Disasters at Sea

2019

4.7

7 reviews

TV-14

Rating

Eligible

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Season 1 episodes (6)

1 Trapped in Typhoon Alley

1/13/19

Season-only

Massive cargo ship MV Derbyshire, carrying nearly 160,000 tons of iron ore, is passing through the Northwest Pacific en route to Japan. Just a few days from her destination, a raging typhoon swallows up the ship and all 44 people on board. Witness the investigation launched by the family of the doomed ship’s crew members, and see how their dogged determination for the truth uncovered a shocking problem potentially affecting an entire fleet of bulk carriers.

2 Deadly Neglect

1/20/19

Season-only

Thirty miles off the coast of Virginia on February 11, 1983, bulk carrier Marine Electric struggles to stay afloat in a savage winter storm and sinks into the Atlantic. 31 of its 34 crewmembers are dead, leaving the Coast Guard and the NTSB scrambling for answers. Revisit the harrowing final moments of the 40-year-old vessel and follow the investigation that found dozens of other carriers and their crews at risk.

3 Four Minutes to Survive

1/27/19

Season-only

Just eight months after MV Rocknes was converted from a bulk carrier to the largest rock discharge carrier in the world, the massive ship capsizes in a Norwegian shipping channel. Eighteen crewmembers are killed. Investigators wonder if the top-heavy redesign of the ship may have played a role in the disaster, but after interviewing the survivors, two new and equally disturbing theories arise: either the ship’s pilot is lying about being on course, or the chart for one of Norway’s busiest waterways is wrong.

4 The Ice Ship

2/10/19

Season-only

Passengers on an adventure cruise in Antarctica watch on as their ship, the MV Explorer, plows through nine miles of ice. The vessel was built for polar sightseeing, but on this voyage, it springs a leak, and its lower deck is flooded with freezing seawater. All 154 aboard must abandon ship and spend five terrifying hours adrift in lifeboats before they are finally rescued. With the ship now at the bottom of the Southern Ocean, investigators turn to eyewitness accounts to understand what went wrong.

5 Shipwrecked in Alaska

2/17/19

Season-only

Bering Sea fishermen have some of the highest mortality rates of any job in the country, but the sinking of Alaska Ranger on Easter Sunday in 2008 was particularly stunning. Major flooding in the rudder room forced 47 crew members into the icy sea, setting off one of the most daring rescue missions in Coast Guard history. Follow the two-year investigation, which uncovered weaknesses not only in the Alaska Ranger’s structure but in the maintenance of many of the fishing trawlers riding these deadly, unforgiving waters.

6 Torn Apart

2/24/19

Season-only

January 18, 2007. Loaded with more than 2,300 shipping containers, MSC Napoli is sailing through the English Channel during a violent storm. Suddenly, the engine room begins flooding with water, threatening to tear the ship in half. Through actual footage of the disaster and interviews with those who were there, witness the heroic rescue effort to save the lives of 26 crewmembers.

About this show

They are stories of man against nature, heroism in the face of horror, and deadly secrets buried at sea. This series invites you to experience some of the most harrowing shipwrecks in modern history, presented through visceral, you-are-there recreations of the tragic sea disasters as well as firsthand accounts of the marine investigations that followed. From cruise liners to bulk carriers to fishing trawlers, we follow the final moments of these doomed vessels and those who sacrificed it all to try to save their ships and their crews.

Ratings and reviews

4.7

7 reviews

April Hoy

April 8, 2021

I love watching National Geographic Air Disasters. The expert interviews and hokey reenactments somehow make it perfect to fall asleep to. Then you run out of episodes of that, this is a bonus reserve of the same thing, but on boats.

A Google user

February 18, 2019

loce it and love sinking ship but really said😫😩😭

Anthony 96

February 9, 2020

watched it I LOVE THIS SHOW

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