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In this episode of Shipwreck Tales, Graeme Hill is joined by John McCrystal to revisit the sinking of the Empress of Ireland, Canada’s worst peacetime maritime disaster. Often overshadowed by the Titanic, the 1914 tragedy claimed 1,012 lives after a collision in fog on the St. Lawrence River. Hill and McCrystal unpack the events of that night, the conflicting accounts of the two captains, the desperate struggle for survival in freezing water, and the enduring mystery of why one of the deadliest shipwrecks of the modern era remains so little remembered.
In this episode, Graeme Hill is joined by John McCrystal for a gripping Shipwreck Tales account of the Sydney Cove, one of Australia’s earliest recorded shipwrecks. What begins as a speculative trading voyage from Calcutta to the fledgling penal colony at Port Jackson becomes a brutal survival story: a leaking ship, a desperate beaching on Preservation Island, a failed rescue mission, and a 640 kilometre overland trek along a hostile and unfamiliar coastline. It is a tale of endurance, misjudgment, maritime superstition and cruel twists of fate, ending with rescue for some and tragedy for others.
Podcast introduction: In this episode of Shipwreck Tales, Graeme Hill is joined by maritime writer John McCrystal to revisit the extraordinary 1989 survival story of the Rose Noelle. What begins as a routine voyage from Picton to Tonga becomes one of New Zealand’s most improbable maritime ordeals, as four men endure 119 days adrift in an overturned trimaran. Hill and McCrystal unpack the decisions, personalities, false hopes and astonishing luck behind a shipwreck tale that was so unlikely many people struggled to believe it was true.
In this episode of Shipwreck Tales, Graeme Hill is joined by John McCrystal to revisit the devastating story of the Russian submarine Kursk, which sank in the Barents Sea in August 2000 with all 118 crew lost. Together, they trace the chain of technical failure, Cold War-era secrecy and delayed rescue efforts that turned a naval exercise into one of the most haunting submarine disasters of the modern age.
In this episode of Shipwreck Tales, Graeme Hill is joined by John McCrystal to revisit the sinking of the Soviet cruise liner Mikhail Lermontov in the Marlborough Sounds in 1986. What begins as a scenic cruise through New Zealand waters becomes a story of misplaced confidence, maritime judgment, and unanswered questions, as an experienced local pilot guides a luxury liner dangerously close to shore. Hill and McCrystal unpack the decisions that led to the ship striking rocks near Cape Jackson, the difficult rescue that followed, the loss of a life, and the lingering mystery around why such a catastrophic choice was made.
In this episode of Shipwreck Tales, Graeme Hill is joined by shipwreck storyteller John McCrystal to explore one of New Zealand’s most remarkable survival stories: the wreck of the Grafton on the remote Auckland Islands. Together, they set the scene of a brutal Southern Ocean landscape, where bad charts, fierce westerlies and freezing conditions turned the islands into a notorious trap for ships. The conversation follows the five-man crew’s extraordinary 19-month ordeal, from building shelter and finding food to engineering their own escape and reflects on the endurance, ingenuity and character revealed when people are pushed to the edge of survival.
In this episode, Graeme Hill is joined by maritime storyteller John McCrystal for the final instalment of their much-loved Shipwreck Tales series. Together, they revisit the haunting story of the Edmund Fitzgerald the vast Great Lakes ore carrier made famous by Gordon Lightfoot’s song. Exploring the ship’s scale, the brutal Lake Superior storm that overwhelmed her in 1975, the mystery surrounding her sudden loss, and the enduring fascination with one of North America’s most famous maritime tragedies.