The Story of the Moby Prince | A Short Documentary | Fascinating Horror 

Ever since I started watching Fascinating Horror I find myself being more careful in everything I do. Particularly, when I’m driving on the highway I swear I can hear the FH music playing in my head with the narrator’s voice saying something like, “what he didn’t know, was that the operator of the oncoming vehicle was texting on his cellular phone....”

I'm not sure what's scarier about these videos, the fact that I could die in a freak accident due to somebody else's tiny mistake, or the fact that my own tiny mistake could cause a freak accident that kills hundreds of people 🤔

Dude tried to say it was a tug boat knowing damn well they're going to prioritize whoever had more passengers on board.

Just a gut feeling here: A ferry that *routinely* makes this exact drive without incidence suddenly running into an achored ship - sounds to me *very much* like that ship was anchored in a place it shouldn't have been. Like you'd run into a sofa if someone had secretly switched up your furniture. And the fact that he "mistook" that big-ass ferry for a small tugboat is just beyond suspicious.

How the CRAP did they think a tugboat could do that much damage?

Sounds pretty clear the captain of the tanker told responders the other ship wasn't that big or in real danger because he was worried about his own ship. It's really not possible to mistake a tug for a passenger ship that can hold 1k+ people.

It's absolutely incredible that the captain of that tanker claimed it was a tug (after spending time trying to separate from the ship he collided with...) and didn't tell that to the rescue ships. That guy should be in prison for life.

How the hell do you fail to notice a ship that's on fire for over an hour?

this is the kind of channel You tell yourself that youre watching just one video, but end up watching everything

The only survivor didn't just jump in the water, he waited for one hour and a half hanging off the side of the burning ship, soaked in water, before getting rescued...

The feeling they must have felt as they waited and realized they werent going to be rescued must have been horrifying

My dad was a captain at sea. He said the worst thing he ever experienced (and there were many horrors spanning about 20 years) was listening on the radio as fire raged on another ship. He listened to people waiting to die, knowing what was coming, then dying. I believe he said they were trapped in an engine control room, as fire raged outside in the engines. It scarred my dad for life and he often says fire on a ship is just about the worst thing that can happen at sea.

no way he actually believed that they collided with a tugboat. no freaking way.

I hate to say it, but suffocating is far better than what I had been thinking. Baking to death is quite a bit worse in my mind than slowly going to sleep from carbon monoxide.

This is the only English speaking Moby Prince doc on RU-vid. Thank you!

Sounds like the other boat that reported a small tug boat was just lying to help save them first

“Mate, if you do not help us then we will burn.” So scary knowing that the person who said this died.

I like how everyone was trying to place blame on the Moby prince crew in order to absolve themselves of any wrongdoing.

I've watched these all week - very interesting. From what I have seen so far, the Nutty Putty Cave is the most horrific for me.

That final picture was just chilling. The blackened ships and smoke rising high into the air

The captain of the other ship "mistakenly" said he ran into a tugboat? No he straight up lied

Uhh they didn’t see a large burning passenger ferry? The other crew didn’t mention a FERRY that collided?

When it comes to anything Italian transport especially seagoing, I run away as fast as I can. There's a looong line of Italian marine disasters since the war and their "investigations" into them are usually pathetic cover-ups. Thats why they keep happening.

The lone survivor probably has some very bad memories from that day.

It's clearly the oil tanker's captain. How do you think a cruise ship is a tug boat? The guy was trying to put his own ship first.

Jesus. They were basically in a convection oven. And then some of them got out (!) to find a deck that was probably 1000+ degrees. Horrifying.

Even if the Moby Prince kept "slowly spiraling away", how could it possibly have gotten far away enough that NOBODY noticed a second burning ship in the darkness?! Especially since they were still in the harbor when the collision occurred!

Lesson I learned when something happened on a ship, if the captain or crew tell you to stay on your room or any specific room, assume that they're incapable of handling the situations and prepare for yourself for the worst and scan your surrounding for safety measures. Don't put your lives at the hand of others. Do mutiny if neccessary, deal with the legalities later.

I wonder if the person that misreported the Moby Prince as a tugboat is haunted by the fact they delayed help to a distressed vessel that ultimately lost all its passengers or if they were more concerned and praying they wouldn’t be one of the individuals held accountable.

I used to wonder as a kid into shipwrecks why ship fires are so catastrophic, because a ship is surrounded by water & fire hates water. But as an adult, now I understand that (a) water isn’t always the best fire suppressant & (b) unless you get to the life boats in time, there’s zero escape.

