Lost At Sea II: More Fateful Voyages Quiz

Answer: Empress of Ireland

The 'Empress of Ireland' and her sister ship the 'Empress of Britain' were built by the Canadian Pacific Railway Company and were designed to cross the Atlantic in six days. On May 28, 1914, the 'Empress of Ireland' collapsed and sank within reach of shore after colliding in fog with a coalship.

In all, 1,012 people died, of these 840 were passengers - a greater number than that of passengers who died on the Titanic. Ironically, the coalship, the Norwegian vessel Sorstad, was torpedoed and sunk in 1917.

Answer: She caught fire

To say that the 'Morro Castle' caught fire barely covers the rumours and speculation following an incident that claimed 134 lives, most of them passengers. Did saboteurs start the fire? Had the captain been murdered before the fire? Those were just a few of the questions that were asked. On September 8, she was nearing the end of a cruise to Havana and back when, first of all, a faulty boiler had to be shut down, then the captain was found dead in his cabin, and then a fire was discovered in a passenger area.

Some officers, noting the captain's face had turned black, suspected poisoning. The fire was discovered in a locker in the reading room, a fire extinguisher proved useless; the fire hoses had been locked away; and the first officer turned the ship into the wind, but did not reduce speed.

The flames sped rapidly. Eventually, and far too late, distress signals were sent and the ship abandoned. The ill-trained crew largely left the drunken passengers to fend for themselves. Eventually the ship beached at the resort of Asbury Park and became a tourist attraction for a few days.

Despite the talk of sabotage, a court of inquiry ruled the fire had started in a cleaning store by spontaneous combustion, and panic and a lack of fire training among the crew meant it was not properly tackled.

Answer: 45 seconds

Almost 200 people died when the 'Herald of Free Enterprise' collapsed and sank in just 45 seconds in the harbour at Zebrugge, Belgium, in February 1986. The Herald was a roll-on-roll-off ferry and negligence and poor maintenance of the vessel's doors were blamed.

Answer: A sand dredger

The 90-ton 'Marchioness' was used for pleasure cruises on the Thames and during an illustrious career, had been one of the 'small ships' that evacuated British troops from the beaches at Dunkirk early in WWII. She was rammed by the 1,475-ton sand dredger 'Bowebelle'.

The incident happened on a clear night and while both shops were proceeding in the same direction. Fifty-one people died in the incident.

Answer: Stockholm

The 'Andrea Doria' sank 11 hours after colliding with the much smaller 'Stockholm'. The incident happened in fog on the approaches to New York. Like so many ships that sailed the icy northern waters, the 'Stockholm' had a strengthened bow.

Answer: Two golden peacocks

The 'Grosevenor' was wrecked on a reef near Durban after sailing from India. She was said to carry diamonds, gold and silver ingots and other valuables, including two golden peacocks looted from the Peacock Throne. In all, 123 men, women and children survived the wreck.

They set off to walk to the nearest white settlement, which they believed was 16 days' march away. Only six male survivors reached the settlement, on January 14, 1783. Two maids were later found in differing parts of the countryside. No one knows what became of the remainder, though there were rumours that women from the party had settled down with natives and died.

A number of search operations have been conducted down through the years, but the true location of the 'Grosevenor' or her fabled treasures has never been found.

Answer: The meat supplies were riddled with maggots.

In June 1905, Russia was gripped with revolutionary fever, no more as that among the navy. The battleship 'Potemkin' was anchored at Odessa for resupply and sailors noted that meat being brought on board was riddled with maggots. They were told it was safe, but refused to eat it and ringleaders were threatened that they would be shot.

The sailors mutinied and several officers were killed. Meanwhile, on shore, revolutionaries in the city believed the sailors would support them when they took to the streets. No such assistance was forthcoming and men, women and children were massacred by Cossack troops.

More than 2,000 people died when the authorities crushed the rebellion. The mutineers fled in the battleship, but were turned away from several ports.

When the ship ran out of coal she was scuttled and the crew abandoned her. Many were recaptured. Some were sentenced to death, others transported to Siberia and some sentenced to long jail terms.

Answer: K Class

The K Class submarines were bigger than destroyers, with a surface speed of 26 knots and a range of 3,000 miles. Within a few years, 16 had been involved in major accidents and there were numerous smaller incidents. Out of 27 built, eight were lost from causes other than enemy action - one sank on her trials, another in harbour, three sank after collisions and another simply disappeared.

Many sailors hated them and considered them unlucky - though others viewed them with some affection. Their effect on the enemy is questionable, but many British submariners died in them.

Answer: He suffered from the cold

Franklin was, in fact, considered an experienced Arctic explorer, though he was 58 at the time the expedition was planned. He did serve at Trafalgar, but there is no record of him having been injured. The ships sailed from England on May 19, 1845 and on July 26 encountered two whalers at Lancaster Sound. That was the last that was ever seen of the party alive...that we know of.

Many years passed and many search parties were sent out. Piecing all the evidence together seems to suggest the two ships were caught in ice and abandoned by their crews. Evidence of their camps and graves of their deceased were found. Eskimo stories claimed that four men survived for several years, but none of the 129 men who set out in the expedition was ever seen alive after that. Ironically, one of the search parties did uncover a route to the west through the ice - the Northwest Passage.

Answer: 118 days

In March of 1973, the Baileys were sailing their yacht near the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean when it was struck and sunk by a whale. They took to a rubber dinghy measuring four feet six inches across. They survived for 118 days on tinned food they grabbed from their sinking boat and fish they caught.