Wednesday, 5 November 2025

In a Solitude of the Sea: Exploring My Fascination With Disaster Documentaries

      In a solitude of the Sea
      Deep from human vanity,
And the Pride of Life that planned her, stilly couches she.

— Thomas Hardy, “The Convergence of the Twain (Lines on the loss of the ‘Titanic’)”

Content warning: discussion of tragedy including loss of life

“The Convergence of the Twain (Lines on the loss of the ‘Titanic’)” by Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) has been one of my favourite poems since I discovered it at the age of sixteen as part of my GCE O-level English Literature syllabus. I failed the subject with an overall grade of U (Unclassified) but Hardy’s poetry made a great impression on me. I can still recite most of Convergence from memory. Hardy spoke to my teenage predilection for fatalism and irony. There are echoes of this in my own poetry written at that time, such as these lines from “I heard today that (she) may be leaving.”

Weave out, dark Destiny, thy web before my eyes;
For what now seems too sad may be the best surprise.

Fifty years on, I’m still fascinated by the loss of the RMS Titanic in particular and disasters in general. I thought it would be interesting to explore why that is. I’m grateful to my friend Jen for her suggestions regarding my approach. “I think it would be interesting,” she said, “if you tied it into your psyche somehow. Why are you drawn to disasters? How does your interest in them play into your emotional self and your mental health?” Let’s start with the kind of disasters I’m most interested in. I’m fascinated by natural catastrophes; accidents where apparently random events lead to devastating outcomes; the results of people intentionally putting themselves in harm’s way; and disasters resulting from criminal acts, incompetence, and neglect. In all cases, I’m interested in what led to them occurring, and what can be done to mitigate the risk of them happening again.

Jump to:

If you’re not interested in the disasters themselves you can skip to why I like them so much.

Natural Disasters

Natural disasters include volcanic eruptions, tsunami, earthquakes, and extreme weather events. Three I return to again and again are the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980, and the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004.

Krakatoa (1883)

The volcanic island of Krakatoa sat in the Sunda Straight between Java and Sumatra. Its eruption in August 1883 killed more than 36,000 people and caused the average temperature around the world to drop by more than half a degree. The sound of the explosion was heard over a twelfth of the earth’s surface. The massive death toll was caused by huge tsunami generated by the eruption itself. Arguably the best account of the disaster, and one of my favourite disaster documentaries of any kind, is the docudrama Krakatoa: The Great Volcanic Eruption shared on the Naked Science YouTube channel. The 1968 movie Krakatoa East of Java is also worth watching.

Mount St. Helens (1980)

The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington state has been called the most disastrous volcanic eruption in US history. Fifty-seven people were killed in the eruption. Two excellent documentaries on the tragedy are Minute by Minute: The Eruption of Mount St. Helens and St. Helens: Out of the Ash. The 1981 movie Mount St. Helens focuses on World War I veteran Harry R. Truman who refused to leave his home despite repeated orders to evacuate. He died in the immediate aftermath of the eruption when a pyroclastic flow overwhelmed his cabin.

Boxing Day Tsunami (2004)

On Boxing Day (December 26) 2004, an earthquake off the west coast of Aceh in northern Sumatra, Indonesia led to a massive tsunami with waves up to one hundred feet high. The tsunami devastated coastal communities in the Indian Ocean. The true death toll is unknown but an estimated 228,000 people in fourteen countries are believed to have perished. Two of the best documentaries I’ve found on the disaster are Magnitude 9.3: at the heart of the Tsunami and Revisiting The Boxing Day Tsunami | Tsunami: The Wave That Shook The World. Part 1 of Thailand Tsunami 2004 focuses on the impact of the tsunami on the islands of Phuket, Khao-Lak, and Surin. The 2012 movie The Impossible is based on the experience of María Belón and her family who were holidaying in Thailand when the tsunami struck.

