Blunders and Disasters at Sea

by David Blackmore

Overview

As any sailor knows, life at sea is hazardous under even normal circumstances. In times of war with an enemy intent on killing and sinking you it is infinitely more so.

David Blackmore has researched 100 extreme cases over the span of history and written graphic descriptions covering the background, the events and the tragic consequences.

Many were the result of enemy action, others (too many) straight human error and the remainder were caused by act of God, not least the weather.

Examples include the Syracuse Harbour disaster (BC413), the rout at Aboutir Bay (1798), and the Prince of Wales/Repulse sinking due to lack of air cover (1941). All make for fascinating and informative reading.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781844151172
Publisher:	Pen and Sword
Publication date:	11/19/2004
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.10(d)

Table of Contents

	Prologue	1
Part 1	Antiquity and the Classical Epoch	3
	1176 BCE - Ambush in the Nile Delta	5
	492 BCE - Shipwreck on Mount Athos	6
	480 BCE - Sleepless at Salamis	7
	429 BCE - Want of Practice at Naupactus	10
	413 BCE - Disaster in Syracuse Harbour	12
	405 BCE - Advice Rejected at Aegespotomi	14
	255 BCE - Shipwreck on Sicily	15
	249 BCE - Sacrilege at Drepanum	16
	November 61 - Sailing to Rome out of Season	17
	March 549 - The Battle of the Tiber Boom	19
Part 2	The Medieval & Renaissance Ages	21
	November 1084 - Lack of Ballast at Corcyra	23
	November 1120 - Tipsy Navigators at Barfleur	23
	May 1213 - Unguarded at Damme	24
	November 1274 - Typhoon at Dazaifu	26
	August 1281 - Shinto Prayers at Imari Bay	26
	June 1340 - Immobility at Sluys	28
	January 1500 - Imperial Fiat	30
	July 1545 - Open Gunports at Spithead	32
	July 1588 - The Spanish Armada	36
	January 1614 - Fire on the Hudson River	40
	August 1628 - Open Gunports off Stockholm	40
	June 1667 - Raid on the Thames Estuary	42
	June 1676 - Signal Confusion off Oland	43
	May 1678 - Innovative Navigation	44
Part 3	Early Modern Times	45
	October 1707 - Lack of a Reliable Timekeeper	47
	February 1744 - Wrong Man Convicted?	48
	April 1756 - Inflexibility off Minorca	50
	August 1782 - Barrels of Rum at Portsmouth	51
	January 1795 - Hussars on the Ijsselmeer	53
	August 1798 - Inadequate Precautions at Aboukir Bay	57
	October 1803 - Uncharted Waters off Tripoli	60
	February 1813 - Impetuosity in Chesapeake Bay	62
	July 1816 - Callous Inhumanity off Senegal	64
	November 1820 - Cetacean Reprisal in Mid-Pacific	66
	October 1827 - Misunderstandings at Navarino Bay	69
	February 1847 - No Celestial Observation (1)	71
	August 1847 - No Celestial Observation (2)	72
	February 1852 - Women and Children First	73
Part 4	The Late Nineteenth Century	75
	May 1855 - The Verdict was Manslaughter	77
	September 1858 - Excess Ventilation in Mid-Atlantic	78
	September 1860 - Inadequate Navigation Rules on Lake Michigan	79
	April 1865 - Overworked and Overburdened on the Mississippi	82
	July 1871 - Mental Aberration in Gibraltar Bay	85
	September 1871 - Overrigged and Unstable in the Bay of Biscay	86
	July 1873 - Compass Deviation on the Atlantic	88
	August 1888 - Inattention on the Atlantic	89
	March 1889 - National Pride at Apia	90
	June 1893 - Miscalculation off Syria	92
	February 1898 - Blown-Up in Havana Harbour	94
	May 1898 - Defeatism at Manila Bay	95
Part 5	Recent Times	97
	June 1904 - Criminal Negligence on the East River	99
	October 1904 - Panic Reaction on the North Sea	100