The burnt ship docked at 8:30 is the very definition of a macabre sight.

Stories like this always make me feel like I'm in the victims shoes. Imagine the horror of hitting an oil tanker, catching fire, realizing help isn't coming, and then seeing 140 PEOPLE and YOURSELF SUFFOCATE TO DEATH AROUND YOU all packed together. Imagine being the last person that died. Seeing all those bodies and knowing you're going to end that way too. That happened to someone. It can happen to me or anyone. Terrifying.

A nightmarish string of bad luck, miscommunication and accidents. Murphy's Law was clearly in full swing here, and what a horrific thing for the lone survivor to have to carry with him for the rest of his life. Maybe naming the ship after an animal from a star-crossed tale of hatred and revenge is inviting trouble...

How disturbing is it that the very room that was made to protect them from fire disasters, is the thing that killed them in the end.

I had to circle around this video for a month before I could bring myself to watch. I am Italian and I remember the Moby Prince vividly. Thank you for the thorough and compassionate job you have done with it.

When those "in charge" tell you to wait patiently in a "fireproof" room, time to say "WHAT??"

The Moby Prince’s radio operator wasn’t at his post when the disaster occurred, so he used the closest radio he had access to during the fire. They found his body, later, unable to gain access to the fixed ratio through the fire. The De Luxe Hall was equipped with fire retardant doors and walls. It was the safest, quickest place that they could gather passengers and they did exactly what they had likely practiced for and trained for a hundred times. When an emergency happens on a ship, each crew member knows their specific role. So many of them must have carried out those roles frantically and swiftly in order to gather those passengers. The mistake was tragic. But even had the air conditioning units been shut off, the fire completely engulfed and surrounded the safety zone of the De Luxe ball room. There was no escape from any side in the center of the ship, and once the fumes inevitably penetrated the walls and the heat built in the room, carbon poisoning from immense byproducts of the oil burning would have been impossible to survive. The cabin boy was found hanging in the stern’s railing, unable to jump into the oil-filled water that had caught on fire, and praying that he would not succumb to the heat and toxic vapors aboard the vessel that he could not escape. It was his maiden voyage with the vessel, and he later was put aboard a tug boat with survivors of the other ship, as the injured only survivor of his vessel. The captain of the Agip Abruzzo called his mayday coordinates from inside a no-anchor zone, and in heavy fog there was no reason to anticipate a large tanker setting illegally at anchor in the harbor in an area the other vessel knew so well. He never should have been there. It was a risk to many vessels. The log books indicating the ship’s location, and probably guilt, disappeared. Alesia Bertrand, the cabin attendant, later gave his account of what he witnessed. He was off-duty, watching the European playoff cup, with fellow crew members when the collision occurred. “I heard a crash, and then there was smoke and fire everywhere. I heard screams from passengers and other crew members, but there was nothing I could do. My friends died beside me. It is a miracle I am still alive.” The tug boats responded, in part, to the Abruzzo first (if you’re wondering why they didn’t seek out the tanker or “tug boat” that the ship struck) because they responded with an environmental crew and fire crew. With thousands of gallons of crude oil flooding the harbor, they were concerned about the bad press that the pollution from the event would create, so they went to the source of the leak first without concern or consideration for the second vessel.

I find it insane NO ONE else jumped ship except for that one kid

Can you imagine being a rescuer and opening the door to that room to find it full of unburned people yet realising that they were all dead? It must have been horrendous.

I had never heard of this tragedy. I’m so glad you’ve put the story out there, because I’m sure I’m not the only one.

It must be lifelong trauma for the one kid who survived, who'd stilll only be in his 40s now.

The idea of having a fireproof room on the ship is great. It would have been better if, as a minimum, the room had a ventilation cutoff, an engine cutoff, and a base station radio accessible by key by all crew members. I hope they learned their lesson and outfitted their remaining fleet in this manner.

Whenever the date is mentioned on these videos I always find myself where I was that day and what I was doing. Maybe I was on my way to school, or just going to bed, oblivious that a bunch of people were dying. And also, securing everybody in a fireproof room can't have been a good idea. And finally, how the hell could they not have seen another burning ship? That's crazy!

"Theres a fire! Quick, stay inside this room on the burning boat!" Um....no?

i don’t want to be selfish, but please don’t ever change your music . it’s so perfect with your tone and pacing. love these, man! amazing work.

That’s so very sad. Imagine being in that hall, waiting for help... damn.

How'd they possibly not see a massive burning passenger ferry on the horizon? Surely it couldn't have drifted so far out of sight. No wonder there's still anger about this.

