List of disasters in Great Britain and Ireland by death toll
Over 200 fatalities

List of disasters in Great Britain and Ireland by death toll

Section Title: Over 200 fatalities
Table Section Text: None

Deaths Italics indicate an estimated figure	Event	Year	Notes

3,500,000	Black Death pandemic	1347–1350	See discussion of death toll estimates at Black Death in England#Death toll.

1,000,000 to 1,500,000	Great Irish Famine	1845–1849	See discussion of death toll estimates at Great Famine (Ireland)#Death toll.

300,000 to 480,000	Great Irish Famine of 1740-41 (The Great Frost)	1740–1741	Some estimates indicate a death toll as high as 500,000 from starvation and disease.

250,000	Spanish flu pandemic	1918 (Sep–Nov)	An estimated 200,000 people died in England and Wales. Although the official number of deaths in Scotland due to the pandemic is 17,575, a modern estimate of total pandemic mortality in Scotland is between 27,641 and 33,771.

75,000+	Great Plague of London	1665-1666	The last major epidemic of the bubonic plague to occur in England.

65,000	Year Without a Summer	1816	Famine and typhoid fever in Ireland and food riots in England and France, caused by the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora affecting the weather.

20,000	Laki volcano fissure eruption	1783–1784 (Jun–Feb)

8,000	Great Storm of 1703	1703 (26 November)

5,000+	Great Famine (14th century)	1315–1317

4,000 to 12,000	Great Smog of London	1952 (December)

4,000+	Blockade of Porto Bello	1726–1727	Deaths resulting from yellow fever.

3,500+	1782 Central Atlantic hurricane	1782 (16–17 Sep)	Loss of HMS Ramillies, HMS Centaur; storeships Dutton and British Queen; captured French prize ships Ville de Paris, Glorieux, Hector and Caton; plus other merchantmen.

3,000	1212 Great Fire of London	1212 (July)	Source for fatalities is the Guinness Book of Records, but historical evidence unclear.

2,800+	Tainted blood scandal	1970s–1980s (deaths up to decades later)	Importing and use of blood products known to be contaminated with HIV, Hepatitis B & C. People continue to die up to the present time.

2,139	2003 European heat wave	2003 (4–13 August)

2,000	Bristol Channel floods	1607 (30 January)

2,000	Sweating sickness (sudor anglicus)	1485 ff.

1,900+	Christmas Eve storm	1811 (24 December)	Wrecks HMS St George, HMS Defence and HMS Fancy off Thorsminde, Jutland; and HMS Hero and HMS Archimedes off Texel, Netherlands.

1,550+	Scilly naval disaster	1707 (22 October)	HMS Association, HMS Eagle, HMS Romney and HMS Firebrand.

1,500+	RMS Titanic	1912 (15 April)	Estimates vary but most official sources and historians put the death toll at upwards of 1500.

1,200	Strait of Gibraltar storm	1694 (1 March)	Wrecks HMS Sussex and accompanying ships.

1,198	RMS Lusitania	1915 (7 May)	Struck by torpedo on starboard side. Sank in the Celtic Sea within 18 minutes

1,012	RMS Empress of Ireland	1914 (29 May)	Ship registered in London, crew almost entirely from Merseyside.

1,000	1867 Barbados hurricane	1867	RMS Rhone, RMS Wye and up to 50 other vessels driven ashore.

1,000	Great Hurricane of 1780	1780 (10 October)	Royal Navy ships lost included HMS Stirling Castle, HMS Laurel, HMS Andromeda, HMS Thunderer and HMS Phoenix

900+	Plymouth Sound storm	1691 (3 September)	Wrecks HMS Coronation and HMS Harwich.

900	HMS Victory (1737)	1744 (3 October)	Wrecked on the Casquets in the Channel Islands.

890+	Walker Expedition disaster	1711 (22 August)	Seven transport ships and one storeship wrecked in thick fog on the Saint Lawrence River, Canada.

843	HMS Vanguard explosion	1917 (9 July)	Magazine explosion.

800	HMS Royal George capsizes	1782 (29 August)

748+	Royal Charter Storm	1859 (26 October)	The Royal Charter and other ships wrecked in Lligwy Bay, Anglesey.

738	HMS Bulwark explosion	1914 (26 November)	Magazine explosion.

699	HMS Ramillies	1760 (15 February)	Runs aground off Bolt Head, Devon.

690	HMS Queen Charlotte fire	1800 (17 March)

646	SS Mendi	1917 (21 February)	Rammed by SS Darro off the Isle of Wight.

640	Princess Alice disaster	1878 (3 September)	Collision with the Bywell Castle in the River Thames near Woolwich. Estimates vary, but most historians put the figure between 600 and 700.

