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

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.