04-11-2018, 04:12 PM
I'd never heard of this. On 18 January 1994, the American Star (originally the S.S. America) ran aground off the west coast of Fuerteventura.
She was being towed to Thailand to become a five-star floating hotel by the Ukrainian tug Neftegaz-67, but during the hundred-day tow a huge and violent storm forced the tow lines to snap and all attempts to save the vessel failed, which resulted in the former luxury liner being left adrift in the harsh Atlantic Ocean for a few days until she ran aground.
Within 48 hours she was broken in two by huge and fierce waves and was eventually abandoned having being declared a total loss by her owners, she remained stranded on a sandbank at Playa de Garcey (about 5km south of Ajuy) until many years later when she finally collapsed and broken up into the sea.
The remarkable footage that you can see in the YouTube link below was taken by TVE Canarias as part of a news coverage of the incident and was later used in the French documentary "Vie et Mort de l'America", this is the only known footage of the ship shortly after she ran aground and broke in two.
She was being towed to Thailand to become a five-star floating hotel by the Ukrainian tug Neftegaz-67, but during the hundred-day tow a huge and violent storm forced the tow lines to snap and all attempts to save the vessel failed, which resulted in the former luxury liner being left adrift in the harsh Atlantic Ocean for a few days until she ran aground.
Within 48 hours she was broken in two by huge and fierce waves and was eventually abandoned having being declared a total loss by her owners, she remained stranded on a sandbank at Playa de Garcey (about 5km south of Ajuy) until many years later when she finally collapsed and broken up into the sea.
The remarkable footage that you can see in the YouTube link below was taken by TVE Canarias as part of a news coverage of the incident and was later used in the French documentary "Vie et Mort de l'America", this is the only known footage of the ship shortly after she ran aground and broke in two.