635	SS Norge shipwreck	1904 (28 June)

612	Tramore storm	1816 (30 January)	Wrecks the ships Sea Horse, Boadicea and Lord Melville.

600+	an unidentified troop ship	1796 (23 January)	shipwreck possibly one of Admiral Christian's West Indies convoy wrecked on Loe Bar, Cornwall.

600	HMS Coronation (1685)	1691 (3 September)	2nd rate ship foundered off Rame Head, Cornwall.

564	SS Utopia disaster	1891 (17 March)	Collision with HMS Anson off Gibraltar.

546	RMS Atlantic	1873 (1 April)

531	1953 North Sea storm and flood	1953 (31 Jan – 1 Feb)	Included the ferry MV Princess Victoria.

520	HMS Namur	1749 (14 April)	Wrecked in a storm near Fort St David.

616	1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak	1854 (Aug–Sep)	Cholera epidemic in London.

500	HMS Minotaur	1810 (22 December)	Wrecked on Haak Bank near Texel, Netherlands.

500	"Black Monday"	1209	Massacre of English settlers by Irish clans, near Ranelagh, Dublin, on Easter Monday.

491	HMS York	1804 (Jan)	Struck the Bell Rock and sank with the loss of her entire crew.

481	HMS Captain	1870 (6 September)	Sank off Cape Finisterre, Spain.

480	SS City of Glasgow	1854 (March)	Disappeared after leaving Liverpool for Philadelphia.

473	Cospatrick	1874 (18 November)	Caught fire in the South Atlantic.

470	HMS Courageux	1796 (18 December)	Shipwrecked at Apes' Hill, Barbary Coast (now Monte Hacho, Ceuta, Africa)

454	Vryheid	1802 (23 November)	Formerly Melville Castle, shipwrecked in a gale off the Kent coast between Hythe and Dymchurch. 18 of 472 on board survived.

450	HMS Birkenhead	1852 (25 February)	Shipwrecked near Cape Town.

439	Senghenydd colliery disaster	1913 (14 October)	Gas explosion at the Universal Colliery, Senghenydd, Caerphilly, Glamorganshire. Britain's worst mining accident.

431	HMS Otranto	1918 (6 October)	Shipwrecked off Islay. 351 United States troops and 80 crew perished.

421	HMS Natal	1915 (30 December)	Magazine explosion. Precise number of deaths disputed; 421 is highest estimate.

421	Dumfries cholera epidemic	1832 (15 Sep – 27 Nov)

406	Cataraqui	1845 (4 August)	Shipwrecked off King Island, Tasmania.

400+	Rochdale and Prince of Wales	1807 (19 November)	Carried troops leaving Dublin for the Napoleonic Wars.

400+	HMS Invincible	1801 (16 March)	Sank off Norfolk while en route to the Battle of Copenhagen.

400	HMS Winchester	1695 (1 September)	Shipwrecked on a reef off Key Largo, Florida.

400	Pomona	1859 (30 April)	carrying, mainly Irish, emigrants from Liverpool to New York. Shipwrecked on a sandbank at Ballyconigar, off Wexford, Ireland.

384	Annie Jane	1853 (28 September)	Emigrant ship out of Liverpool, wrecked Vatersay.

361	The Oaks explosion	1866 (12 December)	Colliery disaster, Barnsley, Yorkshire. (383 claimed but not verified)

380	Mary Rose	1545 (18 July)	Sank off Portsmouth.

379	HMS Dasher (D37)	1943 (27 March)	Accidental fuel explosion, Firth of Clyde.

374	Driver	1856 (February)	Clipper ship out of Liverpool, disappeared while crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

372	Arniston	1815 (30 May)	Wrecked at Waenhuiskrans, South Africa.

369	Queen	1814 (14 Jan)	Wrecked in Carrick Roads, Cornwall.

360+	Elizabeth	1810 (18 December)	Chartered East Indiaman wrecked off Dunkirk.

358	HMS Victoria	1893 (22 June)	Rammed by HMS Camperdown in the Mediterranean Sea.

352	HMS Princess Irene	1915 (27 May)	Explosion while on the River Medway, Sheerness.

347	HMS Athenienne	1806 (20 October)	Wrecked off Tunisia. 100 survivors crammed into the ship's launch.

344	Pretoria Pit Disaster	1910 (21 December)	Underground explosion at the Hulton Bank Colliery, Westhoughton, Lancashire.

340	Aeneas	1805 (23 October)	Troopship wrecked on the Îles aux Mortes along the Canadian coastline while carrying troops to Quebec.

338	HMS Curaçao	1942 (2 October)	Light cruiser run down and split in two by RMS Queen Mary.

335	SS Schiller	1875 (7 May)	Shipwrecked off the Isles of Scilly.

329	Air India Flight 182	1985 (23 June)	Act of terror: destroyed by a bomb, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean while in Irish airspace.

