3 of the WORST Ships' Captains of All Time 

It’s fitting that in a video about naval incompetence I had a spelling mistake in the original video title 🤦‍♂️ I intend this to be a new series! Do you have more nominations for terrible captains? Let me know in the comments!

No list of horrible Captains would be complete without the captain of the Costa Concordia. What a disaster he turned out to be!

I want to make it clear, Captain McVay didn't just 'die'. He shot himself after not being able to take the guilt of having lost his ship and the CONSTANT and unyielding inflow of letters from the families grieving their lost sons. McVay's wife used to hide these letters from her husband, but when she passed away of brain cancer there was no one to keep those vicious letters from McVay. I'd go as far as to say that the US Navy is not only pretty transparently responsible for the loss of the USS Indianapolis and those who sank with her, but additionally for the death of Captain Charles McVay.

I love how Captain Hashimoto backed up Captain McVay despite being his enemy. That's true professionalism right there.

Perhaps a dishonourable mention could be the captain of the Sewol Ferry in South Korea. When his overloaded ferry capsized due to making a turn that the ship couldn't handle in calm waters, he was one of the first to leave the ship.Even tough there were hundreds of passengers, including a lot of children whom were part of school trip in their cabins. While he left his ship, the intercom on the ship repeated an automatic message demanding passangers to stay in their cabins, instead of leaving the vessel. The shitshow rescue operation by the korean government, which had a bigger focus on pretending to do something, instead of actually rescuing the passengers, didn't help either. 299 people died on the vessel.

I knew a black gentleman who was a twenty-some year old Sargent in WWII. Fought in all the worst battles of the pacific. He was on the Indianapolis when it went down. He spent an hour telling me about his time, including the sinking. How they would reach out to pull someone asleep in the life jacket into their group, only for them to flip over because their legs were eaten away. Some went crazy from fear. After that he got up and went out to do some yard work. His wife told me that I'm the only person he ever told that to. Mad respect Louis. RIP.

Salute to Captain Hashimoto, a good man and an adversary with honor.

McVay may have led the ship in dangerous waters, but the Navy truly used him as a scapegoat to cover their own asses for their own failures that led to the tragedy. The people that were in charge of doing so deserve nothing but hell for ruining a man's life and career.

Two things stand out. Hashimoto was an honorable man and the Indianapolis was a beautiful ship.

I was surprised we didn't hear the story of Captain Pedersen of the Eastland disaster, who abandoned his ship when it capsized while moored in the Chicago River, and then had the nerve to try and stop rescuers from cutting holes in the upturned hull to access victims.

This was the first time I've heard of the _Jeddah_ and what amazes me most is how the passengers came together and actually managed to get the ship to harbor mostly with just consulting the second engineer and remaining crew they were holding.

I believe that a certain caption of Oceanos and Costa Concordia deserve a mention. Thanks for another video Mike!

Charles Butler McVay III, while he left the sinking Indianapolis before all of the crew could be accounted for, did his absolute best to keep up the morale of his group of survivors. McVay’s group was in the best condition of all the survivors collected, thanks to his actions.

You forgot to add Captain Lee Joon-seok, the captain of the MV Sewol ferry. While his ship sank, he abandoned ship by being one of the first to be rescued. He pretended to be a passenger by taking off his uniform and wearing only his shirt and underwear. Out of 476 passengers that were on board, a lot of which with students, 306 perished. He is currently serving a life sentence.

Indianapolis' Captain McVay's conviction was overturned by Secretary James Forrestal and Captain McVay was promoted to Rear Admiral prior to his retirement. Still he never got over it and committed suicide. It is truly a disgrace how the USN treated him.

Leslie E. Gehres of the USS franklin is another dishonorable mention, he was abusive to his crew during normal operations, failed to bring the ship to general quarters during an air raid, when the ship was bombed and caught fire, the admiral on board transferred to another ship and recommended that the crew abandon ship, they managed to fight the fire, but several of the crew who went overboard to escape the fire or under the recommendation of the admiral were charged with desertion, the navy dropped these as soon as they found out what was going on, and finally, when the ship limped into pearl harbor, he insisted on taking the ship in himself despite policy requiring a local pilot, rammed the dock and blamed the mooring crew.

