Quote:
Originally Posted by Aktungbby
not a stellar day...move over Edmund Fitzgerald!
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Yes, the "Fitzgerald" was another example of a bulk carrier disaster. In the past few decades there have been dozens, maybe hundreds of bulk freighter disasters - often ships bigger than the "Titanic".
Thousands of sailors have been killed - usually because dishonest companies send bulk carriers out with poor maintenance. Sad thing is almost nobody cares - because many sailors are from 3rd World countries, and their families are usually too poor to sue the owners. Or generate publicity. Basically, you've got 30 - 40 men dying, month after month, with no media coverage.
There was one bulker disaster almost on my doorstep some years ago; the "Marine Electric" sank off the coast where I used to live. To make a long story short, the shipping company lied about their preventative maintenance. And sent more than 30 men to their deaths. The ship was 39 years old at the time of the disaster, and rusted through:
A few hundred miles north, another Bulker went missing in 1980, with 34 dead. And then in 2004 a bulk chemical tanker sank in the same area, with 21 more dead. Plus I'm sure you all heard about the "El Faro" recently, (although not a bulk carrier, another ship with maintenance problems and no survivors). And this is just the US East Coast.
