Sinking of the RMS Loughreen

The Sinking of the RMS Loughreen (Royal Myrish Ship Loughreen) was an event which took place on January 8, 1989, in which a passenger ferry originating from Merser, Gladomyr, to Staatsburg, Renesia struck an iceberg, causing it to take on water and inevitably sink over the course of an hour. Occurring during the early hours of the morning, rescue attempts were weakened in strength due to the darkness as well as initial confusion and chaos which eventually resulted in the preventable loss of several hundred more lives than were necessary. She was carrying 860 passengers, mostly hailing from Renesia, Gladomyr, and Ecoralia, and was forced to turn around back to Gladomyr due to a blockage in the East Ecoraland Canal which formed during its trip. As a result of a crucial oversight, the weather conditions in the ship's route back grew dangerously rough, to the point where steering became strenuous and any potential obstacles turned into an extremely dangerous hazard. This happened to be the case when an iceberg was spotted in the ship's path, and when a maneuver to avoid it failed, the ship struck the berg and caused an explosion within the lower decks, which further resulted in a large hole in the bow of the ferry.

The boat then slowly took on water in the lower decks, and the uneven weight distribution caused by this resulted in the ship flipping upside down before sinking rapidly. Evacuation efforts were attempted, but due to the suddenness and time, only roughly half of the lifeboats on board were deployed. A mayday call was also sent out over radio, but for a reason unknown, the message was either not heard or the seriousness of the situation was misunderstood. This brought about a delayed and unorganized rescue effort. Ecoralia, whose waters the disaster occurred in, initially rejected international help in search-and-rescue, but soon also accepted outside rescue teams to help evacuate survivors and to further investigate the wreckage. In the hours which followed the catastrophe, Renesian, Eduran, Ecoralian, Myrish, Salian, and Velorenkyan rescue helicopters, ships, and more would send aid to the site of the tragedy, patrolling for missing lifeboats which were blown away during the heavy storm and otherwise providing support. Two days after the sinking, a Renesian diving team recovered seven more survivors who had survived inside of an air pocket in the dining hall of the ship. Pieces of the wreckage were recovered from the seafloor two weeks after the incident by Myrish and Velorenkyan ships in an effort to study the cause and timeline of events that lead to the tragic loss of 749 onboard. Of all 860 who were on the ship, 111 survived the calamity.

Background
The RMS Loughreen was a which was built in 1976 in a Velorenkyan shipyard near Serrapole. In 1980, she was sold to Koghlen Company in Ordrey as the ONS Northward and operated a route between Noters and Marillon, Akerland. It was then sold again to Gralten Shipping Co. in 1984 under the Ecoralian flag before finally being sold to the Myrish Longdal & Nord in 1985 as the RMS Loughreen. The ship's most regular route was that between Merser and Staatsburg. Her namesake was the city of Loughreen in Gladomyr.