The captain of the Costa Concordia must have been on the shortlist for this

I'm surprised to see that Capt James C Mason, of the steamer Sultana, wasn't included in this list. Mason's actions in agreeing to take on more persons than his ship was ever designed for, in exchange for giving a kickback to Capt Reuben Hatch, was deplorable. His greed led to the deaths of almost 1,200 people, with many of those being recently released Union army prisoners.

Another fact about the captain of the Japanese submarine I-58, Mochitsura Hashimoto, who sank the Indianapolis. It was the last Japanese naval victory of the war. When I-58 sailed back to port after the sinking, the war had ended and Hashimoto learned his entire family was killed in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 7. It truly was a terrible war for all.

Captain McVay committed suicide about 15 minutes north of my home. RIP Sir.

“Painful lack of will” is a very artful way of calling him a coward.

What a terrible injustice to the Indianapolis' captain. Individuals being blamed for systematic problems. Even sadder that practice is still very much used. Aren't we supposed to learn from history? Thank you for telling his story and helping to restore his name. What a shame he died before he was officially cleared

Captain Francesco Schettino also deserves a honourable mention.

There an awesome documentary on YT about the USS Indianapolis. They interviewed all the survivors. It’s heart breaking to listen to their stories. All the men they interviewed-including interviews with the Japanese submarine captain’s family-said nothing but good things about the captain and even got together to help get the captains court marshal over turned. The captain actually committed suicide over everything.

I don’t feel like McVay should be mentioned in a list of bad captains. He followed the orders that were given to him and was exonerated. This video should be titled “2 of the WORST… and 1 that is MISREMEMBERED”

You know you've made a mistake when even the enemy captain petitions you to re-evaluate a court martial.

Hashimoto was a real chad, defending his former enemy like that.

I would love to hear about ships that had to use their emergency watertight doors and when they worked as intended. We always hear about when their design failed or couldn't be deployed in time or other circumstances. Hearing about when they worked, what the captains did, and how they survived and/or got out of danger would be great and give credibility to their popularization at the time.

Sinking Oceanos off the coast of South Africa. August 16, 1991 . The captain was one of the first ones to leave. Showing up in a passenger area wearing a lifejacket before he left. All of the crew left. A passenger and a coast guard swimmer somehow managed to expedite the rescue of all the passengers. All the passengers were transferred to a Hotel nearby were the Captain ended up, and all of the passengers had plenty of time to voice their displeasure at his performance.

Jeddah’s passengers sound like absolute chads for keeping it afloat despite zero formal training

For those who want to learn more about USS Indianapolis, Captain McVay, and those who sought his exoneration: "Indianapolis: The True Story of the Worst Sea Disaster in U.S. Naval History and the Fifty-Year Fight to Exonerate an Innocent Man" by Lynn Vincent and Sara Vladic is a GREAT book!

Captain of the SS El Faro deserves a dishonorable mention here. Sailing your old ro-ro freighter straight into a hurricane because you don’t check the updated weather forecasts, thinking you have to exceed your company’s time expectations even after they’d previously told you it’s fine to divert to safer waters in a storm, and plowing ahead with pathological optimism right up until the moment you all die. “Well There’s Your Problem” did a whole episode on it, which I recommend!

At the time of Captain McVey’s court martial it was regarded as a low blow to bring in the Japanese sub captain as a prosecution witness. That said and as you mentioned, he became quite an advocate for McVey in the future. Also at the court martial the navy brought in their own submarine expert, fresh from the Pacific War, who also corroborated the Japanese captain’s testimony; zigzagging was of little to no use. Lastly, Indianapolis was the first Allied ship sighted by the Japanese sub. They had a full complement of torpedoes, something like four kamikaze torpedo men who would have piloted their weapons into the ship and if all that had failed then the captain would have rammed Indianapolis with his sub as per the sub captain’s testimony. Ultimately, McVey’s conviction was a massive injustice and his exoneration decades later didn’t help him as he had taken his own life nearly thirty years before.

