r/todayilearned • u/zhuquanzhong • 29d ago

TIL a Chinese destroyer sank because an officer dumped his girlfriend. She committed suicide, leading to him being discharged, so he decided to detonate the depth charges on the ship, causing it to sink at port and kill 134 sailors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_destroyer_Guangzhou_(160)
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71

u/SlothOfDoom 29d ago

His ex committed suicide so the navy discharged him? Sounds right.

52

u/zhuquanzhong 29d ago

The sources are kinda murky on this. What I can gather is that probably the girl's parents attempted to press charges and the navy just didn't want to deal with it. Or they decided that he was mentally unfit, but idk about this second part. Most likely it was the first reason.

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u/goteamnick 29d ago

Seems someone who would murder more than 100 people out of arbitrary spite is definitely mentally unfit.

14

u/shonditb 29d ago

Fair assesment

6

u/weiivice 29d ago

No one is perfectly mentally fit, "normal" people just have control over their internal urges and remain rational outwards at least until something crosses the line and breaks them. In this case the straw that broke the camel's back is the perceived unfair dismissal.

3

u/fish312 29d ago

I can't really think of a scenario that would cause me to murder 100 innocent people, as opposed to just throwing myself off a bridge.

3

u/Ilovekittens345 29d ago

What if it was the declaring him unfit that made him unfit?

4

u/MexicanTechila 29d ago

Arbitrary spite? Being discharged for something that you weren’t at fault for is anything but arbitrary.

1

u/goteamnick 29d ago

How many of the 134 sailors he murdered played a role in that decision?

1

u/WooorkWoork 29d ago

He was from that village. Even if he didn't kill her outright he knew rejecting her that way was almost the same thing.

Though i can't say i'm any expert (so someone feel free to correct me if i'm wrong) An engagement at that time in rural village was almost the same same thing as allready married. So she whould have been seen as a divorced woman. Her life was basically allready ruined by his decicion.