. For mankind since ancient times with him a complex relationship. The desire to dominate, to feel like a conqueror, too often turns into consequences of unforeseen and sad.

An example of aggressively aggressive attitude towards the water environment is the Aral Sea. The catastrophe happened in the sixties, half a century ago it occupied the fourth place among the closed reservoirs after Victoria, the Great Lakes and the Caspian, two ports worked on its shores, industrial fishing was carried out, and tourists rested on the beaches. Today, unfortunately, this prosperity is reminiscent only of helplessly lying keels in the sand of the court. Victory such a completion of relations with the water environment to name the language somehow does not turn.

The ocean is severe, it is cruel. Catastrophes at sea have occurred since the teams of the first ships dared to go on a long and dangerous path. Even experienced sailors know that luck is changeable, and that is why they often believe in signs and are superstitious.

By the number of victims of the disaster at sea inferior to road traffic, rail and air transport, but from this they are no less terrible. The death of the Titanic in 1912 (1,503 victims), the Empress of Ireland airliner in 1914 (1,012 victims), the Eastland offshore steamship (over 1,300 victims), the Randas ferry in 1947 (625 dead) Ferries "Taiping" and "Jin-Yuan" in 1949 (more than 1500 left to the bottom) - here is a short list of only the first half of the XX century.

Later, other catastrophes occurred at sea, including the death of the nuclear submarines Tresher and Kursk. They became the causes of hundreds of human casualties.

For the last three decades, sixteen large-tonnage tourist vessels have been under water. For reasons of technical malfunctions, due to errors, and sometimes neglect of important safety rules, the ferry "Estonia", "Costa Concordia" was lost.

Particularly shocking are the disasters in the Black Sea, which are considered shallow and relatively safe. Mysterious explosion in peacetime on the battleship "Novorossiysk" in 1955, which killed 614 Soviet sailors, a collision with the dry cargo ship "Petr Vasev" of the steamship "Admiral Nakhimov" (423 dead) is comparable to the losses in the death of fascist bombs transport "Lenin" or torpedo Soviet boat of the German ship "Goya" in 1945.

Experienced sailors consider the most terrible of all possible causes of the disaster at sea, paradoxically it sounds like a fire. It seems that the fire can be easily extinguished when there is so much water around, but it is not. In 1967, a spontaneous launch of an air-to-air missile took place aboard the aircraft carrier James Forrestal. The planes, ready for combat sorties, caught fire, the fire brigade started extinguishing, but the ammunition spontaneously ignited before it was stipulated by the regulations. From the pierced tanks flowed burning kerosene, which the sailors tried to put out sea water. Since the sailors trained in the fire department died in the blast, the survivors did not know that this could not be done. As a result, flaming fuel penetrated into the crew cabins, where the team members slept.

Will the list of those taken by the sea continue? How great will the losses be in the 21st century? While we do not know. It is only known that the ocean does not forgive mistakes and carelessness.