Imagine being the captain of SS Jeddah, you think you're one of the only survivors, lying to the officials, just to get almost a thousand of angered witnesses arriving on the very ship you fled😂😂

The captain of the Seawol also deserves a mention - I think Brick Immortar did a very good video on that tragedy… have to admit these are 3 ships I’ve never heard of - love how you guys always find new ways to interest us!!

*W O S T*

Captain McVay story gives me so much hope... people can be good people if we just allow them to be. Rest In Peace... McVay and Hashimoto.

I remember just about everyone was comparing the Costa Concordia to the Titanic as that occured just three months before the Titanic's 2012 centennial, but when I heard about Captain Francesco Schettino's actions during the disaster, I actually compared the Costa Concordia to the Oceanos, considering how negligent Captain Yiannis Avranas was during her August 1991 sinking, but there is one captain I know of that no crewmember was happy with as far as I know: George Worley of the disappeared USS Cyclops.

The captains of the Concordia and Oceanos deserve honorable mentions.

I would add Yiannis Avranas of the Oceanos. The efforts of the entertainment staff are the only reason no one died that day.

The MV Oceanos also had a terrible captain, but thanks to the heroism of the entertainment crew, everyone miraculously survived!

Poor Captain McVay, he doesn't deserve to be called a bad captain. Reports state McVay was denied a destroyer escort which led to Indianapolis' sinking. Nice vid Oceanliner Designs.

Francesco Schettino should definitely be on this list. Not only did he risk his ship, and all souls onboard simply to be a showoff. He also abandoned his post, left the ship, and flatly refused to get back onboard. That "man" is incompetence and cowardice incarnate.

President Roosevelt sure know how to deliver an eloquent smackdown.

On the General Slocum, many passengers and crew knew the ship was on fire well before the Captain was. A boy ran into the bridge and said "Hey mister, the ship is on fire!". The Captain called him a pesky prankster and ordered him to go away. No words for that.

McVay was not a terrible captain: He was acting based on the intelligence the Navy gave him and the Navy scapegoated him for their fuck up. Between not providing the Indianapolis a single destroyer escort , the poor intel about the activity of Japanese subs to failing to notice when the Indianapolis failed to arrive to its final destination on time. He was only officially exonerated in 2000.

I'd like to nominate the captain of the MTS Oceanos, a cruise ship that went down off South Africa in 1991. Despite the ship sinking, the order to abandon ship was not relayed to the passengers or very many crew. It was only after one of the entertainers went to the bridge to find out what was going on and found it empty were distress signals sent out.

I'd add Charles Limbor and the cowardly crew of the troopship Leopoldville to this list. Refused to communicate instructions after they were torpedoed, failed to maintain crew discipline, and left 800 people to die. At least he had the decency to pay for his mistake with his life.

Not only was Clark's reputation ruined in itself, but also, the not-wreck of the _Jeddah_ inspired Joseph Conrad's 1900 novel _Lord Jim,_ which at the time was far better-known than it is today, and kept the matter in the public mind for longer than it might otherwise have remained there.