I'd love to see an episode on the MTS Oceanos. There's a very detailed account written by the band leader on the internet. Unbelievable.

The question that immediately popped into my head is, how could no one see the Moby Prince on fire?

Italy has so many of this kind of disasters that one could make an entire series of videos called "Italian disasters with no culprit". Terror attacks, accidents caused by negligence or malpractice, some of them still straight up mysteries, we have it all. I wonder if in other countries is like this...

Thank you for all your hard work, effort and research you put into your projects. I love your channel!

One of best " things" about this channel, they jump directly into the story! No b.s.commercials,first thing,no " hit that thumbs up or subscribe " to the channel.!! Too bad more channels didn't follow suit, I might subscribe to them.

I cannot believe I’d never heard of this. Such a tragedy. Your content is thorough and respectful as always.

Really gnarly when you see single digits on the memorial wall. Damn

I remember that tragic event 😢 may the souls of the victims rest in peace ⭐️

As a wise man once said: "What we have here, is a failure to communicate."

It seems like maybe the tanker captain was worried rescuers would leave them to go help the cruise ship or something. No way he confused a small tugboat and a cruiseship

I used to sail into Livorno regularly on container ships, and we used tie up next to what was left of the burned-out Moby Prince. The wags on our ship used to refer to the Moby Prince as "The SS Crispy Critter". I remember one time when we had a Kings Point Cadet on board who, upon seeing the remains of the Moby Prince tied up to the dock, asked why that ship was painted that odd shade of brown that way? We explained patiently that she wasn't "painted" that color, all of the paint had been burned off and the bare metal that remained had become rusted. It was only after we got closer that he noticed that all of the windows were missing, too. The longshoremen in Livorno used to insist that one could hear screams and moans emanating from the wreck, but I presume that was merely the wind blowing through the glassless windows. The story we heard was that the Moby Prince collided with an anchored tanker because the bridge watch were all watching a football game instead of watching where the ship was going. However, I don't know how they ascertained that because none of those people survived. The story went that, when the Moby Prince struck the tanker, burning oil from the tanker was funneled into the Moby Prince's vehicle deck via the ferry's crushed bow, and that it then ignited the fuel in the parked vehicles, one after another, increasing the fire on board. They also said that the only person on board who survived, a member of the Steward Department, subsequently committed suicide. Of course the authorities tried to blame the collision on the tanker, they always do, but the tanker was at anchor in a designated anchorage, so that was a non-starter. I know that to have been true because the damaged tanker was still anchored in the same spot when we were there, and it was definitely in the designated anchorage. What never ceased to surprise me was that the company that operated the Moby Prince continued to operate for many years afterwards and, so far as I know, it still is.

I absolutely LOVE this channel! The stories are mostly ones ive never heard of before. The way you tell them is amazong and the music fits so perfectly. Best channel ive found by far! 🎉🎉❤❤

As an italian, i'm so thankful you covered this story! I wasn't born when it happened but my parents told me about it and especially my mom was still terrified and sad for those poor people. It's a shame it didn't get more attention, even in Italy itself everyone kinda forgot about it so i'm happy that thanks to you more people will learn about this tragedy

So the room became a gaschamber. Absolutely horrific

If I put my cynical hat on, I would say the captain of the oil vessel deliberately downplayed the size of the other vessel that smashed into him to get priority rescue, as he had, you know, a crude oil shipment, which is highly flammable, and wanted to get him and his crew to safety as soon as possible. I don't think he realized the severity of the fire on the other ship, however.

This is such a brilliant channel! Please keep making these videos 👍🏼

11:07 If the ships were that close to each other how could the rescue crews NOT see the burning liner?

I'm always so surprised I've never heard of these disasters

I don't know what my plan would be but if I was on a ship in the middle of the ocean and there was a fire and someone said "Here, go into this fireproof room." I'd be like "No, no, no. That don't jive." Again, I don't know what my plan would be but it wouldn't be that.

The captain relayed the wrong information intentionally it feels.

Great video. I think ‘don’t drive your ship into an oil tanker’ is the lesson here.

These 'fire proof' rooms scare me. Just like in the Piper Alpha disaster, I fear what happens when fire crews can't get to the survivors. Horrifying. May all souls lost rest in peace. EDIT: Just read that the Capitan of the tanker initially reported being in a strict 'no-parking' area of the harbour but later changed his statements. His Captains Log was also 'misplaced' days later. Seems like the blame falls on the tanker, though Moby should of been using its radar.

How has it taken me a year to find this channel? Excellent content! Can't wait to see more!

