Six bodies have been recovered and sixteen people were still unaccounted for on Monday from the cruise liner Costa Concordia, which hit rocks and badly listed near the Italian island of Giglio late on Friday.
Following is a timeline of some of the world’s major peacetime shipping disasters since the Titanic sank 100 years ago:
April 15, 1912 – CANADA – The White Star passenger liner Titanic sank on its maiden voyage off Newfoundland after hitting an iceberg. Of the 2,228 passengers and crew aboard the ship, dubbed "unsinkable" before departure, 1,523 died.
May 29, 1914 – CANADA – At least 1,012 people were killed when The Empress of Ireland passenger liner collided with a Norwegian freighter on the St. Lawrence River in Canada. It was carrying 1,057 passengers and 420 crew.
Oct. 25, 1927 – ATLANTIC – The luxury Italian liner Principessa Mafalda was headed for Rio de Janeiro from Cape Verde islands with 288 crew and 971 passengers when it caught fire and sank off the Brazilian coast. More than 300 people, many of whom were Italian immigrants, died.
Jan. 31, 1953 – The Princess Victoria sank in the North Channel (between Scotland and Northern Ireland) during a severe storm. About 133 people were killed.
Oct. 29, 1955 – RUSSIA – The Novorossiysk, flagship of the Black Sea squadron of the Soviet Navy, was moored near the shore at Sevastopol. It exploded and then capsized and sank with the loss of 609 crew.
July 25, 1956 – UNITED STATES – The Swedish American Line’s Stockholm and the Italian Line’s Andrea Doria collided 45 miles off the coast of Nantucket Island in the United States. The Stockholm lost five crew members, while the Andrea Doria sank, losing 45 passengers out of the 1,134 who were on board.
April 22, 1980 – PHILIPPINES – The inter-island ferry Don Juan, en route from Manila to Bacolod, sank in the Tablas Strait off Mindoro Island after it collided with the barge Tacloban City. At least 1,000 died.
Aug. 31, 1986 – SOVIET UNION – Passenger liner Admiral Nakhimov collided with cargo ship Pyotr Vasev off the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. Between passengers and crew, 423 people died.
March 6, 1987 – BRITAIN – The car ferry Herald of Free Enterprise capsized and sank shortly after leaving the Belgian port of Zeebrugge. The vessel had 463 passengers and crew on board when it left the port with its bow doors still open, and 193 were killed.
Dec. 20, 1987 – PHILIPPINES – In the worst peacetime sea tragedy, the ferry Dona Paz sank after colliding with the tanker Vector in the Sibuyan Sea, killing 4,375 on the ferry and 11 of the Vector’s 13-man crew.
April 11, 1991 – ITALY – 140 people on board the Italian ferry the Moby Prince died with only one crew member surviving when it rammed an anchored oil tanker, the Agip Abruzzo.
Dec. 15, 1991 – EGYPT – 464 people were killed when the Salem Express hit coral outside the port of Safaga, 600 km (375 miles) southeast of Cairo in the Red Sea.
Sept. 28, 1994 – ESTONIA/FINLAND – In Europe’s worst peacetime maritime disaster, 852 people drowned when the Estonia, carrying 989 people, sank off the Finnish island of Utoe, en route from Tallinn to Stockholm.
Dec. 2, 1994 – ITALY – The luxury liner Achille Lauro sank about 250 km (150 miles) off Somalia, more than two days after catching fire. The ship had been hijacked in 1985 by Palestinians, who killed an elderly Jewish-American passenger, wheelchair-bound Leon Klinghoffer, and dumped his body overboard.
Feb. 3, 2006 – EGYPT – The ferry Al-Salam Bocaccio 98, on a journey between Duba in Saudi Arabia and Safaga in Egypt, sank 90 km (56 miles) from Safaga after a fire broke out on the car deck. Of the 1,414 people aboard, 1,026 were killed.
June 21, 2008 – PHILIPPINES – The Philippine passenger and cargo vessel Princess of the Stars sank off Romblon province in central Philippines after being hit by a typhoon. It is thought only 52 of the 825 onboard survived.
Jan. 13, 2012 – ITALY – The Costa Concordia, a six-year old, 114,500 tonne luxury cruise liner, hit rocks and keeled over. It was carrying 4,229 passengers and crew.