Here's another, very recent, who hasn't been named by the journalists yet. He's the captain of Greek ferry M/S Blue Star Horizon (belonging to one of the subsidiaries of Attica Group), who was arrested, along with his First Officer and two other crew members. Why? Before the ship left port, a 36yo passenger from Crete went to shore, possibly to purchase something. When he returned, the ship was just about to leave, and he barely made it onto the ramp. Mind you, although it's not considered safe for ferries to depart with their ramps still open, it's VERY common practice in Greece "to save time". Anyway, although the passenger had a ticket and was returning to the ship, he was pushed overboard by the First Officer and a boatswain. To make matters worse, the captain did NOT stop the ship and did NOT start the MOB procedures. No one threw a lifesaver to the passenger, who drowned in the ship's wake. Instead, the captain went on his merry way, ignored angry passengers who were telling him to return and rescue the man, and was ordered to return by the Port Authorities, which were alerted by the passengers. Note here that the Port Police/Coast Guard were absent from the ship's boarding process and departure, as ludicrous as it seems. So, yes, they had to be informed of the homicide by other passengers - the captain was all too willing to just let it pass. Press coverage: apnews.com/article/greece-ferry-passenger-death-arrests-travel-crete-a1c8bb9b0ab89751fa1e662aee0dcbe2 maritime-executive.com/article/anger-builds-in-greece-after-man-is-pushed-to-his-death-by-ferry-s-crew Meanwhile, Attica Group's subsidiaries are reportedly illegally imprisoning asylum seekers in their ships and sending them back to where they came from: ecre.org/greece-company-accused-of-locking-up-migrants-below-deck-implicated-in-death-of-a-passenger-non-assistance-non-response-delayed-assistance-and-pushbacks-continue-alliance-with-italy-to-strengthen/ www.lighthousereports.com/investigation/detained-below-deck/ As an aside, the ship in question has a dark history: according to Greek press coverage, two passengers went missing and were never heard from again - one in 2015 and one in 2018. And an engineer was killed in an engine room explosion: www.iefimerida.gr/ellada/blue-horizon-exafaniseis-thanatoys-anartisi I wonder if the captain who abandoned the passenger who was pushed overboard and into the ship's wake was also captaining the ship in these prior lethal incidents...

the captain of costa concordia deserves a place in the extended version of the list. he abandoned ship, but was turned back.

I'm surprised Francesco Schettino didn't make this list. He was the captain of the Costa Concordia, and was found guilty of manslaughter in 2016 and sentenced to 16 years in prison. Francesco Schettino was given 10 years for multiple manslaughters, 5 years for causing a shipwreck, and 1 year for abandoning the passengers at the time of the sinking.

I was here when the title said WOST instead of WORST

Except for the 25yrs in the USN I'm a lifelong resident of Indianapolis, the closer you get to the top you run into very senior officers that get their feelings hurt over nonsense, shift blame and hold grudges. Being related to or at least friends in high places goes a long way in too many cases.

4. Captain Francesco Schettino 5. Captain Jonas Grumby (aka "The Skipper")

When the photo of the USS Indianapolis first showed up, did anyone else immediately think, "Oh no you don't, Mike! Captain McVay does NOT belong on this list!". (Only to have Mike's voiceover indicate that he was wrongly accused a few seconds later...)

The cork filled life jackets being partially filled with iron instead is almost too outrageous to believe! How could ANYONE working for that company who were in the know not have ratted them out before this tragedy occurred???

Great video as always! I think James Cass Mason, Captain of the paddle steamer Sultana deserves a mention on this list as well.

Inspired by your videos I took my kids on the paddle steamer waverly. Was truly amazing.

How do we do this video and not include the captain of the Costa Concordia? That seems like a no-brainer lol.

I went to high school with Hunter Scott, the kid whose research exonerated McVay. Pretty cool how a simple school history project resulted in some long-overdue justice.

Many of the General Slocum's other non-iron filled lifejackets were completely rotted, sometimes falling apart on touch. Others appeared intact, but their cork had turned into dust. When people put them on and jumped overboard, the cork turned into cement and dragged them down. When the trial started, the Knickerbocker Steamboat Company had their secretary acid erase old ledgers and checkbooks recording orders of new lifejackets for her sister ship, Grand Republic, and write in General Slocum instead. The lifeboats were also wired in place to prevent them from rattling in the wind, and a decade's worth of paint on the boats and chocks had welded them in place even if the wires were removed. Adella Liebenow's one surviving aunt remembered how she tried to help free one of boats, and ended up breaking off all of her fingernails before the fire pushed her back.

