Original source : http://www.toptenz.net
Posted : July 2011
Author : Jeff Danelek
While literally millions of ships of all shapes and sizes
have been built over the centuries, only a handful have achieved anything approaching
fame. Most of those that have done so, however, were warships or vessels that
displayed such a degree of innovation that they were considered prototypes in
the evolution of ships. Other ships, however, achieved notoriety, not through
their accomplishments or because of their technological innovations, but
through catastrophic failure. In fact, the sea beds are littered with examples
of the power of both nature and the human propensity towards violence,
miscalculation, and simple bad luck. Of course, only a few vessels that met a
tragic fate are recalled by most people today, though their reasons for doing
so are as varied as the types of ships themselves: Some became famous as
vessels of war whose demise triggered a conflict or made such a major contribution
to a conflict that it was remembered in its own right; others became famous
because they carried huge fortunes in their holds when they went down or
because of the huge loss of life that resulted from their sinking. A few even
became famous because their loss was so unexpected and mysterious that they
became the stuff of legends. Unfortunately, there are literally dozens of
famous shipwrecks throughout history to choose from, making it difficult to
narrow it down to just ten, but this is my best effort.