Disasters of Adventure and Exploration

The events in this category happened to people who deliberately put themselves in situations where success, and even survival, are far from guaranteed. Four such disasters hold particular appeal for me. These are Robert Falcon Scott’s ill-fated Terra Nova expedition (1910–1913) to reach the South Pole, the Everest disaster of 1996 which cost the lives of eight climbers, and the Challenger (1986) and Columbia (2003) Space Shuttle disasters. Two key figures in these events — Robert Falcon Scott himself and Everest survivor Anatoli Boukreev — featured in an article I wrote for International Men’s Day 2024, focusing on six qualities and twelve men I admire.

Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition (1910–1913)

I’ve been interested in polar exploration since childhood when I was gifted a small book about the exploits of Robert Peary, Robert Falcon Scott, Roald Amunsen, and Ernest Shackleton. The story of Scott’s Terra Nova expedition and the fate of the final party of five, including Scott himself, who died within a dozen miles of food and supplies, has long haunted me. Of the many accounts of the expedition, two of the best are Terra Nova: The Doomed Antarctic Mission Of Captain Scott and the 2023 documentary The White Silence: Captain Scott’s Journey to the South Pole. Also worth watching is the 1948 film Scott of the Antarctic starring John Mills in the lead role.

Everest Disaster (1996)

The 2015 movie Everest tells the story of the 1996 Everest disaster in which eight climbers lost their lives after being caught in a blizzard while descending from the summit. As compelling as the movie is, details of the tragedy are contested, with accounts of surviving climbers varying to greater or lesser extents. Two excellent documentaries are Storm Over Everest (PBS) and Seconds from Disaster: Into the Death Zone.

Challenger Space Shuttle Disaster (1986)

On January 28, 1986, Space Shuttle Challenger exploded seventy-three seconds into its flight. All seven crew members of the crew perished, including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe. Amongst the many excellent accounts of the disaster and its causes, check out Space Shuttle: The Challenger Disaster, Challenger: A Rush To Launch, and the movie The Challenger Disaster.

Columbia Space Shuttle Disaster (2003)

The Space Shuttle Columbia exploded on re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere, with the loss of all seven astronauts. One of the best documentaries of the disaster is this one by François Tribolet, produced by French press agency and production company CAPA.

Aviation Disasters

Aircraft collisions such as those at Tenerife’s Los Rodeos airport in 1977 and the Überlingen (2002) and Zagreb (1976) midair collisions hold a particular fascination for me. I think this is because they’re almost almost the result of human error, albeit compounded by external factors. Three other aviation disasters of note are the Mount Erebus disaster of 1979, the Varig Flight 254 disaster in Brazil (1989), and the loss of Helios Airways Flight 522 in 2005. The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in 2014 is arguably the greatest mystery in aviation history.

Tenerife Los Rodeos Disaster (1977)

The collision of two Boeing 747 aircraft on the runway at Tenerife’s Los Rodeos airport in March 1977 led to the death of 583 passengers and crew. Only sixty-one survived, all from the front section of the Pan Am aircraft. Everyone in the KLM aircraft perished. The tragedy was the result of many factors including a terrorist bomb detonation at Gran Canaria airport, congestion at Los Rodeos airport, and heavy fog which severely limited visibility. Blame is difficult to assign, although the decision of the KLM captain to take off without clearance from air traffic control was the most immediate cause of the disaster. Two of the best accounts are Mentour Pilot’s What REALLY Caused the Tenerife Airport Disaster? and Tenerife Airport Disaster by the Mayday: Air Disaster channel.

Überlingen Midair Collision (2002)

The midair collision of Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937 and DHL Flight 611 over Überlingen near the border between Germany and Switzerland led to the loss of seventy-one people including fifty-two children. Many of the children were Russian schoolchildren on a school trip. The tragedy did not end with the loss of the aircraft. Two years later Vitaly Kaloyev, who had lost his wife and two children in the disaster, tracked down and stabbed to death Peter Nielsen, the air traffic controller at the time of the collision. Kaloyev was sentenced to eight years for manslaughter. His sentence was later reduced after a Swiss judge ruled that he had acted with diminished responsibility. Three excellent accounts of the disaster are The Überlingen Disaster, Zurich Midair Collision, and Two Planes, One Disaster.

