Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs

On November 19, 1941, the Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney met a suspicious merchant ship off the coast of Western Australia. The ship claimed to be a harmless Dutch freighter. It was actually the German raider HSK Kormoran, and within hours, Sydney was gone. All 645 crew members were lost, making it the worst naval disaster in Australian history.

This episodes describes the entire service history of HMAS Sydney (D-48) the questions that haunted Australia for decades. Why did Captain Joseph Burnett bring his cruiser so close to an unidentified ship? How did Kormoran's disguise fool a warship built to fight? And why did a battle with so many German survivors leave no Australian ones?

Host Rich Napolitano follows the story from the fatal encounter and the survivors' accounts to the conspiracy theories, the long search, and the 2008 discovery of both wrecks on the ocean floor, more than 2,000 meters down. Two official inquiries have answered many questions, but the controversies surrounding HMAS Sydney persist.

Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. All episodes, show notes, and transcripts can be found at shipwrecksandseadogs.com.

Original theme music is by Sean Sigfried, and you can find him at seansigfried.com.

đŸš«No AI was used during the production of this episode.

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This Week in Shipwrecks is the weekly maritime news series of Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs.

News from September 25 through October 1, 2026

Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. All episodes, show notes and transcripts can be found at ⁠shipwrecksandseadogs.com⁠

Original theme music is by Sean Sigfried, and you can find him at ⁠seansigfried.com⁠.

đŸš«No AI was used during the production of this episode.

**🎧 LISTEN AD-FREE + BONUS EPISODES + MERCH**

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In October 2015, the cargo ship El Faro sank in Hurricane Joaquin with 33 people aboard. Hear Captain Michael Davidson's emergency calls and the bridge transcripts from the ship's Voyage Data Recorder.

This episode reconstructs the final hours of the voyage from primary sources.

You'll hear the recorded emergency phone calls from Captain Michael Davidson as the ship took on water and lost propulsion. We also go through transcripts from the Voyage Data Recorder, the "black box" recovered from the ocean floor during the NTSB investigation. The bridge conversations show how decisions were made and how quickly conditions deteriorated.

Content note: this episode includes real emergency audio and may be distressing to some listeners.

This is a replay of Episode 38, originally released in January of 2024.

El Faro, El Faro sinking, Captain Michael Davidson, Hurricane Joaquin, Voyage Data Recorder, NTSB investigation, shipwreck podcast, maritime disaster, true story

Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. All episodes can be found at ⁠⁠https://www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com⁠⁠.

Original theme music by ⁠⁠Sean Sigfried⁠⁠.

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This Week in Shipwrecks: September 18–24, 2026

From a sabotage plot hidden in a 160-year-old cargo of Guinness to the long-overdue removal of the masts on Britain's most dangerous wreck, and a modern maritime disaster still unfolding in Indonesia, this week's episode spans two thousand years of shipping history and picks up right where last week left off.

Stories in this episode:

Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. All episodes, show notes and transcripts can be found at shipwrecksandseadogs.com

Original theme music is by Sean Sigfried, and you can find him at seansigfried.com.

đŸš«No AI was used during the production of this episode.

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In the dark hours before dawn on October 14, 1942, the passenger ferry SS Caribou was making her regular crossing between North Sydney, Nova Scotia and Port aux Basques, Newfoundland, when a torpedo from the German U-boat U-69 struck her starboard side. She sank in under five minutes.

Aboard were civilians, military personnel, and entire families, including the ship's own captain, Benjamin Tavernor, and his two sons serving as officers. Her naval escort, HMCS GrandmĂšre, tried to hunt down the U-boat but couldn't stop what was already unfolding in the freezing water. Of the 237 people on board, 136 didn't survive.

This episode traces the final voyage of the Caribou from her construction in the Netherlands in 1925 through the tense wartime crossings of the Cabot Strait, where U-boats had already been sinking ships throughout the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The attack left passengers scrambling for lifeboats, most of which couldn't be launched. The loss of the SS Caribou was the most devastating loss of civilian life in Canadian waters from a single sinking during the Second World War.

Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. Original theme music is by Sean Sigfried, and you can find him at seansigfried.com.

