The lowest survival rate jobs in history

Safety standards haven’t always been what they are today, and for the vast majority of human history, people were given the option of doing something that could kill them, or simply starve to death. After the medieval period ended, things started to get much better when it came to work safety, but now and then a job would come along that would make dangerous careers of today look like a walk in the park. Here are some of the lowest survival rate jobs in history.

1) The 20 minute club – World war one pilot

During the First World War, planes were incredibly bad and a bomb dropped from one that landed within a mile of its target was considered accurate. With no cameras or surveillance equipment of any kind, a pilot would have to get very low down to see what was happening or to drop a bomb, and in a plane that could barely reach 100mph at best. The practice flight time of a ww1 pilot was usually no more than 10 hours, so with a pitiful amount of training, a new pilot would be expected to dogfight against German planes while avoiding fire from the ground, and in planes that had an average top speed of 50 mph at the start of the war. They were called the 20-minute club because that’s how long their life expectancy was when first deployed into combat.

2) Great Wall of China construction worker

It isn’t known how many people were involved in the construction of the wall, but it is known that the whole thing took about 200 years to complete. It’s estimated that around 400,000 people died trying to build the wall, mostly from starvation and accidents, and considering the wall is just over 21,000 km long, that works out as one person dying for every 50 meters of wall built. Many of those who died in its construction have been placed within the wall itself as a grim version of mortar.

3) Human torpedo – World war one

Often referred to as suicide torpedoes, this strange creation came about during the First World War as a method to make torpedoes more accurate and effective. To do this, someone came up with the great idea of putting a seat and steering column on top of the torpedo itself, so an operator could drive it into an enemy ship. The idea wasn’t to actually ride it until it hit the ship, but rather line it up so it can’t miss before jumping into the water and hoping you’re out of the blast range. If you didn’t get shot on approach or caught in the blast, then the best-case situation would leave you floating in the middle of the sea next to a sinking ship full of angry people with guns.

4) Logger

Currently, the job of logger is classed as one of the most dangerous professions in the United States, with the equivalent of one death for every 100 workers. Even with modern technology and communications, people still die on a regular basis doing this job, so we can only imagine how many people died throughout history by getting crushed by falling logs.

5) Russian soldier – world war two

No country even came close to losing as many people as Russia did, with approximately 15 million civilians and 11 million military deaths during the conflict. Many of Russia’s troops were inexperienced conscripts who were forced to fight for their country, and combined with the brutal tactics employed by the Red Army, a new recruit had little chance of surviving the whole war. One of the best examples would be the Battle of Stalingrad which saw Russia throw 400,000 troops into the city to defend it from the Germans, of which only 10,000 survived. Red Army tactics included only giving a gun to every one out of two people during charges, with the idea being the other one pick it up when the first one dies and machine-gunning anyone who retreated from what were basically suicide attacks.

6) Coffin ship captain – 1845 onwards

During the 1800s, Britain had a tight grip on the country of Ireland and implemented high taxes, causing great poverty across the whole nation. People were barely able to survive on what they had but the worse was yet to come, and in the year 1845 a potato blight swept across the country. Potatoes were the main crop of Ireland during the time and people chose them over growing grain, but with the main crop failing and no substitutes, starvation swept the country and forced people to either stay and starve or move somewhere else. The only option was America and the only way to get there was on one of the famous coffin ships, named as such for the high amount of deaths they would experience each voyage. People would die from starvation or disease on every single trip, usually spreading it around the whole ship which would be packed as tightly as possible. The captain would have to experience this on every voyage, which took 2 to 3 months to complete, exposing themselves to deadly diseases, rats, and human waste on a ship they couldn’t leave if they wanted to.