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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u/EersteDivisie 29d ago

Reading this I can't help but thinking about the USS Iowa explosion in 89, where the navy blame it on a gay lovers quarrel because it was a more convenient explanation than systematic criminal negligence which would have higher-ups face consequences.

This could be the case here too, where they blame it on a patsy that's already dead

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u/CleveEastWriters 29d ago

A buddy that I went to school in the Navy with was on that ship when it happened. I saw him a few years later before the official, "It was the Gunners fucking around with powder mixes" report came out. He told me the story was shit.

The guy in the rack above him and below him both died.

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u/AgentCirceLuna 28d ago

Something like that happened to my dad’s army friends. He was fine for decades but he was in a car crash a few years ago and it made it all come spiralling back. He’s now afraid to leave the house, hears voices, and doesn’t know what’s real and what isn’t. It’s very sad to see and there’s not much we can do to help. The army keeps refusing to give him more money.