I think everyone knows about the story of the RMS Titanic, she was the largest ship in the world when she sank on her maiden voyage after an iceberg collision and was considered unsinkable before that. However, there have been much worse maritime disasters (in terms of death toll) in history like the MV Doña Paz with ~ 4,386 deaths compared to Titanic’s ~1500 deaths. So why is Titanic more famous and popular than Doña Paz? Why does no one ever talk about the worst peacetime maritime disaster in history? I believe it’s because of how Titanic is portrayed in the media. First off, Titanic was heavily promoted in newspapers at the time. She was the biggest ship of her time and newspapers capitalized on that a ton, calling it unsinkable, even though White Star Line and Harland & Wolff never advertised it like that. There was also a huge difference in terms of money, both rich and poor people were on it. Meanwhile Doña Paz was just a standard RORO (Roll on, roll off) ferry that people went on frequently, only people who were interested in ships would have acknowledged what ship they were on unlike Titanic which even regular citizens knew about. Passengers onboard Doña Paz were also poor, and unable to afford better options to get to their destination. The second reason is romanticism. The story of Titanic is almost poetic, the largest ship in the world thought to be unsinkable, sinks after a collision with an iceberg on her maiden voyage with huge loss of life. Add a love story with a rich girl and poor boy falling in love until the ship slowly and dramatically sinks, make it a movie, and it becomes even more popular. Doña Paz, however, was a sudden and chaotic collision with an Oil Tanker, with no time to think and to be romanticized. I believe that this is how media influences our memory on tragedies.