Zagreb Midair Collision (1976)

In 1976 British Airways Flight 476 en route from London to Istanbul collided with Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 550 traveling from Split in Yugoslavia to Cologne, West Germany. The collision occurred near Zagreb in modern-day Croatia. The collision was the result of errors by air traffic controllers in Zagreb. One of the best accounts of the disaster is the movie Collision Course.

Mount Erebus Disaster (1979)

On 28 November 1979, an Air New Zealand jet carrying 257 passengers on a sightseeing trip crashed into Mount Erebus in Antarctica. The likely causes of the disaster were strongly contested at the time. One of the most detailed accounts is the movie Erebus the Aftermath (part one | part two) starring the late Frank Findlay Justice Peter Mahonwhich who presided over the 1980 Royal Commission of Enquiry. The chilling documentary Mount Erebus Disaster tells the story of the police officers whose job it became to recover the bodies from the crash site in one of the most inhospitable places on the planet.

Varig Flight 254 Disaster (1989)

Varig Flight 254 was a domestic passenger flight from São Paulo in Brazil to the northern town of Belém. The accident occurred on the final leg from Marabá to Belém. It was caused by the crew incorrectly setting the flight computer to a heading of 270 (due west) instead of 027 (approximately north-east). The Boeing 737 ran out of fuel and was forced to crash land in the rainforest. Twelve of the fifty-four people on board died, with many more sustaining serious injuries. A good account of the tragedy is the documentary How Did A Decimal Point Doom Varig Flight 254?

Helios Flight 522 Disaster (2005)

One of the most tragic aviation disasters was the loss of Helios Airways Flight 522 on a scheduled flight from Larnaca in Cyprus to Prague in the Czech Republic, with a stopover in Athens, Greece. Air traffic control lost contact with the pilots shortly after takeoff. The Boeing 737-300 eventually ran out of fuel and crashed near Grammatiko in Greece. All 121 passengers and crew on board were killed. A good account of the tragedy is The Ghost Plane on the Mayday Air Disaster channel.

MH370 Disaster (2014)

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370) disappeared from radar in March 2014 while en route from Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia to its planned destination in Beijing, China. The circumstances leading to the aircraft’s disappearance and the loss of all 227 passengers and twelve crew on board remain a mystery to this day. Countless theories have been proposed, many of which are outlined in the 60 Minutes Australia documentary MH370: The Situation Room and Vanished Without a Trace: What Really Happened to Flight MH370?

Maritime and Oil Exploration Disasters

Of the many maritime disasters and incidents involving the oil exploration industry, I’ll limit myself to losses of the RMS Titanic in April 1912; the Edmund Fitzgerald (1975); the Russian submarine Kursk (2000); and the oil rigs Alexander Kielland (1980), Ocean Ranger (1982), Piper Alpha (1988), and Deepwater Horizon (2010).

The Loss of RMS Titanic (1912)

The loss of RMS Titanic in 1912 scarcely needs an introduction. The tragic loss of more than 1600 passengers and crew has been immortalised in movies such as A Night to Remember starring Kenneth More, S.O.S. Titanic, and the 1997 epic Titanic directed by James Cameron and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Of the many factual accounts I recommend Building the Titanic: The Story of the “Unsinkable Ship” and the Channel 4 documentary Titanic: Into the Heart of the Wreck.

The Loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald (1975)

I first learned of this disaster in the ballad The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald by Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot. The tragic loss of the Great Lakes freighter Edmund Fitzgerald and her crew of twenty-nine remains a mystery. One good account of the disaster is Rogue Wave or Human Error: What Sunk the Infamous SS Edmund Fitzgerald?

