Top Six Craziest Maritime Videos of 2014

Updated: December 17, 2014 (Originally published December 16, 2014)

In some respects, 2014 was a crazy year. We saw some big stories including the raising and removal of the Costa Concordia, the horribly tragic Sewol disaster, the crash in oil prices, the fall of Horizon Lines… the list goes on. By other accounts, this year was actually a fairly tame, so much so in fact that we hear salvage companies are having trouble landing contracts. For most of us, this is a good thing. Maritime accidents and casualties are on the decline, at least they were last year and we are anxiously awaiting the final numbers from 2014. But that’s not to say we didn’t see some crazy videos this year. Here’s the list of our top five six seven:

1. 40 Degree Roll

This year’s craziness got off to a quick start. This video was filmed in early January in the North Atlantic during a monster storm packing significant wave heights of 20 meters. The ship here is the 2,992 TEU containership, OOCL Belgium, and we heard it did suffer some cargo damage as a result. The video also kicked off some great conversation about old sea stories.

Story: Containership Taking 40 Degree Roll in North Atlantic

2. MV Luno

The 100-meter bulk carrier MV LUNO broke up in spectacular fashion after it lost power and became pinned against a breakwater off the southwestern coast of France on February 5. Luckily, the ship was not carrying any cargo and all 12 crewmembers were airlifted to safety. The video is absolutely nuts though.

Story: Cargo Ship Breaks Up Off France

3. Yacht Launch Fail

This incident occurred in May and shows a 90-foot expedition style yacht, reported to cost about $10 million, capsize during its launch in Anacortes, Washington. The action starts at 2:20.

Story: Video Emerges of $10M Yacht Launch Fail

4. Suez Canal Collision

After a slow summer, cameras rolled as two fully laden containerships, the MV Colombo Express (right) and MV Maersk Tanjong, collided in the north end of the Suez Canal. Nobody knows what really happened, but the leading theories are bank effect, a stuck rudder, or payback over a pack of stolen smokes. The video also went uber viral, racking up more than 4.2 million views on Youtube.

Story: Epic Collision Between Laden Containerships in the Suez

5. Lifeboat Flip

This video reportedly occurred during a lifeboat test aboard a Canadian newbuild. The video may seem funny, but lifeboat accidents are nothing to joke about. Accidents still happen way too often, many of them fatal.

Story: Lifeboat Launch Fail

6. Containership Bending

We were going to limit this list to five, but this last video has all the attributes of a crazy video. It shows the enormous stress and effect on a vessel in severe weather conditions. The bending seen is perfectly normal and very necessary, because if a ship doesn’t bend, it breaks – much like the MOL Comfort did in 2013.

Story: Danish Naval Architect Uncovers Important Clues to MOL Comfort’s Demise

7. Costa Concordia Refloating

We have added this next video by popular demand for a Costa Concordia video. To understand the true craziness of it, you almost need to take a step back and think about the historic, record breaking salvage of the Costa Concordia as a whole. To refloat and tow a 114,000 ship, in one piece, 2 1/2 years after it shipwrecked is truly a remarkable feat of engineering. This particular video is from Day 1 of the refloating operation on July 14, 2014, which involved refloating the ship by about 2 meters and moving it off the island. The entire salvage operation beforehand – the installation of sponsons, the parbuckling, more sponsons – was leading up to this point. If the ship didn’t float, the entire salvage would have been a failure, and that really is crazy. PS… The most awesome video of the Costa Concordia under tow can be found HERE.

Story: Costa Concordia Refloating and Tow – Full Coverage

So these are our top 6 now 7 picks for craziest maritime videos of 2014, and the best part is that nobody was seriously injured in any of these. If you have any other suggestions, please share in the comments and maybe we’ll update.

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