One added fold to the tragedy of the General Slocum is that many passengers were robbed of their valuables right before or after they died, becasue ships coming to the wreck saw their jewelry and New York never changes.

The problem with the lifejackets on the General Slocome was compounded by the fact that they were far too old, and had been simply left hanging on the deck instead of stored properly. Not only was there iron bars in the cork, but the little cork there was had disintegrated. This fact was used by the company that manufactured them, suggesting that if they were stored properly and checked/replaced frequently, it wouldn't have been so bad. Many mothers put lifejackets on their children then tossed them overboard, assuming they would just float nearby whilst they attended to other children and themselves.

Good morning Captain 😁 happy to say we have a competent one around here!

Mike, great video as always. As the other comments state, there's a lot more grist to grind in the "bad captains and scapegoats" mill. Costa Concordia, Sewol Ferry, Eastland, Oceanos, Sultana all as mentioned by others here, as well as Jeddah, Eastern Oriental Star, Yarmuth Castle and Scandinavian Star to name just a few others.

Wanna say captain mc vay is a hero and was scapegoated by the government): he did everything in his power to save his crew in the water as the Indianapolis sank so fast 😢

It was criminal negligence and failure for the captain to perform his Duty in properly maintaining his ships machinery.

In another video about the same subject, can you talk about James Cass Mason, the captain of the Sultana? Through greed and negligence, he had about 2,300-2,400 people on a boat that was legally allowed to carry 376. On April 27, 1865, at two a.m., three of the Sultana's boilers exploded and she caught on fire and sank on the Mississippi River, seven miles north of Memphis, Tennessee. Over 1,800 people lost their lives, and Captain Mason was also lost in the sinking. It was America's worst maritime disaster and it happened 12 days after President Lincoln died. Thank You.

Mike, you are one of several young men and women whose channels I have come to appreciate. The focus of each ranges from maritime, military or local history to various kinds of natural or applied sciences, and you share the same traits. True curiosity in your areas if interest, an ability to thoroughly research a topic and consisely present it, and an infectious enthusiasm that avoids the overdramatic and ill-informed clickbait that some rely on. Don't get me wrong, I have plenty of RU-vid elders I find inspiring for the same reasons, but I find it particularly reassuring to see kids (i.e. people younger than my own spawn, so no offense meant) stepping up and being educators and mentors of the first order. If I customarily wore a hat I'd doff it in respect to you any day. Thanks, and cheers,

My dad served on the USS Wilson, a destroyer that was assigned to the search effort for the Indianapolis. He never liked to talk about his war experiences, and I only learned about this particular effort very near the end of his life when he was interviewed by a historian researching the Solomon Islands campaign.

Side note: the stereo photography showing the aftermath of the New York accident is really cool to see. I paused the video several times to look at them-crossing eyes to align each so that the illusion of depth was created. It’s a surreal look into the past.

Mike, I enjoy your work very much. The logical follow-up to this video is one on the best captains. Hope that is forthcoming.

Thank you for another fascinating video, Mike. Lax and corrupt safety standards were themic in the USA around the Edwardian period. Offhand, as well as the General Slocum, I can think of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York, and the Iriquois Theatre disaster in Chicago as 2 equally horrific events, with similar causation. We learn, but often far too slowly.

My Uncle was a Commodore in The Wavy Navy. Served on the Russian convoys. He always said, "In the navy, shit always rolls downhill."

"Schettino! You may have saved yourself from the sea but I will really hurt you"

My grandfather and his brother were to go on the fatal voyage, they did not go, they were one of the few children who did not die, The life preservers were filled with lead weights, the hoses rotten, a young boy tried to warn the crew but was not listened to and had his ears boxed. , the neighborhood was decimated, many including my great grandparents moved, l have the passes and the tokens for this voyage,as always Mike perfect, you should have added the captain of RMS Atlantic, oh my grandfather also survived the Wall Street Bombing of 1919

No mention of the captain of the Costa Concordia? The Internet Histrorian did a great video about that event.

