Tag Archives: Luxury yacht sinks after launch

Tuesday Titanic News

Titanic at the docks of Southampton, 10 April 1912
Unknown Author
Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

Ldn-Post, “Titanic Historian: Why We’re Still Obsessed on the 40th Anniversary of the Ship’s Discovery,” London Post, last modified September 8, 2025, https://london-post.co.uk/titanic-historian-why-were-still-obsessed-on-the-40th-anniversary-of-the-ships-discovery/.

Beginning with a descent to the ocean floor, participants can relive the ship’s journey in its full glory – walk through bustling third-class cabins, marvel at the grandeur of the famous staircase, and stand in the captain’s cockpit as the collision unfolds. Featuring authentic monologues and accounts from real-life passengers – from the overlooked voices of third-class travelers seeking a new life to the untold stories of the ship’s workers – this experience sheds light on those who lost their lives aboard the Titanic. This immersive 30-minute journey serves as both an educational tribute and a heartfelt commemoration of the passengers and crew whose stories still resonate today.

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Titanic Wreck Bow
Image: Public Domain (NOAA:http://www.gc.noaa.gov/images/gcil/ATT00561.jpg)

Brian Foster, “Explorers Uncover a Stunning Surprise Near the Wreck of the Titanic,” Glass Almanac, last modified September 8, 2025, https://glassalmanac.com/explorers-uncover-a-stunning-surprise-near-the-wreck-of-the-titanic/.

That changed when Nargeolet began collaborating with OceanGate Expeditions, which funds science missions in part by selling limited passenger seats on dives. He persuaded the team to investigate the decades-old sonar anomaly. “We didn’t know what we would find,” he recalled in an OceanGate statement. “On sonar it could have been almost anything — even another wreck.” What they found instead was a broad volcanic formation in a plain otherwise dominated by mud and sediment, alive with sponges, deep corals, squat lobsters, and fish. At a depth where life is typically sparse, this looked like an oasis.

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Sakshi Tiwari, “From Lost Submarines to Titanic — How U.S. Navy’S Top Secret Hunt for Missing Subs Uncovered the Titanic,” EURASIAN TIMES, September 7, 2025, https://www.eurasiantimes.com/from-lost-submarines-to-titanic-how-u-s-navys/.

Image: geralt @ pixabay.com

Ballard became the first person to visit the wreck that year using Alvin, a crewed submersible he had previously piloted. The journey to the seafloor took more than two hours. He saw moving objects there, such as silverware, uncorked champagne bottles, and a child’s doll, but no human remains. Since then, the prototype technology that enabled the discovery has revolutionized deep-sea science and exploration, greatly advancing our understanding of the ocean. However, this historic discovery was, in fact, a “cover story” for a covert operation conducted by the United States Navy.

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Jami Ganz, “‘Titanic’ Superfan Transforms NYC Apartment Into Replica of Doomed Ship,” New York Daily News, September 6, 2025, https://www.nydailynews.com/2025/09/06/titanic-fan-nyc-apartment-installation/.

The 38-year-old, who’s obsessed with both the epic romance and the vessel that inspired the film, first took a page from Manhattan’s former interactive “Sleep No More” exhibit to decorate her home like the Titanic for a party, but it never materialized because she could “never finish this apartment.” “I’d never wanted to show anyone because in my mind, I’m like, this isn’t good enough and I need to be better,” she told People. But Boll’s ambitions — which included portholes, as well as a fully realized “iceberg room” and the Veranda Café — “completely got out of control.”

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Maitreyee Thakkar, “Video Shows How a $1 Million Luxury Yacht Suffered the Titanic Fate: Watch,” The Economic Times, September 4, 2025, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/us/video-shows-how-a-1-million-luxury-yacht-suffered-the-titanic-fate-watch/articleshow/123691613.cms?from=mdr.

