The Horrifying Wreck of the SS HUNGARIAN (Cape Sable Island, NS - 1860)

The Allan Liner SS Hungarian entered service in 1859, steaming between Liverpool and Quebec, Canada. In February, 1860, the ship went down off of Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia, with no survivors.

This is our biggest documentary to date and in the making for over two years, featuring detailed recreations of the ship using Unreal Engine 5 built off of the ship's original plans. We travel to the wreck site, visit the graves, and even find the exact point where the witnesses watched the disaster from.

In this documentary, we're visiting several museums to take a closer look at artifacts and archives to be sure that every bit of evidence is analyzed. We visit the Barrington Museum Complex and Seal Island Lighthouse Museum in Barrington, the Archelaus Smith Museum on Cape Sable Island, and the Yarmouth County Museum and Archives in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. We even make our way down to Quebec and Montreal, and out to rural Maine to find sites related to this forgotten disaster.

This documentary features not only the wreck of the SS Hungarian, as we piece together the evidence and examine the eyewitness statements, but in exploring the ship's history, we also recreate the thrilling tale of the wreck of the Jean Martin, where the Hungarian's crew heroically rescued all on board, and the wreck of Hungarian's fleet mate, the Indian, only a few months earlier.

Featured in this documentary is a brand new recording of a song written about the disaster by famed American folk musician Stephen Foster titled "Lizzie Dies Tonight", performed by Dr. Bethany Turpin.

Watch the full "Lizzie Dies Tonight" performance here: (Coming Soon)

0:00 - Introduction
2:04 - Cape Sable Island
4:24 - The Allan Line
7:53 - Construction and Early Service
12:34 - The Wreck of the Jean Martin
18:34 - The Wreck of the Indian
20:20 - The Great January Storm
22:24 - Rough Waters
27:00 - The Wreck as Witnessed
34:24 - Victims and Graves
41:40 - Salvage
43:43 - What Went Wrong?
48:38 - The Final Voyage
53:14 - The Wreck of the Hungarian
59:59 - Lizzie Dies Tonight
1:05:43 - Horatio Brannen’s Salvage
1:08:46 - The Area Today
1:14:42 - Conclusion

[viewpointyarmouth]

Tom I was blown away when I loaded up this video and saw your beautiful study. I recognized the space right away. I grew up in your home and I owned it for a few years after my father passed. I have pictures and other things that you may find interesting.

[luchadorito]

As a Hungarian mariner I love how the most famous ships named after Hungary or related to Hungary are the Carpathia (helped in the Titanic rescue effort so connected to a disaster), the SS Hungarian (sunk) and the SMS Szent István (got fucked by a torpedo in WW1 after doing barely anything). We are awful unlucky when it comes to seafearing but that wont stop us trying :D

[chrisbrowne]

You putting roses on those graves really moved me and I think it says something about the maturity of this channel

[thestonedabbot]

When I was in school I used to look up obscure wrecks all the time and I came across the story of the SS Hungarian. I got strangely fascinated with it given how little info was available on it to me, and I remember explicitly looking forward to someday in the future when a full-length documentary was made about it. I even made a little balsa wood model of the Hungarian when I was about 12 which I still have

Today that long wait for a better historian to do a deep dive into the SS Hungarian comes to an end. Blessings onto you Tom for bringing this tragic and underrated story into the spotlight

[MagdaleneDivine]

The level of effort, energy, travel and research and sheer leg work AND THATS BEFORE the editing and script and...I wasn't even interested in the subject but the quality of this content needs to be appreciated and commented on. You deserve my view.
If y'all agree pls agree so it counts as engagement. They deserve "applause" truly

[harryshuman]

Thanks for taking time with making good documentaries, instead of making daily videos with recycled material like other youtubers do.

[benstrong]

What a horrible tragedy. I can't imagine sitting on the shore watching as 200 people died with no power to help them. Good work as always though. Your visuals and narration are incredible!
And what a beautiful piano piece connected to the disaster. Almost brings me to tears.

[kidmohair]

for some reason this shipwreck story is more compelling and moving
than the others you have found and told us about.
perhaps it is the closeness of, but completely out of reach, succour...
or the lugubrious Stephan Foster song, or just my mood....
doesn't matter.
thank you, Mr Lynskey, HFX studios and all who worked on this.

[newcarpathia]

Your presentations are all ways first class. Beautiful presentation. Little to no sensationalism, exaggeration, or clickbaity titles or thumbnails. Just the story, knowns and unknowns, presented compellingly and with taste.

[AndyHappyGuy]

This is a masterpiece, I felt immersed in the Hungarian's story the whole time. I was watching this video on the big TV screen when my Dad walked in at 13:29 and asked how anyone was able to get live action footage of a ship which sunk in 1860. This video is THAT realistic and immersive.

[jaynorris]

Tom, you leaving the roses for that little family says so much about you. Pure class.
Thank you for all your wonderful videos.

[OutsideGalaxy]

I am always amazed by the quality of your work and the amazing storytelling. You make The people seem human without overdramatizing real tragedy

[Eskos]

Again another piece of incredibly well made documentary, which I think will make the Hungarian far more famous than a lacking footnote in maritime history. Great job. And thank you to everyone who contributed in the making of this film. I'm left speechless. Thank you.

[nikospapageorgiou]

With all due respect, to all the souls mentioned in your video, who perished at sea, I have to say this is a great documentary! The way you present the facts, along with your meticulous research, deserve to be complimented! Great job!

[Krommer]

Man, the graphics on the old sailing ships is getting SO GOOD! There are times that you have to remind yourself that it's CG.

[Erik_Wulf]

A very tragic and almost forgotten ship accident. I was blown away by this awesome documentary. You're dealing with the historical background, the story of company and ship, talked about different fates of those onboard, the impact it had to the people living nearby, ofcourse the technical and nautical background to the disaster (as far as it can be reconstructed based on known facts), you payed respect to the victims and travelled to the differen locations related to the accident, ... This is absolutely amazing work and I am sure it was a lot of effort. But you really connected with this disaster and it's story and you give us viewers a much deeper insight and connection than any TV documentary could do. And in addition you put this awesome animations in the video to visualise the tragedy. As someone who is into ships and ship accidents, I enjoy your content and your way of doing this documentaries. I am sure this was a lot of work and effort, but I can ensure you this was absolutely worth it and pays tribute to those who vanished on-board HUNGARIAN. Thank you so much for this awesome video of an almost forgotten chapter in maritime history!

[LolLol-xyrh]

That piano music really does make this documentary feel like something special

[ramonapetermann]

Hi Tom, I am always fascinated on how much work you put into your videos. Well researched, you travel to all the distant shores you are telling us about, you speak to locals or witnesses and do a lot of beautiful artwork to explain to us what happened, and your choice of music is just outstanding. Your soothing voice does the rest to keep me at my computer for hours. You are doing great work, Tom, please go on like this, thank you so much. 👍👍👍👍👍

[willsbugroom]

If TV wasn't dying I'd say you need a show on discovery channel! Love your content, keep up the great work!

[roadweary]

Normally I watch your videos on my iPad but for something this epic, I had to stream it to the living room TV. Absolutely amazing job. Yet again, Tom! Productions like this is why I’m a loyal follower and Patreon supporter.