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The Maritime Disaster That Claimed Six Times As Many Victims As The Titanic
Most of the people were evacuees and refugees
On January 30th, 1945, a large passenger vessel sailed across the icy waters of the Baltic Sea. The ship, MV Wilhelm Gustloff, was on a mission to evacuate as many Germans as possible from Poland and Prussia. The Red Army was advancing rapidly and their brutality had preceded them. The ship was to pick up as many people as it could and sail for safer waters out of the reach of the communist forces that were advancing with a vengeance.
MV Wilhelm Gustloff started life as a cruise ship built for purely recreational purposes. In fact, the earliest plans for the MV Wilhelm Gustloff do not sound all that dissimilar from a typical Carnival ship today. The ship was to be used for leisure time, concerts, holiday trips, and public relations missions. During the war, she served as a hospital ship, a floating barracks, and eventually an evacuation vessel.
On that fateful night, the MV Wilhelm Gustloff likely held more people than it ever had before. As it slowly churned through the freezing night it was spotted by a Soviet submarine S-13 who tailed it and waited for the perfect opportunity to strike.