đŸš«No AI was used during the production of this episode.

**🎧 LISTEN AD-FREE + BONUS EPISODES + MERCH**

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This Week in Shipwrecks is the weekly maritime news series of Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs. This week's stories:

Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. All show notes, episodes, and transcripts can be found at shipwrecksandseadogs.com.

Original theme music by Sean Sigfried, and you can find him at seansigfried.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On February 18, 1952, a violent nor'easter raged through New England and two steel tankers were torn in half within hours of each other off the coast of Cape Cod. The SS Pendleton and the SS Fort Mercer, both battered by hurricane-force winds and towering seas, cracked apart in what would become one of the most remarkable maritime rescue operations in U.S. Coast Guard history.

This episode traces the disaster from the first distress calls to the daring small-boat rescues that followed, including the U.S. Coast Guard's response from Chatham, Massachusetts, where a 36-foot motor lifeboat crew set out into near-impossible conditions to save the men trapped aboard the shattered stern sections. You will hear about the chaos of coordinating two simultaneous sinkings and the extraordinary courage of the small crews who braved 60-foot waves and freezing temperatures to bring survivors home.

Joining Rich as a guest is Professor and Associate Chair of Materials Science and Engineering at Iowa State University, Ralph E. Napolitano, Jr., to examine the structural failures that doomed both T2 tankers. Mr. Napolitano is the brother of the host of Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs, Rich Napolitano.

Sources for this episode include but are not limited to the US Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation reports for the Pendleton and Fort Mercer, the oral accounts given by Bernard Webber, the United States Naval Institute, the Coast Guard Foundation, the Orleans Historical Society, and the Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources.

Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. Original theme music is by Sean Sigfried, and you can find him at seansigfried.com.

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This Week in Shipwrecks is the weekly maritime news series of Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs.

Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs is written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. Show notes, transcripts, and merchandise are available at shipwrecksandseadogs.com.

Original theme music by Sean Sigfried. You can find him at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠seansigfried.com⁠⁠⁠⁠.⁠

**🎧 LISTEN AD-FREE + BONUS EPISODES + MERCH**

👉Subscribe on Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com/patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

👉Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com/apple⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

👉Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs Merchandise is available! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://shop.shipwrecksandseadogs.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

👉You can support the podcast with a donation of any amount at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.buymeacoffee.com/shipwreckspod⁠⁠⁠⁠

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On the foggy, moonless night of September 8, 1923, fourteen destroyers of Destroyer Squadron Eleven were running south from San Francisco to San Diego at 20 knots, a speed run meant to test the Navy's newest ships and their crews. Less than five minutes after a fatal turn to port, seven of them were wrecked on the rocks of Honda Point, California, in what remains the largest peacetime loss of U.S. Navy vessels in history.

23 US Navy servicemen lost their lives. They were:

From USS Young

Buchan, Ralph Kenneth

Duncan, Earl

Grady, Everett William

Harrison, Earnest Carl

Jones Ernest

Kirby, Edward Clinton

Kirk, Henry Thompson

Martin, James Tidwell

Morris, Wade Hampton

Overshiner, Gordon Jerome

Reddoch, Clitus Allen

Rogers, Leo Floyd

Salzer, Charles Alfred

Skipper, Hugh Woodfan

Slimak, Joseph John

Taylor, Max H.

Torres, Enrique

Van Schaack, Vern Russell

Young, John

Zakrzewski, August

USS Delphy

Conway, James Wheaton H.

Dalida, Sofronio

Pearson, James Watson

Written, edited, and produced by Rich Napolitano. All episodes, images, and sources can be found at ⁠⁠⁠shipwrecksandseadogs.com⁠⁠⁠.

Original theme music by Sean Sigfried. You can find him at ⁠⁠⁠⁠seansigfried.com⁠⁠⁠.⁠

**🎧 LISTEN AD-FREE + BONUS EPISODES + MERCH**

👉Subscribe on Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com/patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠

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👉Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs Merchandise is available! ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://shop.shipwrecksandseadogs.com⁠⁠⁠⁠

👉You can support the podcast with a donation of any amount at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.buymeacoffee.com/shipwreckspod⁠⁠⁠

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