Collision Course

Three historical collisions expose the volatile risks at sea and how they have shaped today's technological advancements. The RMS Queen Mary sliced through her WWII escorting light cruiser HMS Curacoa which sank in 1942 off Ireland's northern coast. An unidentified ocean-going schooner struck the passenger liner SS Oregon sinking off the New York coast in 1886. The SS City of Chester sank after the RMS Oceanic rammed her in 1888 in San Francisco Bay near the Golden Gate. Now, maritime researchers explore the remnants of these shipwrecks to uncover what happened in their fatal, final moments.