Facts + Statistics: Marine Accidents

Marine accidents killed 1,163 people and caused $197 million in insured losses in 2017. The deadliest maritime disaster occurred in January when a passenger ferry sank, killing 88 people off Nonouti, an atoll in Kirbati in the Pacific Ocean, between Papua New Guinea and Hawaii. A boat carrying migrants capsized off the coast of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Zawiyah, killing 74 people. In 2012, 30 people were killed in the costliest man-made disaster of that year when the Costa Concordia cruise ship carrying 4,200 passengers went aground off the coast of Italy, causing $515 million in insured damages losses when it occurred. By mid-2014, insured losses for the disaster had risen to about $2 billion. The greatest maritime disaster in peacetime happened in December 1987, when the Philippine ferry, the Doa Paz, collided with the Vector, a small coastal oil tanker, according to the National Maritime Museum in the United Kingdom. Only 24 of the 4,317 Doa passengers survived. By contrast, 1,500 perished in the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.