This week in Shipwrecks features the possible discovery of the oldest known shipwreck, a ring depciting the Lighthouse of Alexandria, a deadly shipwreck of migrants off the coast of Djibouti, commercial shipping turmoil in the Black Sea and the Strait of Hormuz, images of the steam-yacht Ituna, and a 2300 yeard old shipwreck found at Vis in Croatia.

Sources for this episode:

• ABC News, October 14, 2026

• Anadolu Agency, October 14, 2026

• Archaeology Magazine, October 8, 2026

• We Are the Frontier, October 15, 2026

• International Organization for Migration, October 11, 2026

• Financial Times, October 15, 2026

• Associated Press, October 14, 2026

• Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, October 14, 2026

• The Times of India, October 2026

• Divernet, October 8, 2026

• Nantucket Current

• Egan Maritime Institute, October 8, 2026

Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. All episodes, images, and sources can be found at shipwrecksandseadogs.com.

Original theme music by Sean Sigfried. ⁠⁠https://www.seansigfried.com 🎧 Listen to Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs, a weekly maritime history podcast hosted by Rich Napolitano, wherever you get your podcasts.

🔗https://www.podfollow.com/shipwreckspod **🎧 LISTEN AD-FREE + BONUS EPISODES** 👉Get exclusive bonus episodes and merch on Patreon: ⁠⁠https://www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com/patreon⁠⁠ 👉Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠https://www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com/apple⁠⁠ 👉Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs is part of the Into History podcast channel. Subscribe here: ⁠⁠https://www.intohistory.com/shipwreckspod⁠⁠ 👉Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs Merchandise is available! ⁠⁠https://shop.shipwrecksandseadogs.com⁠⁠ 👉You can support the podcast with a donation of any amount at: ⁠⁠https://www.buymeacoffee.com/shipwreckspod⁠⁠

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Charles Lightoller was the most senior officer to survive the sinking of the Titanic, and his story did not end in the North Atlantic. In this episode, we follow Titanic’s Second Officer from the bridge on the night of April 14, 1912, to the beaches of Dunkirk nearly three decades later.

Rich Napolitano speaks with author and historian Dustin D. Hyland about his book, "Unsinkable Lights: Charles H. Lightoller’s Epic Tale of Hope and Survival". Available now at https://www.penandswordbooks.com/ or dustinhyland.com

Lightoller survived the sinking by climbing onto an overturned collapsible lifeboat and helping keep dozens of people alive until rescue arrived. He then testified at the inquiries that followed, defending his actions and the crew’s conduct. Few expected him to return to the sea, but he did, serving in the Royal Navy during World War I and earning decorations for his command of warships in combat.

In 1940, at age 66, he took his private yacht Sundowner across the Channel to help evacuate Allied troops from Dunkirk, bringing back more than 120 soldiers on a boat built for far fewer. In this episode: ⚓The Titanic’s final hours from the officer’s point of view

⚓Survival on the overturned lifeboat

⚓Lightoller’s wartime service and his Dunkirk crossing ⚓His legacy as one of history’s most remarkable seafarers * No compensation or remuneration was received by or paid by Rich Napolitano, Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs, or Nautilus Media, LLC in exchange for Mr. Hyland's participating in this podcast.

** No AI was used to create this video. Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. All episodes, images, and sources can be found at shipwrecksandseadogs.com.

Original theme music by Sean Sigfried. ⁠⁠https://www.seansigfried.com 🎧 Listen to Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs, a weekly maritime history podcast hosted by Rich Napolitano, wherever you get your podcasts. 🔗https://www.podfollow.com/shipwreckspod **🎧 LISTEN AD-FREE + BONUS EPISODES** 👉Get exclusive bonus episodes and merch on Patreon: ⁠⁠https://www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com/patreon⁠⁠ 👉Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠https://www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com/apple⁠⁠ 👉Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs is part of the Into History podcast channel. Subscribe here: ⁠⁠https://www.intohistory.com/shipwreckspod⁠⁠ 👉Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs Merchandise is available! ⁠⁠https://shop.shipwrecksandseadogs.com⁠⁠ 👉You can support the podcast with a donation of any amount at: ⁠⁠https://www.buymeacoffee.com/shipwreckspod⁠⁠

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This week's roundup spans a war reaching the Black Sea, a fishing vessel run aground beneath a Scottish sea stack, and a 2,100-year-old shipwreck that gave up its cargo almost untouched. Host Rich Napolitano covers seven stories in sourced, fact-checked detail, from active maritime disasters to historic wrecks and the ongoing fight to save a Falklands-era frigate from the scrapyard.