317	HMS Eurydice	1878 (22 March)	Sank off the Isle of Wight. Commemorated by Gerard Manley Hopkins in the poem "The Loss of the Eurydice".

300	White Ship	1120 (25 November)	Shipwrecked off Barfleur, Normandy, taking the only legitimate son of King Henry I of England.

300	Sibylle	1834 (11 September)	Emigrant ship out of Cromarty wrecked off St. Paul Island, Nova Scotia.

300+	HMS Amphion	1796 (22 September)	Magazine explosion while at Plymouth, Devon.

300	HMS London	1665	Accidental explosion while in the Thames Estuary.

299	Kapunda	1887 (20 January)	Emigrant ship out of London, collided with the barque Ada Melmore off Brazil.

297	RMS Tayleur	1854 (21 January)	Shipwrecked off Lambay Island, Dublin Bay during its maiden voyage after its iron hull deflected its compass.

293	Northfleet	1873 (22 January)	Rammed at night by a Spanish steamboat while anchored off Dungeness.

290	HMS Sceptre	1799 (5 December)	Wrecked during a storm in Table Bay, near the Cape of Good Hope.

290	Albion Colliery explosion	1894 (23 June)	Firedamp explosion.

285	Gordon Riots	1780 (2–13 June)	Rioters shot by troops.

281	HMS Atalanta	1880 (31 January)	HMS Eurydice's sister ship, disappeared after leaving Bermuda bound for Falmouth, Cornwall.

276	VOC Hollandia	1743 (13 June)	Shipwrecked off Annet, Isles of Scilly.

270	Great Sheffield Flood	1864	Caused by collapse of Dale Dike Reservoir during its first filling.

270	Pan Am Flight 103	1988 (21 December)	Blown apart at 31,000 ft over Lockerbie, Scotland, by terrorist bomb in forward hold.

268	Abercarn mining disaster	1878 (11 September)	Mining disaster at Abercarn, Monmouthshire.

266	Gresford Disaster	1934 (22 September)	Mining accident near Wrexham, North Wales.

260	Earl of Abergavenny	1805 (5 February)	Shipwrecked off Portland Bill.

253	HMS Saldanha	1811 (4 December)	Shipwrecked during gale off Lough Swilly, Donegal, Ireland.

250+	Night of the Big Wind	1839 (6–7 January)

250	RMS Royal Adelaide	1849	Shipwrecked on a sandbank off Margate, Kent.

247	Doddington	1755	Shipwrecked in Algoa Bay, South Africa.

246	HMS Avenger	1847 (20 December)	Wrecked off the Galite Islands, Tunisia.

241	Exmouth of Newcastle	1847 (28 April)	Shipwrecked off Islay.

240	HMS Lutine	1799 (9 October)	Shipwrecked off Vlieland.

238	MV Dara	1961 (8 April)	British-India Steam Navigation Company passenger liner evacuated in the Persian Gulf off Dubai following explosion and fire.

238	HMS Tribune	1797 (16 November)	Wrecked during a storm off Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

237	SS Anglo Saxon	1863 (27 April)	Wrecked in dense fog off Cape Race, Newfoundland, Canada.

226	Quintinshill rail crash	1915 (22 May)	Three-train collision in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Britain's worst railway accident.

224	Neva	1835 (13 May)	Convict ship out of Cork wrecked on reefs off King Island, Tasmania.

220	SS London	1866 (11 January)	Sank during gale in the Bay of Biscay.

220	Great Blizzard of 1891	1891 (9–13 March)

220	Hartley Colliery Disaster	1862 (16 January)	Caused by steam engine metal fatigue.

215	Lady of the Lake	1833 (11 May)	Struck iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank.

212	Sovereign	1814 (18 October)	Wrecked off St. Paul Island (Nova Scotia).

210	Rinaldo	1878 (18 December)	Collision with French steamship Byzantin in the Dardanelles.

208	Harpooner	1818 (November)	Military transport ship shipwrecked off Newfoundland.

207	Blantyre mining disaster	1877 (22 October)	Gas explosion.

205	SS Hungarian	1860 (20 February)	An Allan Line Royal Mail Steamer out of Liverpool and Queenstown (Cobh) wrecked off Cape Sable Island (Nova Scotia).

201	HMY Iolaire	1919 (1 January)	Admiralty yacht returning soldiers to the Isle of Lewis after World War I. Sank off Holm near Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides.

Sentence(s)

The Scilly naval disaster, was one of the greatest disasters in the British history.

final_sentence: The Scilly naval disaster, was one of the greatest disasters in the British history.