	May 1914 - Foggy Confusion on the Saint Lawrence	103
	September 1914 - The Price of Giving Aid on the North Sea	106
	October 1914 - The Price of Withholding Aid on the North Sea	107
	January 1915 - Signal Confusion at Dogger Bank	108
	February 1915 - Timidity at the Dardanelles	111
	May 1915 - Atlantic Travel Warning Ignored	113
	December 1917 - Passing on the Wrong Side at Halifax	115
	March 1918 - Friendly Fire over the English Channel	116
	September 1923 - Follow the Leader to Honda Point	117
Part 6	The Second World War - the Axis Ascendant	119
	July 1937 - The Conflict Begins	121
	October 1939 - Submarine Infiltration of Scapa Flow	121
	June 1940 - Airborne Death at Saint-Nazaire	124
	February 1940 - Friendly Fire over the North Sea	126
	September 1941 - Submarine Action in the Sicily Strait	128
	December 1941 - Lack of Air Cover in the Gulf of Siam	129
	January 1942 - Anglophobia on the Eastern Sea Frontier	131
	February 1942 - Fire in New York Harbour	134
	February 1942 - A Pyramid of Blunders in the Channel	135
	June 1942 - The Wrong Munitions at Midway	146
	July 1942 - Centralized Interference with an Arctic Convoy	148
	October 1942 - Preoccupation in Mid-Atlantic	150
	November 1942 - Critical Delay at Tassafaronga	152
Part 7	The Second World War - the Allies Strike Back	157
	April 1944 - Surface Infiltration off the Devon Coast	159
	September 1944 - POW Nightmare off Sumatra	161
	December 1944 - Inaccurate Meteorology in the Pacific	162
	January 1945 - Acts of War or Russian War Crimes?	166
	April 1945 - Breach of Trust or American War Crime?	167
	May 1945 - Tragic Error or British War Crime?	169
	June 1945 - Aerological Lessons Unlearned	170
	July 1945 - Overlooked and Forgotten in Mid-Pacific	172
	August 1945 - Japanese War Crime	175
Part 8	The Current Period	177
	December 1948 - Lurking Leftover in the Wangpoo River	179
	September 1949 - 'Wrongful Default' at Toronto	180
	January 1950 - 'Avoidance of Responsibility' at Norfolk	182
	July 1956 - Reliance on Technology off New York	184
	May 1967 - Excessive Secrecy off the Sinai	187
	January 1968 - Embarrassment off North Korea	189
	August 1971 - Embarrassment at Athens	191
	May 1982 - Self-Defence or Another War Crime?	191
	March 1987 - 'The Disease of Sloppiness' off Zeebrugge	192
	December 1987 - Uncertificated Officers off Mindoro	194
	December 1991 - Overconfidence on the Red Sea	195
	September 1994 - Designed for Disaster	196
	August 2 - Pipe Fracture under the Barents Sea	198
	September 2002 - Overload off Senegal	201
	December 2002 - Four Times Looks Like Carelessness	202
	Epilogue	206
	Appendices	207
Appendix A	The Recovery of Mary Rose	209
Appendix B	The Spanish Armada and its English Opponents	209
Appendix C	Blok's Explorations	211
Appendix D	Raising Vasa	211
Appendix E	Eighteenth Century Navigation	212
Appendix F	The Race to Calculate Longitude	213
Appendix G	The Development of Steam-Powered Ironclads	214
Appendix H	One Survivor's Story	216
Appendix I	A Daring Cutting-out Operation	217
Appendix J	Theories about the Maine Explosion	218
Appendix K	Navigation Lights, Rules of the Road, Fog Signals	218
Appendix L	Questions about the Lusitania	219
Appendix M	Second World War Incidents involving over 1000 deaths	220
Appendix N	Captain McVay's Trial and Exoneration	225
Appendix O	Salvaging USS Missouri	227
Appendix P	The Fate of SS Stockholm	227
Appendix Q	New Evidence Regarding the Liberty Incident	228
Appendix R	Controversy over the Estonia Incident	229
Appendix S	Salvaging Kursk and Tricolor	230
	Notes	232
	Index	236