Stories in this episode:

• Drone Strikes Sink Two Ships in the Black Sea — Russian drone attacks sink the cargo ships Alfa Watan and Royad Mammadov, killing two and leaving a crew unaccounted for.
• Virgo Transport 8 Salvage Operation Confirmed — Indonesia's ferry operator agrees to raise the capsized vessel this month, with 55 people still believed inside.
• Fishing Vessel Runs Aground at Old Man of Hoy, Orkney — Seventeen crew are winched to safety after the longliner Genesis strikes rocks off Scotland.
• Fishing Boat Capsizes Off Jeju, South Korea — Nine crew are rescued and two remain missing after a coastal longliner capsizes in rough water.
• Campaign to Save HMS Ambuscade Continues in Karachi — A preservation group appeals directly to Pakistan's prime minister as the deadline to remove the former Royal Navy frigate passes.
• 2,100-Year-Old Shipwreck Yields Intact Luxury Tableware — Archaeologists recover more than 6,500 ceramic pieces from a Roman-era wreck off Turkey's Antalya coast.
• Twelve Divers Rescued in Separate Incidents Off Japan and Indonesia — Strong currents sweep two dive groups off course, prompting search and rescue operations on both sides of the Pacific.

Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. All episodes, show notes, and transcripts can be found at ⁠shipwrecksandseadogs.com⁠.

Original theme music is by Sean Sigfried, and you can find him at ⁠seansigfried.com⁠.

🚫No AI was used during the production of this episode.

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On November 19, 1941, the Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney met a suspicious merchant ship off the coast of Western Australia. The ship claimed to be a harmless Dutch freighter. It was actually the German raider HSK Kormoran, and within hours, Sydney was gone. All 645 crew members were lost, making it the worst naval disaster in Australian history.

This episodes describes the entire service history of HMAS Sydney (D-48) the questions that haunted Australia for decades. Why did Captain Joseph Burnett bring his cruiser so close to an unidentified ship? How did Kormoran's disguise fool a warship built to fight? And why did a battle with so many German survivors leave no Australian ones?

Host Rich Napolitano follows the story from the fatal encounter and the survivors' accounts to the conspiracy theories, the long search, and the 2008 discovery of both wrecks on the ocean floor, more than 2,000 meters down. Two official inquiries have answered many questions, but the controversies surrounding HMAS Sydney persist.

Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. All episodes, show notes, and transcripts can be found at shipwrecksandseadogs.com.

Original theme music is by Sean Sigfried, and you can find him at seansigfried.com.

🚫No AI was used during the production of this episode.

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This Week in Shipwrecks is the weekly maritime news series of Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs.

News from September 25 through October 1, 2026

• Masts removed from the "bomb" ship Richard Montgomery in the Thames Estuary.
• The death toll from the Virgo Transport 8 ferry disaster rises to 78
• Shipwreck remains wash up on Nantucket shore after strong nor'easter.
• The Batavia replica ship set for preservation efforts at Museum Batavialand.
• 17th century German shipwreck found during pipeline project
• Criminal charges for those responsible for migrant deaths in English Channel.
• More migrants die in a shipwreck in the Gulf of Gabes off Tunisia.
• 70 year old Canadian man saved by Australian Navy from a sinking catamaran

Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. All episodes, show notes and transcripts can be found at ⁠shipwrecksandseadogs.com⁠

Original theme music is by Sean Sigfried, and you can find him at ⁠seansigfried.com⁠.

🚫No AI was used during the production of this episode.

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In October 2015, the cargo ship El Faro sank in Hurricane Joaquin with 33 people aboard. Hear Captain Michael Davidson's emergency calls and the bridge transcripts from the ship's Voyage Data Recorder.

This episode reconstructs the final hours of the voyage from primary sources.

You'll hear the recorded emergency phone calls from Captain Michael Davidson as the ship took on water and lost propulsion. We also go through transcripts from the Voyage Data Recorder, the "black box" recovered from the ocean floor during the NTSB investigation. The bridge conversations show how decisions were made and how quickly conditions deteriorated.

Content note: this episode includes real emergency audio and may be distressing to some listeners.

This is a replay of Episode 38, originally released in January of 2024.

El Faro, El Faro sinking, Captain Michael Davidson, Hurricane Joaquin, Voyage Data Recorder, NTSB investigation, shipwreck podcast, maritime disaster, true story

Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. All episodes can be found at ⁠⁠https://www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com⁠⁠.

Original theme music by ⁠⁠Sean Sigfried⁠⁠.

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This Week in Shipwrecks: September 18–24, 2026

From a sabotage plot hidden in a 160-year-old cargo of Guinness to the long-overdue removal of the masts on Britain's most dangerous wreck, and a modern maritime disaster still unfolding in Indonesia, this week's episode spans two thousand years of shipping history and picks up right where last week left off.

Stories in this episode:

• The Mindoro, English Channel — New evidence points to a sabotage plot behind the 1864 wreck that gave up bottles of vintage Guinness this summer.
• Iron Age Arms Cache, Austria — A hoard of prehistoric iron bars pulled from the Danube turns out to be one of Europe's largest.

• F/V Mistress, Rhode Island — A fishing boat missing since 2019 is finally located near the Block Island Wind Farm.

