Wikipedia a few days ago had a featured article about the S.S. Arctic sinking with great loss of life in 1854.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Arctic_disaster
Anyway, it really did touch my heart the way those people died, especially that poor captain seeing his own son killed by the paddlewheel case.
And it piqued my curiosity about sea ship disasters over all. I grew up hearing about the Titanic and knew about the Edmund Fitzgerald (on the great lakes though). I looked up this article about ships sinking in one small part of the world:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_shipwrecks_of_Cornwall_(19th_century)
That seems like a *whole* lot of ships sinking for various reasons. I know I do not know the different types of ships, their sizes, ect and I know the tech was not as high back then today as it is now. But were the ships back then perhaps built quickly without regard for safety of the crew or was that just the nature of seafaring and the available tech back then consequently resulting in the sinking of many vessels? Could they have been built safer and more durable even back then?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Arctic_disaster
Anyway, it really did touch my heart the way those people died, especially that poor captain seeing his own son killed by the paddlewheel case.
And it piqued my curiosity about sea ship disasters over all. I grew up hearing about the Titanic and knew about the Edmund Fitzgerald (on the great lakes though). I looked up this article about ships sinking in one small part of the world:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_shipwrecks_of_Cornwall_(19th_century)
That seems like a *whole* lot of ships sinking for various reasons. I know I do not know the different types of ships, their sizes, ect and I know the tech was not as high back then today as it is now. But were the ships back then perhaps built quickly without regard for safety of the crew or was that just the nature of seafaring and the available tech back then consequently resulting in the sinking of many vessels? Could they have been built safer and more durable even back then?