Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs

Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs

A maritime history podcast about shipwrecks, maritime disasters, and seafaring legends. Hear tragic stories of loss, as well as heroic tales of triumph. Host Rich Napolitano explores maritime history like you've never heard, including occasional guests such as authors, historians, mariners, divers, and archaeologists. If you love history, you will love Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs.

Episodes

The Wahine Shipwreck & New Zealand's Deadliest Storm

February 3, 2026 • 29 mins
On the morning of April 10, 1968, one of New Zealand’s most infamous maritime disasters unfolded in Wellington Harbour. The TEV Wahine, a modern passenger and vehicle ferry, was driven off course by Cyclone Giselle and wrecked just yards from safety. The ship struck a reef and capsized, killing 51 people and creating a national tragedy. Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. All episodes, notes, and merchandise can be...
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Rich's Guest Appearance on Deck Tales [Teaser]

January 29, 2026 • 21 mins
Host of Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs Rich Napolitano recently appeared as a guest on Deck Tales. Rich talks about how he got started in podcasting, how he chooses episodes and guests, and some of his favforite episodes. This is a just a clip from the much longer full episode of Deck Tales. Sammy Catling is the host of Deck Tales, and a former cruise ship entertainer. He collects the wildest, most hilarious sea stories from those who wo...
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A Record Breaking Row Across the Pacific - Seas The Day 2025

January 27, 2026 • 60 mins
Seas The Day Ocean Rowing Team – Historic Pacific Crossing (2025) In 2025, the Seas The Day Rowing Team made history when adventurers Miriam Payne and Jess Rowe became the first all-female team ever to row non-stop and unsupported across the Pacific Ocean. Navigating over 8,200 nautical miles from Lima, Peru to Cairns, Australia in their 9-metre boat named Velocity, Seas The Day not only broke records but raised money for The Out...
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The Northfleet: Death Without Warning (Bonus)

January 22, 2026 • 11 mins
On January 22, 1873, the British passenger ship Northfleet was anchored in the English Channel, bound for Tasmania, when she was suddenly struck by another vessel in the darkness. Carrying more than 300 people, many of them emigrants, the ship sank within minutes. Lifeboats failed, distress signals went unanswered, and passengers were thrown into icy waters just miles from shore. More than 300 lives were lost, making the Northflee...
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The Secrets of RMS Niagara

January 20, 2026 • 32 mins
The RMS Niagara was a trans-Pacific ocean liner of the Canadian-Australasian Line, lost during World War II after striking a German mine off the coast of New Zealand in 1940. While all on board were evacuated safely, the ship went down with 590 gold bars intended as payment to the United States for war munitions. This episode includes the history of the RMS Niagara, the circumstances of its loss during World War II, and the remar...
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History's Deadliest Shipwreck: SS Wilhelm Gustloff

January 6, 2026 • 54 mins
🍾This is the 100th regular episode of Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs! ⚓ The SS Wilhelm Gustloff was a cruise ship built by Nazi Germany for the German Labour Front in 1938. It was converted into a hospital ship during World War 2, and then a U-boat training ship. On January 30, 1945, more than 10,000 people, mostly civilian women and children, boarded the Wilhelm Gustloff to escape the advancing Soviet Red Army into East Prussia. She ...
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The Boozy End of the SS Warwick (Bonus)

January 2, 2026 • 14 mins
On the evening of 30 December, 1896, the SS Warwick of the Donaldson Line crashed into the rocks at Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick, Canada. All 31 on board escaped safely, and there with no injuries. But the curious locals of Grand Manan soon found the precious cargo in the hold of the Warwick, and had themselves a New Year's Eve celebration to remember. Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. All episodes can be fo...
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Rewind: The Empress of Ireland - Canada's Titanic

December 30, 2025 • 46 mins
This episode originally was published on November 22, 2022. The Empress of Ireland was a luxurious and beautiful steamship of the early 20th century, carrying passengers across the North Atlantic between Quebec City and Liverpool. She and her sister ship, the Empress of Britain, were an important cog during the peak of Canadian immigration. In the early morning hours of 29 May, 1914, the Empress of Ireland collided with the Norweg...
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MV Estonia replay with NEW UPDATES!

December 23, 2025 • 36 mins
This replay of Episode 4 contains NEW information from a recent report from an investigation that took place from 2021-2025. In 1994 the passenger and vehicle ferry MV Estonia sank in the Baltic Sea during a violent storm. 852 of the 989 on board were lost, despite being in communication with other nearby ships. The cause of the ship's demise remains disputed and controversial. Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. A...
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Into the Breakers: The Loch Ard Tragedy

December 15, 2025 • 33 mins
The Loch Ard was a 3-masted, iron-hulled clipper of the Loch Line. On the 1st of June 1878, bound from London to Melbourne, it struck the rocks on the isolated coast of Victoria, Australia in a heavy fog. Of the 18 passengers and 36 crew, only 18 year old apprentice Thomas Pearce, and 19 year old Eva Carmichael. Their struggle to survive was made possible by the generosity of the local people of Victoria. Written, edited, and pr...
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Join the Officer's Club - Now Through Apple Podcasts!

