On 18th January 1994, the American Star (originally the SS America) ran aground off the west coast of Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands.
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 been declared a total loss by her owners, she remained stranded on a sandbank at Playa de Garcey until many years later when she finally collapsed and broken up into the sea.
The remarkable footage that you see here 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.
Негізгі бет SS American Star - Stranded on Fuerteventura in 1994
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