Line #13 Series/DisastersOfTheCentury


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/disasters_of_the_century.jpg]]
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3	''Disasters of the Century'' is a Canadian docuseries that documents a number of natural disasters and accidents that occurred during the course of the twentieth century.
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5	!!Disasters of the Century provides examples of the following tropes:
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8	* CreatorProvincialism: "Disasters of the Century" is a Canadian show and roughly half of the featured disasters took place in Canada.
9	* DownerEnding: Although the ''Princess Sophia'' sinking resulted in a beacon being installed on the Vanderbilt Reef, everyone on the ''Sophia'' except a dog died, and the tragedy was largely forgotten because UsefulNotes/WorldWarI ended as the dead were starting to be brought back to shore.
10	* FromBadToWorse: Everything about the final moments of the SS ''Princess Sophia''. The hull was shredded, some part of the boiler blew, which killed some passengers and trapped others below deck, and passengers who did make it off ended up forced into the frigid water. It's speculated that one crew member made it to safety but banged his head on a rock, knocking him unconscious. As for ''what was on the water''...
11	--> '''Ken Coates''': When the ship tore apart, um, it released a whole bunch of bunker fuel. Bunker fuel was its ballast, and when - the evidence [is that] when these people jumped overboard, trying to save themselves, they jumped not just into the cold water; they jumped into an ''oil slick''. And you can imagine what it's like to jump into freezing cold water; you would gasp, and if, when you gasped, you had a mouth full of bunker fuel, ''you would suffocate''. You would die instantly from that; your lungs would be coated with oil.
12	* InnocenceLost: This trope is name-dropped in the episode about the Hartford Circus Fire.
13	* NoOSHACompliance: In many of the episodes, particularly those set earlier in the century.
14	** Special mention goes to ''Ocean Ranger'', which was nicknamed ''Ocean Danger'' long before the sinking. Among other things, the safety culture on the vessel was lackadaisical and arrogant, with inept safety drills leaving the crew poorly prepared for an actual emergency[[note]]a former crew member off-rig at the time, interviewed for a different documentary, described the safety culture on ''Ocean Ranger'' as basically amounting to DontTouchItYouIdiot, and another described fishermen laughing at the toolpusher for trying to dominate a safety meeting with [[TemptingFate claims that the rig was too big to sink]][[/note]]; survival gear was inadequate at best, with no immersion suits and lackluster flotation devices; the lifeboats were difficult to launch in decent conditions, never mind in an Atlantic cyclone; the control room was, in one of the most inexplicable marine vessel design choices in history, on one of the columns rather than on deck and low enough to be vulnerable to rogue waves, with the only way to check the water level being to leave a flimsy porthole open; and, to compound an already baffling design choice, said porthole was '''right next to the ballast control system''', just waiting to drench and short-circuit it the moment the portlight failed.
15	** The Vanderbilt Reef was a known hazard even before it sank the SS ''Princess Sophia'', as it's barely above water at low tide and completely submerged at high tide, but UsefulNotes/WorldWarI prevented a proper beacon from being built, meaning the only warning was an unlit buoy. Had there been a proper beacon, ''Sophia'' would have been able to adjust her course earlier.
16	* SadClown: The Hartford Circus Fire turned Emmett Kelly into one of these. He was reportedly haunted by the fire for the rest of his life.
17	* ShaggyDogStory: The SS ''Princess Sophia'' was ''almost'' reachable by other ships, but the sea was choppy. The captain, paranoid about making the same mistake the captain of the steamboat ''Clallam'' made[[note]]namely, launching lifeboats into rough waters and getting everyone who boarded the boats killed[[/note]], ended up declining rescue attempts until the weather improved. While several seafarers later admitted they would have done the same thing, this was a terrible and tragic misjudgment, as the evening following the grounding, tides lifted ''Sophia'' enough to move but not enough to clear the rocks, resulting in her hull being shredded. None of the passengers or crew survived the resulting sinking, variously drowning, choking on spilled bunker fuel, or freezing to death.
18	* SoftWater: {{Averted}} in Swissair Flight 111's case due to the insane speeds reached thanks to the unusable flight speed indicators and nonfunctional overspeed alarm. As Stephen Kimber notes, hitting water from any angle at those speeds is like hitting ''concrete''. The nose stopped suddenly the moment it struck the water, and the rest of the structure telescoped forward, causing ''Vaud'' to disintegrate. And of course, being on a plane subjected to forces like that most certainly wasn't survivable for the passengers and crew.

Context Series / DisastersOfTheCentury