Most everyone in the world knows the story of the RMS Titanic: a ship of such magnitude that it was labeled as "unsinkable" before its inaugural journey. Tragedy would strike in the middle of the Atlantic ocean when the Titanic hit an iceberg. The ship sinks and ends the lives of around 1,500 people on board.

Thanks to books and movies made about the Titanic, it has become one of the most famous ship wrecks in all of history. However, it is not the most deadly. The most deadly sinking actually claimed the lives of more than six times the amount the Titanic did.

It was 30 days into the year 1945, World War II would be officially over in eight more months, and Germany had just given the order for a civilian evacuation away from the onslaught of Soviet troops in Western Europe in order to seek safety back home. One ship prepared to accept these refugees was the M.S. Wilhelm Gustloff, a former cruise ship meant to carry under 2,000 passengers. When it set sail, the Gustloff was carrying more than 10,000 German refugees and military personnel, almost half of which were children.

The Gustloff was hit by three Russian torpedoes at 9:16 P.M., about nine hours after it left the port in Northern Poland. After one torpedo hit the area where the crew was resting, that part of the ship was sealed off closing in the only men who knew how to lower the life boats properly. The lack of crew members able to help during the disaster, coupled with the sheer amount of people crammed into every nook and cranny of the ship proved to be deadly.

There was simply too much panic and not enough expertise on the deck when the time came to evacuate the ship. Most of the 10,000 passengers ended up in the freezing waters of the Baltic Sea during the cold winter night. The current consensus of historians is that over 9,000 of the passengers aboard the Gustloff perished that night.

Since the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff is considered to be the most deadly single ship disaster in all of history, it is curious to think why it is not more well known. When the sinking happened all the way back in 1945, the disaster was not reported due to Hitler not wanting his troops to hear any more bad news about the war they are destined to lose. The newspapers were also heavily controlled at this time and produced more propaganda than they did true facts. The Gustloff was doomed to sink in silence.

Recently the Gustloff is beginning to gain the attention it should have received 70 years ago when it first sank. Historians are taking an interest in the ship and reporting on their findings which is why there are now more accurate counts for passengers aboard the ship and those who perished then there have been until this point. The Gustloff's story has even been featured on an episode of the Discovery Channel's "Unsolved History". There is even a historical fiction novel, "Salt to the Sea" by Ruta Sepetys, which tells the story of four young adults who find themselves on the Gustloff when it is sinking.

While it was a disaster when the Titanic sank, the Wilhelm Gustloff deserves the same kind of attention as its counterpart. Though their stories may not be the same, their passenger list may have been different, and the Gustloff may have been sunk during an act of war, that does not mean that the lives that were lost are any less valuable and have a right to be forgotten.

The next time World War II crosses your brain, do not forget to think about the lives lost on the M.S. Wilhelm Gustloff, because they deserve to be remembered after living out their final moments in a terrible tagedy.