The Loss of the Submarine Kursk (2000)

I’ve been fascinated by the story of the Russian submarine Kursk since I encountered it in a TV documentary many years ago. I recorded it to VHS video tape and watched it almost every evening for months. All 118 on board died when the vessel sank in the Barents Sea following an on board explosion. There’s a superb five-part documentary on the Defragged History YouTube channel which details the lead up to the disaster and the subsequent rescue and recovery attempts. Also worth watching is the History Channel documentary covering the disaster.

Oil Platform Disasters

I’ve only recently begun exploring disasters associated with the oil industry, but I find them fascinating. Waterline Stories’ excellent documentary How Fast Things Can Go Wrong on an Oil Rig describes four oil rig disasters: Alexander Kielland (1980), Ocean Ranger (1982), Piper Alpha (1988), and Deepwater Horizon (2010).

Terrorist Attacks and Disasters of Negligence

I’ve grouped the following tragedies on the basis they were caused by deliberate human action or acts of negligent disregard for safety: the 2001 terrorist attacks of 9/11, the 2011 Norway Attacks (22 July), the 1966 tragedy at Aberfan in Wales, and the loss of the submersible Titan in 2023.

9/11 Terrorist Attacks (2001)

The loss of almost three thousand lives on September 11, 2001 needs little introduction. Of the many accounts covering the terrorist attacks and their impact on the lives of so many around the world, I recommend the following. I have zero patience for conspiracy theories.

Co-produced by Channel 4 in the UK and CBC in Canada, The Hamburg Cell is a 2004 docudrama on the planning and execution of the terrorist attacks.

2011 Norway Attacks (22 July)

The 2011 Norway Attacks (22 July) were two domestic terrorist attacks by Anders Behring Breivik. The first attack was a car bomb explosion in the Norwegian capital Oslo which killed eight and injured more than two hundred. The second occurred two hours later on the island of Utøya, where Breivik killed sixty-nine participants of a Workers’ Youth League (AUF) summer camp and injured thirty-two. Factual accounts include the Real Crime documentary 2011 Norway Massacre. The Netflix movie 22 July is also worth watching.

Aberfan Disaster (1966)

Twenty-eight adults and 116 children were killed when colliery spoil tip 7 collapsed onto the Welsh village of Aberfan. The blame was placed firmly on the National Coal Board and nine named employees. The Tribunal of Inquiry into the disaster reported “... our strong and unanimous view is that the Aberfan disaster could and should have been prevented. ... the Report which follows tells not of wickedness but of ignorance, ineptitude and a failure in communications.” Accounts of the disaster include the powerful BBC documentary Surviving Aberfan and Aberfan: The mistake that cost a village its children.

The Loss of Titan (2023)

For overweening pride, stubbornness, and refusal to accept advice or criticism, it’s hard to beat Stockton Rush, co-founder and chief executive officer of the deep-sea exploration company OceanGate. His hubris and obstinance undoubtedly led to the loss in June 2023 of the submersible Titan on a trip to visit the site of the Titanic, 3,800 metres below the surface of the Atlantic. Rush and four paying customers perished when the uncertified carbon fibre vessel imploded. Described as mission specialists rather than passengers to avoid legal and regulatory responsibilities, the four who died with Rush were British explorer Hamish Harding, French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his nineteen year old son Suleman. For background check out the 60 Minutes Australia interview with James Cameron.

The Appeal and Horror of the Macabre

Having shared many of the disasters that fascinate me, it’s time to return to my friend Jen’s challenge.

I think it would be interesting if you tied it into your psyche somehow. Why are you drawn to disasters? How does your interest in them play into your emotional self and your mental health?

The first thing to say is that this isn’t a new thing for me. I’ve been fascinated by stories of polar exploration since childhood, especially Scott’s tragic demise on the Antarctic ice. The fate of Franklin’s 1845 expedition to find a Northwest passage through the Canadian Arctic has haunted me since I first came across photographs of the exhumed body of stoker John Torrington. A TV documentary on the loss of the Russian submarine Kursk became almost daily viewing for months. A few years ago I discovered the wealth of quality documentaries on YouTube and other streaming services. From there, my interest expanded from polar and maritime disasters to the many different categories I’ve mentioned.

