Deadliest shipwreckings

As of 2026-10-12, Fleetwreck at Bornholm 1678 tops the list with 2,600 deaths.

1. #1 Fleetwreck at Bornholm 1678 — 2,600 deaths

   15 Swedish transport ships wrecked at Bornholm

   source Wikidata
2. #2 Awa Maru incident — 2,003 deaths source Wikidata
3. #3 sinking of the RMS Titanic — 1,501 deaths

   maritime disaster in the North Atlantic Ocean on the night of 14–15 April 1912

   RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912. The largest ocean liner in service at the time, Titanic was four days into her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United States, with over 2,200 people on board when she struck an iceberg at 23:40 on 14 April. She sank two hours and forty minutes later at 02:20 ship's time on 15 April, resulting in the deaths of up to 1,635 people, making it one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history. Read more on Wikipedia.

   Wikidata
4. #4 Shipwreck outside Visby 1566 — 1,400 deaths source Wikidata
5. #5 sinking of the RMS Lusitania — 1,197 deaths

   1915 World War I maritime disaster

   RMS Lusitania was a British-registered ocean liner that was torpedoed by an Imperial German Navy U-boat during the First World War on 7 May 1915, about 11 nautical miles off the Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland. The attack took place in the declared maritime war-zone around the United Kingdom, three months after unrestricted submarine warfare against the ships of the United Kingdom had been announced by Germany following the Allied powers' implementation of a naval blockade against it and the... Read more on Wikipedia.

   Wikidata
6. #6 sinking of the SS Tanais — 1,000 deaths source Wikidata
7. #7 Quebec Expedition — 890 deaths

   1711 military campaign

   The Quebec expedition was a British attempt to attack French-held Quebec City in mid-1711 during Queen Anne's War, the North American theatre of the War of the Spanish Succession. It failed when seven troopships and one storeship were wrecked and 890 soldiers, sailors and women drowned in one of the worst naval disasters in British history. Read more on Wikipedia.

   Wikidata
8. #8 sinking of the MS Estonia — 852 deaths

   disaster on the Baltic Sea on 28 September 1994

   MS Estonia, a cruiseferry operated by Estline, sank on Wednesday, 28 September 1994, between about 00:50 and 01:50 CEST (UTC+2) as the ship was crossing the Baltic Sea, en route from Tallinn, Estonia, to Stockholm, Sweden. The vessel was carrying 989 people, including 803 passengers and 186 crew, most of whom were Swedish and Estonian. Only 138 people were rescued, one of whom later died. Most victims succumbed to drowning or hypothermia in water around 10–11 °C (50–52 °F). In total,... Read more on Wikipedia.

   Wikidata
9. #9 sinking of the Ertuğrul — 587 deaths

   1890 sinking of the Ottoman warship Ertuğrul off the coast of Japan

   source Wikidata
10. #10 Sinking of Dongfang zhi Xing — 442 deaths

    Chinese ship sunk on 1 June 2015

    MV Dongfang zhi Xing was a river cruise ship that operated in the Three Gorges region of inland China. On the night of 1 June 2015, the ship was traveling on the Yangtze River when it capsized during a thunderstorm in Jianli, Hubei Province, with 454 people on board. On 13 June, 442 deaths were confirmed, with 12 survivors. The passengers were mostly in their 60s and 70s, and mostly from Nanjing, where the ship started its cruise. Read more on Wikipedia.

    Wikidata