#6. Doomed Sailors Were Trapped Underwater For Two Weeks After Pearl Harbor
The surprise 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor resulted in an incredible amount of death and destruction. Nineteen ships were sunk or damaged, and over 2,400 people were killed. That's a big figure, and contains any number of horrors within it. But one horror in particular deserves attention, because of how long it took to play out.
One of the ships damaged in the attacks was the U.S.S. West Virginia. And if getting hit with two bombs, seven torpedoes, and losing over a hundred of her crew didn't ruin her day, holy shit did she have a terrible secret waiting for the crew tasked with salvaging it.
In the aftermath of the attack, the Marines standing guard over the wreckage reported hearing banging noises emanating from the ship's hull. It was first thought that these noises were coming from cooling metal, or salvage teams, or ghosts. But as they continued, it became clear what was truly going on: There were people alive and trapped in the wreckage. Worse still, they were doomed to stay there. Cutting a hole in the hull could flood the ship or spark an explosion. There was nothing to be done for them.
It wasn't until six months later that teams were able to raise the ship. Inside an airtight storeroom, they found the bodies of three sailors -- Ronald Endicott, Clifford Olds, and Louis Costin -- alongside piles of opened food rations, flashlight batteries, and a freshwater tank. According to a calendar that was found in the room, the men had survived for 16 days before suffocating.
Their families were told that the men died on December 7, the day of the attack itself. It wasn't until years later that the truth came out, and even to this day, monuments list December 7 as the day of their passing. Which might not be right, but man, it also kind of feels like there might not be a right answer here.
#5. The Titanic Disaster Unintentionally Caused Another Sinking
In 1912, the Titanic sank for reasons that are fairly well-known (icebergs, hubris). Subsequent inquiries into the disaster laid the majority of blame on the ship's horrific safety procedures, most notably its lack of lifeboats. This precipitated a shakeup in passenger ship safety regulations, which sounds like a good thing. Definitely not the kind of thing which would backfire and lead to the deaths of another 800-odd people.
Ironically, those safety procedures would later backfire and lead to the deaths of another 800-odd people.
On July 24th, 1915, the Eastland, a passenger ship operating out of Chicago, set sail for Michigan City. The journey ended within seconds, when the ship rolled and pitched its 2,573 occupants into the Chicago River, killing 844 of them.
So what the fuck happened? Well, the lifeboats happened. After the Titanic, Congress enacted regulations which required passenger ships to carry enough lifeboats to accommodate every single passenger. Which was a big problem for river boats and their shallow drafts. The Eastland was already a bit top-heavy, and these new regulations forced it to go from six lifeboats to 11. Add in 37 life rafts and 2,000+ life jackets -- all of which were stored on the top deck -- and you had something which was less a ship and more a massive experiment in rudimentary physics.
We're shocked Hollywood hasn't already glommed on to this tragedy for Titanic 2.
In defense of the poor bastard who originally designed the thing, the Eastland was originally meant to haul 500 people, not 2,500. Makeshift, and apparently legal, modifications made it sort of stable when underway, but it was always a little tippy when loading and unloading. The mandatory lifeboats, as well-intended as they were, became sort of the proverbial straw which made the camel fall over and kill 800 people.
#4. Prisoners During Hurricane Katrina Were Abandoned In A Flood (Of Shit) For Four Days
When we calculate the big list o' good times America has had, Hurricane Katrina isn't going to rank too highly up there. The storm and its aftermath are thought to have killed over 2,000 people, displaced hundreds of thousands more, and caused over $100 billion in damages. And those are just the fun parts that you've heard about. Meanwhile, there's a chapter of the storm no one seems to like talking about, starring some poor bastards in prison.
According to human rights researchers who interviewed inmates held in a prison called Templeman III, after the floodwaters hit, the people running this prison -- guards, administrators, everyone -- up and left, abandoning 600+ prisoners in flooded cells without food or water. For four fucking days.
According to a timeline of events pieced together by these researchers, the prisoners last reported seeing guards on August 28 -- the day the hurricane came ashore and the vast majority of city residents had fled or holed themselves up inside the paradise that was forming in the Superdome. By August 29, the prison was a lawless ghost town filled with chest-high floodwaters and -- oh, cool --turds, thanks to a backed-up sewage system.
As is their way, the inmates took matters into their own hands, some of them managing to break out of their cells to escape the rising waters. Others, in the vain hope that someone would give a shit, hung signs out of their cells begging for help -- a sight witnessed by a correctional officer at another prison. Regardless, it took until September 1 for someone to realize that, yes, they'd accidentally Home Alone'd an entire prison, and yes, they should probably get around to rescuing them.
These weren't criminal kingpins, by the way. The vast majority of inmates in this particular facility were being held for offenses like disorderly conduct or public drunkenness -- many hadn't been convicted or even charged yet. The main inmates were being held in similar prisons Templeman I and Templeman II, both of which were evacuated almost immediately, though they didn't exactly have a great time of things, either.
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