I routinely have some documentary or other playing on my headset of an evening, during the day while I’m working from home, or when I’m out and about. I find the narrative tone relaxing, like the background sounds of my favourite coffee shop that are so conducive to my writing. I’ve watched most of the videos I’ve mentioned here many times. Some are like old friends, such as the docudrama Krakatoa or the movie about the eruption of Mount St Helens. Their very familiarity is comforting and provides a useful distraction if I’m feeling stressed or anxious about things happening elsewhere in my life.

So much for the tone of the documentaries, but what of their content? There are a few categories of disaster I can’t watch because they’re too distressing or triggering for me. These include incidents involving entrapment, especially where fire is involved. The 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in London left seventy-two dead and more than seventy injured, but I’m unable to watch or even read about what happened. Disasters involving train fires in tunnels such as the 1999 Mont Blanc tunnel fire and the Kaprun Funicular disaster of 2000 are off limits. Equally impossible are accounts of potholing and caving incidents, in particular where people have died trapped in narrow spaces. Even the video thumbnails of such tragedies are enough to have me scroll quickly past.

There’s no obvious explanation for this. I’m not particularly claustrophobic. I’d never want to go potholing but I have been underground on a couple of occasions. I recall a trip to visit the Blue John Cavern in Derbyshire when I was in my teens, and the caves at How Stean Gorge in the Yorkshire Dales. Neither experience left me with unpleasant memories and I’d do them again if the opportunity arose. I think it’s more the idea of extreme constriction of movement and entrapment that I find so difficult to think about, rather than being underground as such.

Empathy and Understanding

I’ve never been in a disaster situation, but other people’s accounts help me appreciate what it must be like. A friend of mine was on holiday with his family on Phuket, the largest island in Thailand at the time of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. It was the final day of their vacation and they’d intended spending the morning on the beach before checking out of their hotel and heading to the airport. They changed their plans at the last minute, deciding there wasn’t enough time before their flight. They were still on the island when the tsunami struck and witnessed much of the devastation first-hand, but that decision likely saved their lives.

I have other friends with experience of earthquakes and extreme weather events. Fran and I included two examples in our book High Tide, Low Tide: The Caring Friend’s Guide to Bipolar Disorder. The first explores my sense of helplessness in a situation where Fran’s safety appeared to be at risk.

In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy bore down on the East Coast of America. Fran lived alone and was naturally anxious as the region prepared for the hurricane’s arrival. It caused no significant damage where Fran lived, but for several days afterwards, she was unable to contact family in the more affected inland areas. I helped her track down information and emergency numbers but as I wrote in my diary, “I feel so very far from Fran right now.”

On other occasions, my sense of helplessness has been compounded by technical difficulties.

I’d been looking forward to meeting Fran on webcam tonight but the call kept dropping. We switched to voice but even that wouldn’t work. [...] Then she said there’d just been an earthquake! I couldn’t believe it! I chatted with her until well after one o’clock in the morning. I felt helpless and didn’t know what to do or say that could possibly help. Fran was shaken and worried about people who might be affected. Then she dismissed me so I could go to bed. She didn’t have the energy to handle my distress as well as hers.

Jen shared with me her experience of such events. Her words echo the helplessness I’d felt at a distance. How much more scary it must feel to be in the middle of things.

Near the end of my time In Seattle, I experienced an earthquake. Very scary. I’d take a tornado or lightning before that experience. Having the ground move beneath your feet gives a whole new meaning to “grounding.” One of the things you might touch on in your blog post is the complete loss of control in a situation like that. You come face to face with your mortality in a few short seconds or minutes. It’s very crazy. Anything can happen at any moment. There are no guarantees.

I’ve never watched a tornado but I’ve experienced tornado warnings. Helplessness is a scary feeling [as is] freezing to death. These [risks] are real where I live. It sucks, to be honest, but it serves two purposes. You realize how precarious life is and how Mother Nature can upset your basic existence. But there’s a beauty to it. The frost the snow can be very beautiful.