How many things could possibly go wrong for the Moby Prince crew and passengers, all those lost souls!!!🙏😢

Look, I get that the collision caused a lot of chaos, but considering the two boats were stuck together how did no one on the oil tanker realize that they didn't get hit by a tugboat

This gave me chills. Especially when he said they hadn't died from the flames. I can't even imagine what they went through

Thank you for covering this tragedy. RIP to the victims.

These stories are unreal. This channel does a great job of bringing them to light with the proper tone. I have soo many questions. Why did the rescue crews not immediately start looking for the ‘other’ ship, regardless of size? A liner designed to carry 1k+ people burning, decks aflame, ad no-one saw flames or smoke? If the ship was underway, wouldn’t there have been crew members on duty in the engine room below? Should’ve have been some backup controls to the ventilation system elsewhere on the ship? Even with the decks aflame, shouldn’t there been an interior passageway to the lower areas of the ship? Shipboard fire has always been the bane of sailors, and even civilian crews are supposed to be drilled in immediate actions, but the plan was always to just hangout in a fireproof room and wait for help? With the death of all key decision makers, we will never know, but this smacks of some kind of massive failure in training or leadership. I’m not here to speak ill of the dead, but this whole story strikes me as bizarre. Tragic in the extreme.

Its horrifying how that ship genuinely looks like something from a horror movie. Goodlord.

You should do a video about the sinking of the M/S Estonia in 1994. It’s a tragedy that shook three nations and the memory of it still weighs on estonians, finns and swedes. It is so far the deadliest shipwreck of peacetime in Europe, with 852 dead. I’ve personally read through all the survivors’ accounts that were written down during the investigation, and it’s truly chilling, for someone who’s been on similar cruises all across the Baltic sea.

Just subscribed. Brilliant channel, 100% perfect. Keep up the fantastic work!

You do such a wonderful job narrating and know so much about each disaster you cover. L9ve your content and appreciate all the hard work that goes into doing this. You have such a lovely voice and diction, you could read off the side of a cereal box and I would listen! God bless you kiddo!(I am a Mom)

How the hell do you mistake a giant ferry that rammed your ship for a tug boat?

One day, could you do the Sewol Ferry? It's a tragedy that will forever live in my heart.

Every single story on your channel simply confirms my absolute belief that in a disaster, you should NEVER entrust your survival to other people; other people supposedly taking care of safety precautions, or other people to rescue you. So-called experts are massively incompetent, reckless, careless, and fantastically stupid. The idea of simply sitting in a room while an inferno of that degree rages around you is simply incomprehensible to me.

Love all your videos. The ones and the new videos coming out. Great job. You make the video so interesting and informative. ❤

Anyone else thinking that maybe the captain of the other ship might have said it was a tug boat because he wanted to save himself first and he knew saying that a larger vesel carrying passengers would get attention before his boat?

These are soo bloody addictive to watch

RU-vid sent me here after consuming all Concordia videos and now I’m here... it seems RU-vid understands me more than the people who wonder what’s wrong with me 😜😹😹

New subscriber here! Just binged your whole channel, and looking forward to more. Excellent work! :)

There’s a tragedy that’s been largely ignored here in the US. It happened in 1927 just north of Austin, Texas in a town called Round Rock. A train collided with a bus carrying a college basketball team on the way to play a game. Ten team members from Baylor University died. To this day they are memorialized with a bridge built due to the accident to allow the road to pass safely over the tracks.

"Please assemble in this large central area where the fire wont get to you but will surround you on all sides..." 😟

I've been listening to these for hours, and you'd think I'm desensitized by now but goddamnit, this one really got to me.

These videos are always so creepy, and I think it's less the events themselves and more the way it is addressed and his voice. They're impressively made, and I'm sure he knows it.

How can a ship on fire at night not be seen? Yes the tanker was burning but that OTHER fire a few miles/kilometers away may be a clue something is going on.

Stories like this always leave me wondering...."Did they not see a massive ship in their path?"

Thank you for covering a tragedy from my country. It seems that most of the times people get away with their responsibility and this is sad. Salute from Italy

Excellent pull-away shot at the end. You do good work. Appreciated.

I liked how you switched between silence and background music. It really added to the video.

Just to say, thank you, again for some of the finest documentary content on the internet. No fluff, no drama beyond the story and the facts. These stories always make me take pause and are always as fascinating as they are sad.

The tune in the beginning gets me excited for a story now lol. Keep it up! Love your stuff💜

Love this channel. Important history here.

How do you accidentally say you ran into a tugboat instead of a large ass ship? Do the words sound similar in Italian or something?