This is the story of a disaster like no other. When Mount Vesuvius erupted it rained seven a half million tons of debris onto Pompeii. It sealed the fate of more than a thousand people. But it also sealed the city in. Preserved it. Protected it. Like nowhere else on Earth the rediscovered Pompeii gives us access to the ancient world. And now with new findings and new insights we can tell the story of the ordinary people caught up in this disaster. Rome Revealed s1e3: Doomsday Pompeii, National Geographic 2019
It’s the summer of 79 A.D. Several earth tremors have already rocked the town of Pompeii and the surrounding area ... At noon on August 24th a pillar of molten rock seventeen kilometres high rises into the sky. The Roman Empire: Grandeur & Decadence
At 9 p.m. Pompeii has almost been buried under four metres of ash. ibid.
Until the discovery of Pompeii no antique frescoes had been so well preserved. ibid.
Pompeiians would write anywhere. ibid.
In 79 A.D. this volcano exploded ... Pompeii: the eruption which wiped this ancient town off the Roman map is one of the world’s most famous disasters. Professor Mary Beard, Pompeii: Life and Death in a Roman Town, BBC 2012
Pompeii is the most important archaeological site in the Roman world. ibid.
In Pompeii alone there are thirty bakeries. ibid.
Herculaneum was buried under more than fifty feet of volcanic debris during the eruption of 79. ibid.
Fast food joints are one of the commonest features of the Pompeii street scene. ibid.
More than half the population of Herculaneum were descended from slaves. ibid.
A major new forensic study and at the centre are famous castes of human victims of volcanic eruption of A.D. 79. Mary Beard, Pompeii: New Secrets Revealed, BBC 2016
Pompeii’s amphitheatre is one of the best preserved in the whole Roman world. ibid.
Education was brutal, expensive and only for boys who could afford it. ibid.
1907: The most deadly mine disaster in US history occurred when an explosion killed 361 men and boys in a West Virginia coal mine. Plutocracy: Political Repression in the USA I: Divide and Rule, 2015
The Great Flood wiping out almost all of humanity. Fire and brimstone that destroyed two ancient cities. And deadly plagues sent by a punishing God. Some of the events recorded in the Bible are so devastating and so awe-inspiring that for the faithful they can only be described as Acts of God. The UnXplained with William Shatner s3e12: Acts of God, History 2022
At 6.05 p.m. on 6th March 1987 the Herald of Free Enterprise ferry left the port of Zeebrugge. Half an hour later it was on its side, the passengers fighting for their lives. 193 people died. It was Britain’s worst peace-time shipping disaster since the Titanic and it was caused by a series of catastrophic errors. Why Ships Sink: The Zeebrugge Disaster, Channel 5 2022
The accident happened so fast the ship wasn’t able to issue a Mayday. ibid.
Four hundreds miles south of Newfoundland a million-ton chunk of Greenland ice drifts into the north Atlantic shipping lanes. After a journey of more than 1,900 miles it is about to become the most notorious iceberg in history. The Titanic’s story is as iconic as the ship itself. She was the largest and most luxurious liner of her era, and supposedly unsinkable. But a giant iceberg is only part of Titanic’s story. 10 Mistakes that Sank the Titanic, Channel 5 2019
10 mistakes than sank Titanic: 1908: It’s been a warm wet season in Greenland … ibid.
‘On the inside she is opulent beyond belief. They wanted to create the most comfortable Atlantic crossing you could possibly imagine.’ ibid. Alex Churchill, historian and Titanic researcher
An incident that would trigger the first great mistake: The Delay: ‘This public perception that Titanic is not sinkable’ … Prioritising the repairs to Olympic halted Titanic’s construction and delayed her maiden voyage by three weeks. ibid.
More icebergs than usual on the shipping routes. ibid.
‘She was going too fast’ … This excessive speed is the second major mistake.’ ibid.
Smouldering in the deck below something that the company had expressly concealed from its passengers: ‘Titanic was in fact on fire when she left Southampton on her maiden voyage’ … Titanic’s firemen revealed that a fire had taken hold in the coal bunker in boiler room 5. ibid.
The fire would have made the steel walls of the bunker red hot. ibid.