• Collision in the Singapore Strait — Viral footage captures a bulk carrier striking a Chinese fishing vessel in one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.

• The Virgo Transport 8, Indonesia — An update on the ferry disaster, as the search enters its twelfth day with dozens still missing.

• Fishing Boat off Sattahip, Thailand — A storm sinks a fishing vessel in the Gulf of Thailand, with crew still unaccounted for.

• The SS Richard Montgomery, Thames Estuary — After 80 years, work begins removing the masts of Britain's WWII "bomb ship."

Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. All episodes, show notes and transcripts can be found at shipwrecksandseadogs.com

Original theme music is by Sean Sigfried, and you can find him at seansigfried.com.

🚫No AI was used during the production of this episode.

**🎧 LISTEN AD-FREE + BONUS EPISODES + MERCH**

👉Subscribe on Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com/patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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In the dark hours before dawn on October 14, 1942, the passenger ferry SS Caribou was making her regular crossing between North Sydney, Nova Scotia and Port aux Basques, Newfoundland, when a torpedo from the German U-boat U-69 struck her starboard side. She sank in under five minutes.

Aboard were civilians, military personnel, and entire families, including the ship's own captain, Benjamin Tavernor, and his two sons serving as officers. Her naval escort, HMCS Grandmère, tried to hunt down the U-boat but couldn't stop what was already unfolding in the freezing water. Of the 237 people on board, 136 didn't survive.

This episode traces the final voyage of the Caribou from her construction in the Netherlands in 1925 through the tense wartime crossings of the Cabot Strait, where U-boats had already been sinking ships throughout the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The attack left passengers scrambling for lifeboats, most of which couldn't be launched. The loss of the SS Caribou was the most devastating loss of civilian life in Canadian waters from a single sinking during the Second World War.

Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. Original theme music is by Sean Sigfried, and you can find him at seansigfried.com.

🚫No AI was used during the production of this episode.

**🎧 LISTEN AD-FREE + BONUS EPISODES + MERCH**

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This Week in Shipwrecks is the weekly maritime news series of Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs. This week's stories:

• Rescuers race against time after the Virgo Transport 8 ferry capsizes in the Java Sea.
• Cádiz port dredging turns up 27 cannons and a stash of silver.
• New horrors surface from the 1629 wreck of the Batavia
• Lake Michigan diver's body found
• Archaelogists glean information from historic Bronze Age shipwreck
• Sunken German U-Boat leaking TNT off the coast of Denmark
• Mystic Seaport Museum announces it Maritime Trades and Foodways Day, scheduled for Saturday, September 26.

Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. All show notes, episodes, and transcripts can be found at shipwrecksandseadogs.com.

Original theme music by Sean Sigfried, and you can find him at seansigfried.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On February 18, 1952, a violent nor'easter raged through New England and two steel tankers were torn in half within hours of each other off the coast of Cape Cod. The SS Pendleton and the SS Fort Mercer, both battered by hurricane-force winds and towering seas, cracked apart in what would become one of the most remarkable maritime rescue operations in U.S. Coast Guard history.

This episode traces the disaster from the first distress calls to the daring small-boat rescues that followed, including the U.S. Coast Guard's response from Chatham, Massachusetts, where a 36-foot motor lifeboat crew set out into near-impossible conditions to save the men trapped aboard the shattered stern sections. You will hear about the chaos of coordinating two simultaneous sinkings and the extraordinary courage of the small crews who braved 60-foot waves and freezing temperatures to bring survivors home.

Joining Rich as a guest is Professor and Associate Chair of Materials Science and Engineering at Iowa State University, Ralph E. Napolitano, Jr., to examine the structural failures that doomed both T2 tankers. Mr. Napolitano is the brother of the host of Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs, Rich Napolitano.

Sources for this episode include but are not limited to the US Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation reports for the Pendleton and Fort Mercer, the oral accounts given by Bernard Webber, the United States Naval Institute, the Coast Guard Foundation, the Orleans Historical Society, and the Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources.

Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. Original theme music is by Sean Sigfried, and you can find him at seansigfried.com.

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This Week in Shipwrecks is the weekly maritime news series of Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs.

• A deadly ferry fire in the Philippines
• A deadly cargo ship fire in China
• A car-carrier fire in China
• The dismantling of a Canadian shipwreck
• Update about the 1533 wreck of the Bom Jesus
• A rescued teenage fisherman
• Artifacts from the 1776 Battle of Valcour Island

Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs is written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. Show notes, transcripts, and merchandise are available at shipwrecksandseadogs.com.

Original theme music by Sean Sigfried. You can find him at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠seansigfried.com⁠⁠⁠⁠.⁠

**🎧 LISTEN AD-FREE + BONUS EPISODES + MERCH**

👉Subscribe on Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com/patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

👉Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com/apple⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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👉Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs Merchandise is available! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://shop.shipwrecksandseadogs.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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