We should get a video that is the opposite of this as well. I'd like to know about Carpathia's captain and the Captain of the Ile De France during the Andrea Doria rescue.

They crew of the Indianapolis were in the water for four days because the Navy ship tracking system lost the ship and it was two or three days before the Navy even realized it was missing.

The best book I ever read is called Fatal Voyage by Dan Kurzman. It’s about the sinking of the USS Indianapolis. I read it long before the captain had been cleared posthumously. Subsequent printings may include this fact. You will NOT regret reading this. I could hardly put it down.

I have heard the tragic story of the USS Indianapolis and I can tell you it wasn't the captain at fault here it was a failure in the chain of command they knew another ship sank in the area and they should have informed them of that information.

We have to remember Captain Yiannis Avranas of the Oceanos as well. When the ship started sinking, he was the first to leave with his crew in order to "coordinate the rescue from the shore". The ship's entertainers actually coordinated the rescue from the bridge, and there's ironic footage of the comedian on the radio to the Navy. Afterwards, Captain Dickwad Avranas was quoted as saying "When I order abandon the ship, it doesn't matter what time I leave. Abandon is for everybody. If some people like to stay, they can stay." He even left his dog behind. And his canary.

The Worst Captains of the world? Francesco Schettino, Captain J.Smith and Ernst Lindemann. This question, is a perfect psychological challenge.

I believe that Captain McVay asked for a destroyer escort but was denied. Please check into this as I believe this to be true and this good man was terribly and unjustifiably treated. Check the testimony of his crew to see their feelings for the Captain.

Thanks, well researched and spoken as always.

Very neat that this wasn't just a straight list of bad Captains but one of them being a Captain who received a bad, but more then likely unearned, reputation. The story of the Jeddah sounds just plain fascinating, how the passengers managed to survive the storm that the experienced crew felt they could not.

McVay shouldn't be on a list of the WORST Captains, he was just a victim of the circumstances

Typo in the title fyi

i forgot the name of the ship, but there was this ship from a few years ago that had a captain that had the brilliant idea to head straight into a hurricane even tho they where told no. and sadly everybody died

Hashimoto was an honorable man. He respected his former enemy enough to take the time to restore his honor. Not many people would do that. I can respect that.

Fascinating video, Mr. Brady. As someone who has spent a fair amount of time on the water, much of it under the command of my late father, who tought sailing and ran charters, among other things, I have a visceral disgust for captains and crew that forsake their duties and flee their ships, leaving the passengers to fend for themselves. The bloody cowards should be keelhauled and made to walk the plank. Edit: Ok, I'm still shaking my head at the Killer Lifejackets. That is just disgraceful. I mean, Iron? Couldn't they have at least used something that sort of floats? As opposed to using a material that, running a close second to Lead, is commonly used as ballast? Yikes.

What about the captain of the Sewol Ferry?

Mike good video. I would certainly add, most certainly, Joseph Hazelwood(1946-2022). He was the captain of the Exxon Valdez and was reportedly drunk on duty. That hull breach caused much wildlife death and environmental damage that's still being dealt with.

The treatment of Captain McVeigh for circumstances out of his control was utterly disgraceful, and the Navy should be ashamed that they failed to exonerate him and allowed this slander to go unpunished.

This should have been a "5 Worst Ship Captains" list and include Schettino (of the Costa Concordia infamy) and the captain of that Korean ship "Sewol" where passengers were tragically left to die in their cabins (tho that one went much deeper than just a negligent captain - the whole system has failed in Sewol's case).

Yeah I’m almost certain Schettino should have a mention here 😂

The Captain of the SS El Farro would also be a good example of a terrible captain, along with the captain of the Sewol Ferry.

A little boy actually told Captain van Schaick that the General Slocum was on fire before any of the crew did. Van Schaick assumed it was a prank and told him to get lost.

Mcvay was made an escape goat to protect the failings of the Navy top brass. It was over three days before they realised that the ship wasn't even in port. A great book to read about the Indie disaster is In Harms Way by Doug Stanton