Nothing can prepare me for what it must be like to live through a disaster situation but such accounts provide human context to the factual accounts of disaster situations. No matter what happened, no single witness or account can provide the full story. That’s one reason I watch coverage of the same event by different presenters or channels. Each offers a unique perspective on what took place. This is especially valuable where details are contested or uncertain, as they are with the loss of the American fishing vessel Andrea Gail in the “perfect storm” of 1991, and the disappearance of Malaysian Flight MH370. The truth is even harder to get at where engaged parties have reasons to hide or misrepresent the facts, as in the Mount Erebus disaster or the tragedy of Aberfan.

Responsibility and Response

I’m not a big fan of true crime documentaries but in the case of disasters caused by criminal or terrorist acts I’m interested in the motives and psychology of the people responsible. It’s all too easy to segregate those who perform such acts from those who have not, as though there’s a fundamental difference between “them and us.” In my opinion, that’s an unhelpful and dangerous view. Horrific acts are often performed by “ordinary people.” Retrospectively demonising those responsible does little to address that reality.

Disaster documentaries also shed light on the those who help people caught up in dreadful circumstances, whether due to natural events, accident, or deliberate human agency. As famously expressed by children’s television host Fred Rogers, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” These include the professional helpers — emergency responders, police, fire crews, ambulance crews, paramedics, and medical and nursing staff — but also “ordinary people” who do all they can to assist those most affected.

I began this piece referencing the loss of the Titanic through the lens of Thomas Hardy’s poem “The Convergence of the Twain (Lines on the loss of the ‘Titanic’.” I’m especially drawn to events which appear designed to thwart what Hardy called mankind’s “Pride of Life.” I say appear to because I no longer believe in predestination or — quoting Hardy again — an “Immanent Will that stirs and urges everything.” It’s my belief that the cosmos is unaware of, and uninvolved in, our affairs. It nevertheless flatters human vanity to imagine we’re so important that the universe engineers disasters to keep us in our place. This is seen most clearly in disasters which occur due to the alignment of unlikely and apparently unrelated events, errors, or mistakes. The loss of the Titanic is archetypal but it’s no less true of the disaster at Los Rodeos airport in 1977, the Überlingen midair collision in 2002, and the Challenger disaster of 1986.

In each case, there’s a tendency to shake our heads at the implausibility of the disaster, as though it must have been fated to happen. How else could so many separate and relatively minor things conspire to bring about so tragic an outcome? The dangers with this kind of thinking are twofold. Attributing disasters of any kind to an external agency (whether god, fate, the universe, or Hardy’s Immanent Will) excuses us of responsibility for the very human omissions and mistakes that often lie behind such events. It also distracts us from the brutal but obvious fact that awful things sometimes happen. Not because the universe has it out for us. Not to punish us for our temerity as a species. Just because. As an atheist admirer of the Absurdist philosophy of Albert Camus, this is arguably my key takeaway from these disasters.

Here are a few of my favourite disaster-related channels on YouTube.

Aviation

Maritime

Mountaineering

Other

If you know of any other good disaster-related channels, I’d love to hear of them.

Over to You

When I first thought of exploring my interest in disaster documentaries, I had no idea it would end up as one of the longest blog posts I’ve written. I needn’t have included so many examples, but each event or accident I’ve mentioned holds something unique for me. If I’ve interested you in such content I’d love to hear from you, either in the comments below or via our contact page.

 

Photo by Library of Congress at Unsplash.

Taken in 1912 this remarkable photograph shows the “Titanic orphans” Michel (left) and Edmond Navratil. The photograph was taken before they were formally identified. They were the only children rescued from the sinking of RMS Titanic without a parent or guardian, their father having died in the disaster. Michel went on to become a philosophy professor. He died in January 2001 at the age of ninety-two, succeeding his brother Edmond who died in 1953.

 

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