Skip to main content Main navigation Articles Shows Videos Play Gunpowder Siege Search Search The deadliest shipwrecks in history Over 1,200 people lost their lives when the RMS Lusitania was torpedoed by a German submarine in 1915 Image : Shutterstock Disasters We can look at a shipwreck in a variety of ways . For some , theyâ re no more than salvage or a commodity , while others see them as evidence of historical events , a means to further our understanding of the past , while adding to the posterity of those that discover a relic thought lost in time . Read more about Ancient History The oldest shipwrecks in history And while the sight of a ship pressed onto the sea bed by millions of gallons of water is at once profound and curious , the absence of any human life is eerily obvious .