On September 30^th, 1659 the story is told how Robinson Crusoe shipwrecked on an island 40 miles at sea and spent the next 28 years there. The story of Robinson Crusoe was first published in 1719 and is perhaps one of the first English Novels published. Variations of the story have been retold including the Swiss Family Robinson. But since it all started on this day with a shipwreck, we’ll look at some of the more famous shipwrecks from history.

1. The RMS Titanic – This shipwreck was famously caused by an iceberg in April of 1912. It attracted quite a bit of media attention both because of the size of the ship, but also because of the unsinkable claims.

2. SS Edmund Fitzgerald – I admit, I only know about this one because of Gordon Lightfoot. For those of you who haven’t heard the song, check it out here. While only 29 sailors died in 1975, the song has immortalized the ship.

3. SS Andrea Doria – one of the last transatlantic liners still running before airplanes became more affordable and much faster. The Andrea Doria collided with the Stockholm off Nantucket, MA in heavy fog in July of 1956. While there were over 1700 people on the Doria, only 46 died due to the Stockholm staying and shuttling survivors to their ship and the quickness with other ships responded.

4. USS Arizona/Utah – Both ships were sunk in Pearl Harbor during the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941.

5. Mary Rose – one of the oldest known shipwrecks, having gone down in 1545, off the coast of the UK. It was raised out of the silt in 1982 with an estimated 60 million people watching and was sprayed extensively to prevent further rot. It is now drying, getting ready for display.

6. Bismark – the largest warship the Germans had in WWII, it sunk the British flag ship, the “Hood” in just a few minutes in 1941, causing Winston Churchill to order, “Sink the Bismark”. Quite a chase ensued and after a fairly lucky torpedo hit, the Bismark could only go in a slow circle. The British closed in and finished off the huge warship, or it least damaged it to a point, rather than risk capture, the boat was scuttled, at least according to some. The phrase, “Sink the Bismark” lives on in song and as a film by that name.

7. RMS Lusitania – sunk in 1915 by a German Torpedo. While not an American ship, the 128 Americans who died on board were remembered and put the US on the road to entering the first World War. Many of the Americans who died were prominent in some way (the head of both US Rubber and the US Chemical Corporation died). It should be noted that the Lusitania’s captain would have received a cash bonus for ramming a German sub.

8. PT-109 – The patrol ship that was sunk on a very insignificant skirmish during WWII. Rather than being shot, they were simply run over, almost by accident. If John F. Kennedy hadn’t been on the boat, we’d never even have heard of it, but he was, and by saving a crew member, he became a war hero and we all know the rest of that story.

9. MS Estonia – a fairly recent shipwreck, going down in 1994 probably due to rough weather and claiming 852 lives. But of course, there are rumors that something more happened, but nothing was ever proven.

10. H.L. Hunley – Confederate Submarine, the first submarine to sink a ship in battle, although it sunk itself shortly afterwards. The sub recovered with the help of Clive Cussler, one of my favorite authors. While he claims credit for discovering sub, there is still a debate regarding this, but he most certainly provided the financing to recover it. He used the story in his novel, “Flood Tides”.