December 13, 2025 • 1 min
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts here: ⁠https://apple.co/4j60XCG Subscribe on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/shipwreckspod You can now join the Officer’s Club through Apple Podcasts! Enjoy ad-free listening and all bonus episodes directly in your Apple Podcasts app for just $4.99 a month. No third party apps, no additional downloads, and no new account sign-ups required. Just find Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs in Apple Podcasts an...
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Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald

December 2, 2025 • 47 mins
Best selling author John U. Bacon joins me to discuss his new book, Gales of November, and the behind the scenes stories of the crewmembers. We discuss their families, loved ones, and personalities that made up the crew of the famed ship. Gales of November can be purchased at the author's web site, johnubacon.com, Amazon, or wherever books are sold. (No commission is paid to Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs.)A video version of this episode ...
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Project Mayflower: The Story of Mayflower II

November 25, 2025 • 60 mins
The Mayflower II—the replica of the 1620 ship that brought the Pilgrims to America and launched a nation—is seen by some 2.6 million visitors to Plymouth annually and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. But there is much more to the replica’s story than meets the eye. In fact, the origins of Project Mayflower began in the 1950s not with an American, but with a British World War II veteran named Warwick Charlton who ...
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The Whaleship Essex (Bonus)

November 20, 2025 • 43 mins
This is the true story of the 1821 whaleship Essex, the doomed Nantucket vessel whose catastrophic encounter with a massive sperm whale helped inspire Moby-Dick. After the Essex was rammed by the massive whale, the Essex was destroyed, leaving its crew stranded thousands of miles from land.During their harrowing struggle for survival in their open-boat journey. Some of the men would survive, but only by engaging in the "custom of t...
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Captain's Dinner: The Story of the Mignonette

November 18, 2025 • 59 mins
A Shipwreck, an Act of Cannibalism, and a Murder Trial that Changed Legal History. Four men in a lifeboat.Two weeks without food. One impossible choice that would reshape the boundaries between survival and murder. On May 19, 1884, the yacht Mignonette set sail from England on what should have been an uneventful voyage. When their vessel sank in the Atlantic, Captain Thomas Dudley and his crew found themselves adrift in a tiny life...
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Yarmouth Castle Burning

November 11, 2025 • 86 mins
The total loss of SS Yarmouth Castle in 1965 is the deadliest passenger ship disaster off the American coast since the burning of SS Morro Castle in 1934. Eighty-four passengers and two crew died in the early-morning hours of November 13, 1965, when the cruise liner SS Yarmouth Castle caught fire and sank near Great Stirrup Cay in the Bahamas. Four others would die later from their injuries. The ship had 552 people aboard on her ...
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The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald - 50th Anniversary

November 10, 2025 • 45 mins
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the sinking, this is a replay of Episode 33, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. The SS Edmund Fitzgerald was an American Great Lakes freighter that sank in Lake Superior during a terrible storm on November 10, 1975. The ship's crew of 29 men all perished and were never recovered. The Edmund Fitzgerald was the largest ship on North America's Great Lakes when it was launched on June 7, 1958....
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The Star of Bengal: Alaska's Forgotten Tragedy

November 4, 2025 • 61 mins
The Star of Bengal was a three-masted steel sailing ship that met a tragic end off the coast of Alaska on September 20, 1908. While transporting over 138 cannery workers, mostly Asian immigrants, and a cargo of canned salmon from Wrangell, Alaska to San Francisco, California, the ship was caught in a fierce gale. Two accompanying tugboats were forced to release their towlines, leaving the Star of Bengal to be driven onto the rocky ...
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Lost on Lake Michigan: SS Andaste

October 28, 2025 • 20 mins
The SS Andaste was a semi-whaleback, self-unloading freighter built in 1892 by the Cleveland Shipbuilding Company. In 1925, a self-unloading system was added to her deck making her a bit top-heavy and unstable. On September 9, 1929, she was lost in a storm on Lake Michigan, while transporting a load of gravel from Ferrysburg (Grand Haven), Michigan to Chicago. All 25 on board perished. The wreck of the Andaste has never been found,...
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Catching up with Real Pirate Capt. Tonz

October 21, 2025 • 46 mins
Anthony Cummins, also known as Captain Tonz, is a retired marine captain, and real-life modern day pirate. I spoke with him in Episode 37, and he told of taking a humber barge across the Bay of Biscay, and his creative escape from Gibraltar.  I had the chance to catch up with Captain Tonz again, and he shares more of his interesting stories including a dicey shipwreck, smuggling camels, and how pirates can, and do, help preserve t...
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