Pictures: 5 Cruise Ship Disasters That Changed Travel

R.M.S. Titanic

Photograph by Emory Kristof, National Geographic

"Rusticles" coat the railing of the sunken R.M.S. Titanic (file picture), which sank in the North  Atlantic during the ship's maiden voyage from Southampton, U.K., to New York City on April 15, 1912.

More than 1,500 people died in the disaster, largely because the White Star cruise line outfitted the ship with only enough lifeboats for about half the people aboard.

"That was extremely ill advisable," said Maxtone-Graham, author of the new book Titanic Tragedy: A New Look at the Lost Liner, due in March.

To make matters worse, no lifeboat drill involving passengers was performed before the Titanic set out, and many of the oars in the available lifeboats were so new that they were still tied with twine.

"When people got in the boat that night, some of them had a hard time getting the oars rigged," said Maxtone-Graham.

As a result of the Titanic disaster, modern cruise liners now must carry enough lifeboats for all of the passengers on board.

Many observers and survivors of the Costa Concordia have compared that accident to that of the Titanic. Some of those comparisons are justified, said National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Robert Ballard, who discovered the wreck of the Titanic in 1985.

"Both of their captains showed poor judgment," Ballard said.

Published January 18, 2012

Star Princess

Photograph from Reuters TV

Charred, the cruise ship Star Princess heads into port in Montego Bay, Jamaica, in March 2006.

The Star Princess fire, begun on a private balcony, was likely the victim of a cigarette burn gone very wrong. "The rubber matting that covered the balconies was fabricated from crude oil, and it was flammable," Maxtone-Graham said.

"What was amazing was that the fire spread the length of the deck, jumped from balcony to balcony, and then up two more decks."

The fire was eventually put out, and the Star Princess was repaired. The ship now has sprinklers on all of its balconies—and the UN's International Maritime Organization has since adopted a new code requiring more fire-resistant cabin balconies.

Published January 18, 2012

S.S. Morro Castle

Photograph from New York Daily News/Getty Images

A barge sprays tons of water to douse the S.S. Morro Castle cruise ship after it caught fire in the early morning hours of September 8, 1934.

A coastal cruiser, the Morro Castle was sailing from New York City to Havana, Cuba, when it caught fire. The ship eventually made it to Asbury Park, New Jersey, where the vessel was beached.

In a scene eerily like the Costa Concordia accident, the Morro Castle "was a wreck in plain sight from shore," Maxtone-Graham said.

The cause of the fire is unclear, but most experts agree that lax crew discipline was partly to blame.

"Some said she caught fire because of unhappy or vengeful crewmen," Maxtone-Graham said. "There was a story—and I can't say this was true—that there was a fire in a wastebasket and a crewman put it in a closet, shut the door, and went about his business."

As a result of the Morro Castle disaster, cruise companies later placed a higher emphasis on crew discipline, he added.

In addition, the International Maritime Organization adopted standards encouraging noncombustible materials in ship construction.

(Related: "Top Ten Sailing Cruises.")

Published January 18, 2012

M/S Explorer

Photograph from Chilean Navy/Reuters

The M/S Explorer became the first purpose-built cruise ship ever to sail the frigid waters of the Antarctic waters in 1969. The vessel was also the first to sink there—as pictured after hitting an iceberg in November 2007. (See "Special Report: The Sinking of the Explorer.")

All of the Explorer's 154 passengers and crew survived, but the accident caused several international shipping and cruise organizations to take a closer look at their rules and guidelines governing Antarctic voyages. (See video on the Antarctic Ocean.)

For example, the United Nations' International Maritime Organization (IMO) accelerated discussions that are intended to lead to the development of a comprehensive "Polar Code" that would govern everything from the type of equipment ships can carry, the types of hulls they can have, the experience levels of the people on their bridges, and more.

"There are IMO guidelines for passenger ships in ice-covered waters currently in place, but they're just that—guidelines," said Steve Wellmeier, the executive director of the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators.

"Since the Explorer sinking, there's been a greater urgency to beef up the Polar Code and to make parts of it mandatory."

(Related: "Antarctic Cruise Ship Runs Aground; Oil Leak Spreading?")

Corrected January 20: Previous version suggested that the Explorer accident had led to restrictions on passenger numbers and prohibitions on certain fuel types.

Published January 18, 2012

R.M.S. Empress of Ireland

Illustration from Hulton Archive/Getty Images

The R.M.S. Empress of Ireland sinks in the St. Lawrence River near Quebec City, Canada, in 1914.

While sailing out of the port of Montreal on the foggy morning of May 29, 1914, the ocean liner was struck amidships by a Norwegian ship, the S.S. Storstad. The Empress sank very quickly and claimed 1,012 lives.

"The boat turned over on its port side and went to the bottom like a stone," Maxtone-Graham said.

According to Maxtone-Graham, the Empress's primary weakness, and the reason it sank so fast, was bad compartmentalization. That is, the design of the ship's rooms and compartments were not built with barriers to prevent widespread flooding in the case of a hull breach.

The Storstad "just happened to hit between two watertight compartments and admitted water to both sides," Maxtone-Graham said.

In large part because of the Empress accident, engineers paid more attention to compartmentalization in the construction of later ships.

(Also see our insider's guide to cruises that "upsell" at every turn.)

Published January 18, 2012

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Photograph by Ken McCurdy, My Shot

Published January 18, 2012