You have just spent close to a million dollars US for an 85-foot premium yacht named Dolce Vento (Sweet Wind). Now the construction is over and is taken to a location for its first sea trial. Just after launch the new ship starts tilting and then capsizes forcing the crew aboard to quickly jump into the water. The yacht was built by Med Yilmaz Shipyard, and an investigation is underway as to what happened. No official cause yet, but maritime experts believe it is a stability error relating to its metacentric height that caused the sinking. The metacentric height is a calculation done to make sure a ship has a positive height above its center of gravity. Most ships are designed this way especially cargo ships to prevent capsizing in rough seas.

Warning! Technical Jargon Ahead!

When the calculation is done wrong and the ship height is below the center of gravity it is unstable. Tilts will be accentuated and without the ability to correct will likely capsize at some point. Improperly loaded cargo ships, where cargo is stacked too high, can cause this as well. You can even have a zero metacenter where the height and the center of gravity are the same.

Flat bottomed barges are like this and have no ability to correct if waves, winds, or issues with the cargo emerge.  If your metacentric height is too high meaning the center of gravity is low, then you get another problem. Ship handling will be tough as the ship will be stiff to handle and will have rapid, sharp movements. This can occur when a ship is underloaded or cargo unevenly distributed with most of the weight on the bottom.

It is a big mistake for a shipbuilder to make. Whether or not this happened here, we will have to wait and see. The good news is that everyone got off, including the owner, and no one was injured.

Source on Metacentric Height:

Dmitry, “What Is the Metacentric Height of a Ship? – Maritime Page,” Maritime Page, last modified January 19, 2025, https://maritimepage.com/what-is-the-metacentric-height-of-a-ship/.

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Tom Hale, “Watch the Rarely Seen Video of RMS Titanic’s Shipwreck Discovery 40 Years Ago,” IFLScience, September 3, 2025, https://www.iflscience.com/40-years-since-titanics-wreck-was-found-watch-the-rare-footage-of-its-discovery-80639.

The original plan was to sweep the surrounding seafloor using their sonar equipment, but this failed to deliver any results. In their next move, the team decided to take on a new approach of following the trail of debris released by the Titanic when it sank and split apart.  After less than a week of searching, the breakthrough came. In the early hours of September 1, the cameras captured an image of what appeared to be one of Titanic’s massive boilers resting on the seabed. In the footage, the team can be heard exclaiming: “GOD, THAT’S THE BOILER!”, “YES! YES!”, “FANTASTIC!” Chasing the debris field northward, the team soon came upon the wreck of the Titanic itself.

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Suggested Titanic Reading

Behe, G. (2012). On board RMS Titanic: Memories of the Maiden Voyage. The History Press.

Ballard, Robert D. Exploring the Titanic. Reprint. Madison Press Books, 2014.

Ballard, Robert D., and Rick Archbold. The Discovery of the Titanic. New York, N.Y.?: Warner Books, 1987.

Ballard, Robert D., Lost Liners: From the Titanic to the Andrea Doria the Ocean Floor Reveals Its Greatest Lost Ships(Hyperion, 1998).

Brewster, H. (2013). Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage: The Titanic’s First-Class Passengers and Their World. National Geographic Books.

Eaton John P. & Haas Charles, TITANIC TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY, SECOND EDITION, W.W. Norton & Company, New York, New York, 1995 First American Edition

Fitch, Tad, J. Kent Layton, and Bill Wormstedt. On a Sea of Glass: The Life & Loss of the RMS Titanic. Reprint. Amberley Publishing, 2015.

Lord, Walter, A NIGHT TO REMEMBER, Holt Rinehart and Winston, New York, New York, 1955. Multiple revisions and reprints, notably Illustrated editions (1976,1977,1978 etc.)

Lord, Walter, THE NIGHT LIVES ON, Willian Morrow and Company, New York, New York, 1986 (First Edition)

Lynch, Don & Marshall Ken, TITANIC AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY, Madison Press Books, Toronto, Ontario Canada, 1992

Marshall, L. (2019). Sinking of the Titanic: The Greatest Disaster At Sea – Special Edition with Additional Photographs. Independently Published.

Rossignol, K. (2012). Titanic 1912: The Original News Reporting of the Sinking of the Titanic. Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.

Wilson, A. (2012). Shadow of the Titanic: The Extraordinary Stories of Those Who Survived. Simon and Schuster.

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