On January 30, 1959, the Danish ocean liner, MS Hans Hedtoft, was on the return leg of its maiden voyage when it struck an iceberg off the coast of Greenland and sunk, the only trace of the ship ever being found was a single lifebelt that washed ashore.
Digging Deeper
In an eerie coincidence, like the RMS Titanic of 1912, the Hans Hedtoft was considered extremely safe, with a double hull, armored bow for ice breaking, and 7 watertight compartments. Designed for service on the Denmark-Greenland run, she was built for hard duty in dangerous seas. She was said to be “the safest ship afloat” and “unsinkable,” an assertion that should have gone out of the vernacular after the Titanic! Also like the Titanic, the Hans Hedtoft was built with riveted construction (instead of welded seams), a method of ship building normally considered not as sturdy as welding.
