Shipwrecks appear to us as disasters of utter hopelessness, as once the ship is destroyed, there is nowhere to run and survivors can only hope to be rescued by another ship. There is usually no chance of reaching shore without outside help. The pictures of major shipwrecks below come from different sources and time periods. The first picture shows the sinking of the Russian cruiser Varyag during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. In this war in particular, sea battles played a decisive role, and the Russians lost all of them.

The second picture of a photo of the Dona Paz, a ferry of the Philipine company Sulpicio. It collided with the MT Vector in 1987 and sank. Over 4,000 people died, including the entire crew. It has been named by National Geographic "Asia's Titanic." In this picture the ferry is still operational.

The third picture is a commonly used illustration of the sinking Titanic. Titanic was one of the largest and is certainly the most well known shipwreck in history. This particular picture appeared on Aril 15, 1912.

The fourth picture shows the final moments of the Toya Maru, as it submerges under the sea. The Toya Maru was a Japanese train ferry of the Japanese National Railway. It sank in 1954 near the northern island of Hokkaido as the result of a large typhoon.