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Based on the reverence the Titanic has in public consciousness, you would think that it was the worst shipwreck of all time. In reality, there was a shipwreck 30 years later that made the Titanic look like a child's bath toys in comparison. We aren't saying this to minimize the tragedy of the Titanic, the consequences of which we are still reminded of over a century after her sinking, but rather to draw attention to other tragedies, which coexist alongside the Titanic, yet are often less remembered.

The Titanic, for all her splendor and mythology as an "unsinkable" ship carried approximately 2208 people. The MV (Motor Vessel) Wilhelm Gustloff was built to carry less than 2000. At the time of her sinking in 1945, nearly 10,000 people were crammed aboard.

Wilhelm Gustloff Background

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As you can probably guess from her name, she was part of Germany's Kriegsmarine. And, as you can guess from the date of her sinking, she was sunk during WWII. However, we ask that you deserve your judgements on the Wilhelm Gustloff until you hear the full story.

The Wilhelm Gustloff lived many lives, though she was afloat for less than a decade. Constructed as a cruise ship for the Strength Through Joy movement, she was originally going to be named the MV Adolf Hitler. However, the name was changed to honor Wilhelm Gustloff, the leader of the Swiss Nazi Party, assassinated by a Jewish medical student in 1936.

So, the Wilhelm Gustloff started life as a pleasure boat to bolster tourism under a fascist regime. Not exactly an auspicious start by modern standards. However, the onset of WWII brought an end to her cruising career.

The Wilhelm Gustloff briefly served as a hospital ship, then as a floating barracks for U-boat trainees. For most of the war, she sat docked outside Danzig. She took minor damage from an American air raid in 1943, but it was nothing major.

In January 1945, the Red Army pushed forward into East Prussia and the German-occupied Baltic. Though the Fuhrer opposed the idea of a widespread evacuation, it was the only way Germany could save millions of her people from being steamrolled by the Soviets. The plan was called Operation Hannibal, and it involved evacuating troops and civilians by the millions, by any means necessary.

The Sinking Of The Wilhelm Gustloff

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The Wilhelm Gustloff was one of many ships enlisted in this evacuation. At the time of her sinking on January 30, 1945, she was carrying a registered 6050 people. In reality, this number was much higher, with the majority of the passengers being unregistered.

The Gustloff had lifeboats for approximately half of her passengers. However, they weren't much use as they were frozen to the deck. Due to the volume of passengers, the deck was extremely crowded and stuffy, leading many to remove their lifejackets against advisory.

Though the Wilhelm Gustloff was advised to travel 15 knots (17 mph) to outrun Soviet submarines, her captain, Friedrich Petersen, elected to travel no faster than 12 knots. Additionally, Petersen rejected his First Officer's advisory to hug the coast. Instead, the Wilhelm traveled moderately slowly into the open ocean.

At 7:00 pm, she was spotted by Soviet submarine S-13. At 9:16, three torpedoes hit the Wilhelm Gustloff. One made direct contact with the crew's quarters, essentially eliminating any change of survival for passengers who were unfamiliar with the customs of the sea.

Within an hour, the Wilhelm Gustloff sank beneath the Baltic Sea. It was a particularly cold night in January. Drowning and hypothermia claimed far more victims than the torpedoes themselves, or even the panicked stampede that ensued.

It is easy in hindsight to look at the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff and feel little sympathy for the victims. After all, it was a ship named for a Nazi official, sunk with several high-ranking other Nazis on board, along with thousands of Germans who'd been complicit in their crimes. The Wilhelm Gustloff got what was coming to her from the Soviets, didn't she?

That isn't the whole story. 

The Other Side Of The Story

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There were military personnel and officials on board, yes, but they weren't the only ones. On board were thousands of refugees who were being pushed out of East Prussia and other former German territories by the Soviets. In addition to ethnic Germans, there were Poles, Lithuanians, Estonians, and other citizens of occupied countries.

According to an archivist who survived the sinking himself, almost 9000 of the Gustloff's passengers were civilians. Those from occupied countries were stuck, almost literally, between a rock and a hard place. As the Red Army pushed forward, there was little differentiation between soldier and civilian, leading to starvation, assault, and other desperate acts of war.

Being part of a widespread evacuation, families and children were given priority boarding in hopes of sailing to safe shores. An estimated 5000 of the passengers are thought to have been children. Around 1000 of the Wilhelm Gustloff's 10,000 passengers were rescued from the icy seas.

The Wilhelm Gustloff dwarfs the next-worse maritime casualty during WWII (also part of Operation Hannibal, coincidentally) by thousands. You would have to sink the Titanic six times to match the number of victims. To this day, there hasn't been a worse shipwreck in hundreds of years, and we hope there never is.