The message never reached Captain Smith. ibid.
The binoculars in the crow’s nest were stored in the second officer’s cabin. But on this particular voyage, the lookouts couldn’t get at them. ibid.
They were staring into an optical illusion. ibid.
The collision was so glancing that hardly anyone realised what had happened. ibid.
Different temperatures affect the strength of steel … When its chilled in subzero water, the steel undergoes a fundamental change … Titanic’s rivets below the waterline would have become similarly brittle. ibid.
The slag in the [iron] rivets can make them even more liable to fracture. ibid.
Down below in the boiler rooms all hell was breaking loose. The iceberg has opened up a hole in Titanic’s hull. ibid.
Bulkheads too shorts … water spills over them flooding all the compartments … Titanic’s bows dip below the surface hoisting her stern high in the air. ibid.
Morse code: ‘CQD CQD This is the Titanic. Have hit a berg. We are sinking by the head’ … ibid.
There was another ship on the horizon … The Californian’s radio operator had already gone to bed having been told to get off the airwaves by Jack Phillips earlier that evening. ibid.
Titanic’s final mistake: Dodging the iceberg: ‘If the iceberg had struck the iceberg head on … that damage would not have been fatal.’ ibid. expert
The Tay Railway Bridge in Dundee opened in 1878. Constructed mainly from cast iron, it was at 10,709 feet the longest bridge in the world at the time … Then on Sunday 28th December 1879, only 19 months after the bridge had opened, disaster struck. That night a violent storm raged across the Tay. And at 7.31 p.m. just as a passenger train was going across it, the bridge collapsed. At least 74 passengers died when the train plunged into the icy waters. Rob Bell, World’s Greatest Bridges s2e3: The Iron Bridge, Shropshire
The almighty bang was the sound of two of the Sea Gem’s legs snapping. The 5,500 ton rig began to lurch into the freezing cold sea … It took half an hour for the entire rig to disappear beneath the waves. Rob Bell, Building the Impossible s3e1: Oil Rig, Channel 5 2022
6th July 1988 about 120 miles off the coast of Aberdeen, the world’s deadliest offshore oil field disaster: Piper Alpha was the first production platform for the Piper Field … The Piper Alpha disaster claimed the lives of 167 men. ibid.
One of the worst naval disasters of the Second World War … the 1,500 men who died when one of Britain’s most valuable warships was sunk. Secret History s5e2: The Tragedy of HMS Glorious, Channel 4 1997
Why was Glorious there at all? Why did the Admiralty fail to pass on the warning they had received about the German battle group? And why were 900 men left for days to die in the water? ibid.
The Navy’s own Inquiry told as story so embarrassing that its report was to be closed for 100 years. Now, under pressure from relatives, the files have been opened. ibid.
The picturesque holiday beaches of south Devon: behind a wall of absolute secrecy in the spring of 1944 a series of tragic and bloody events took place. These events were to have a decisive effect on D-Day, the Allied assault on France which would change the course of the Second World War. Secret History s6e10: D-Day Disaster, Channel 4 1998
What happened on these beaches has been shrouded in mystery for decades. ibid.
The Americans were to take part in a series of practice invasions on the beaches of Devon. ibid.
The US Army had not anticipated real casualties during the rehearsals. ibid.
‘Drownings, false landings, overhead firings … sometimes the misfire of a grenade … Following the basic training in which over 50 soldiers had died, the exercises moved on to full-scale amphibious landings on Slapton Sands. ibid.
During an exercise codenamed Fox things began to go seriously wrong. ibid.
The Fastnet race of 1979 is one that its competitors will never forget. An iconic sailing race around the notorious Fastnet rock. In the summer of 1979 it was hit by a storm that no forecaster saw coming. Killer Storm: The Fastnet Disaster, Channel 5 2023
Four days that changed yacht racing … 300 boats hit by a one in a generation sea-storm that took the lives of 21 people. ibid.
‘No idea of the carnage awaiting.’ ibid. Fred Dinenage
‘An absolute beast of a storm.’ ibid. historian
‘Storm force 10 imminent.’ ibid. forecast
Nimrod aircraft would direct the operation. ibid.