there are two ways you can travel across
the sea
you can either take a plane or you can
take a boat
planes might get you there faster but if
you want to enjoy the scenic route
you jump aboard a ship a well-made ship
can stay afloat for 30 years
or more and when they’re retired they
usually go to a breakers yard to be
taken apart with dignity and respect
not all ships make it that far though
some of them end up being abandoned
each one of them with a story to tell

Shipwreck Beach

why start with a single shipwreck when
we could start with a
beach full of them if you travel to the
hawaiian island of lanai
you’ll find a series of shipwrecks
dotted along shipwreck beach
a six mile long shore that plays host to
the remains of
12 different forgotten vessels the trail
starts with wyogn42 an old u.s navy
ferro cement fuel barge
and ends with wyo-21 another u.s vessel
that was once a navy yard oiler
some of the incidents that have stranded
ships here can be blamed on the area’s
powerful currents and strong winds
but that isn’t the case for all of them
back in the 19th century
the beach became a dumping ground for
people who didn’t want to pay the costs
associated with scrapping an unwanted
ship most of them rot away
but as y021 and yog and 42 were made
from concrete as opposed to timber
they’re still mostly in one piece while
some people consider them to be an
eyesore
others find them fascinating that’s why
shipwreck beach has become a popular
place to visit for passing tourists

Abandoned island

head toward the leeward antilles in the
caribbean and you’ll find
karakow a slightly creepy abandoned
island completely devoid of life
that hasn’t always been the case though
as is evidenced by the presence of an
empty lighthouse
the lighthouse isn’t alone on the island
it has two shipwrecks to keep it company
one of them is the shattered wreck of
the maria bianca guidesman
the vessel was once a proud oil tanker
but ran aground on klein karako
during the 1960s with so much force
that the ship sheared clean in two
obviously that made the idea of
salvaging the vessel completely out of
the question
and so the battered shell of the ship
has been slowly falling to pieces in the
sun for almost
60 years the second vessel is harder to
identify
but it’s possible that it would tell a
shameful story if it could talk
the dutch west india company’s slave
trade route passed through this area
and the island was used to quarantine
six slaves in a shabby hospital
the ruins of which can still be seen on
the island today
this second ship might well have been a
slave ship which would explain why
nobody’s
ever owned up to leaving it there

The Creepy Boom

for such a small piece of land ireland
has a lot of shipwrecks on its coastline
and its riverbanks
one of the most notable is in baleena
quay
county mayo that’s where you’ll find the
abandoned ss
creep boom trapped forever on the river
moy
the vessel is over a century old and
owes its strange
choice of construction material to the
fact that traditional shipbuilding
materials were hard to get hold of
during the first world war the crete
boom was built in 1917. and was put into
service
shipping iron ore from spain to england
after the war was over the crete boom
was bought by a london-based company and
started transporting coal
to and from mainland europe it didn’t
come to ireland until 1937
by which point it was in poor shape and
was scheduled to be scuttled and become
part of a barrier at the mouth of the
river
but it struck rocks on the final leg of
its journey and began taking on water
all that could be done for the stricken
vessel was to tow it to midstream
and that’s where she’s been ever since

World Discoverer

it’s a little ironic for a ship with a
name like world discoverer to get stuck
in one part of the world for 20 years
but that’s the fate that’s befallen this
vessel
she had a long and happy life before she
met with this misfortune though
the world discoverer was built in 1974
in germany
and sold to a danish company as a cruise
liner and then sold again to another
cruise company
this time one based in singapore they
kept her for 16 years
during which time she traveled the whole
world and delighted many passengers
by 1990 she was showing her age
but she was given a full refurbishment
and started sailing again
in good as new condition this time under
the national flag of liberia
it’s possible she might even have
survived until today under normal
circumstances but it wasn’t to be
she hit a reef close to the solomon
islands in april 2000 and the damage was
severe
all of the passengers were rescued but
her heroic captain oliver kroyce
chose to remain on board and pilot her
to roderick bay
that allowed all of the valuables on the
ship to be salvaged
but no more could be done for the 26
year old ship

Concrete Ship

as strange as the idea of a concrete
ship might sound
great britain wasn’t the only country
that built them in the past
you can find the remains of another one
in the lower reaches of the volga
close to astrakhan in russia not far
from the caspian sea
not much is known about this strange
looking wreck it’s a hybrid creation
partially made from concrete and
partially made from steel
based on its size and its internal
layout it would be reasonable to guess
that it might have been a tanker back
when it was in serviceable condition
as the vessel is totally unguarded it’s
possible for people to climb aboard and
explore it
which is how we got these pictures as
you can see
the lower decks are taking on water and
in places the concrete has crumbled
and exposed the steel mesh that holds
the vessel together
it’s clear that the ship has been left
alone for a long time
and it’s sadly past the point where it
would be able to be fixed
who knows what kind of goods might have
been carried inside it back when it had
a crew and an owner

Questor I

we’ve all heard the famous song yellow
submarine by the beatles
but did you know that there’s a real
yellow submarine stranded in the waters
of coney island creek in new york city
usa
the forgotten vessel which can still
just about be identified as yellow
despite a thick coating of orange rust
is the questor one the 45 foot long
submarine was built in brooklyn in 1967
by
one man working alone jerry bianco made
his ship from salvaged metal
and intended to use it to salvage
valuables from the wreck of the ss
andrea doria
an italian passenger liner that sank
close to nantucket sound 11 years
earlier
he never even got the chance to try the
crane that was lowering the submarine
into the water slipped
and questor 1 fell sideways into a mud
bank and got stuck
bianco attempted to refill the ballast
and re-float the quaestor but he
couldn’t free it
and eventually he was forced to abandon
his creation
the ship stayed in the mud until 1981
when it broke free and drifted away
you can still see the top of it on a
clear day when the tide is low

Tangalooma Shipwrecks

if you’re interested in shipwrecks and
you also have a passion for snorkeling
you might want to consider visiting
australia’s tangaluma island resort
and combining your two passions there
you’ll find the tangalooma wrecks 15
ships were deliberately sunk by the
queensland government
over the course of 20 years from 1963
to create an anchorage spot for other
boats
and they’ve all become home to a vast
array of marine life
more than 100 different species of fish
have been recorded around the wrecks
and sometimes a few dolphins stop by to
say hello after so many years in the
water
some of the ships have deteriorated more
than others but the silhouette
of the maybaro built in 1885 is still
easy to identify
as you look upon the site from the
safety of the shore the breem the more
wong the kookaburra and the pelican
are also among the members of this
scuttled club don’t worry if you’re not
a strong swimmer
you could hire a sea scooter to take a
speedy tour of the wrecks if you’d
prefer

USS Arizona Memorial

our next shipwreck also attracts a lot
of visitors and tourists
but for a more somber reason it’s the
uss
arizona memorial in hawaii the arizona
was famously sunk
during the japanese attack on pearl
harbor in december 1941.
the incident that sparked full-scale
american involvement in the second world
war
the memorial was built 20 years after
the attack
and allows around 2 million visitors
each year to get close to the wreck
without disturbing it
the structure of the memorial straddles
the hull of the lost battleship
but doesn’t actually touch it which
minimizes the damage that the visitors
do to the site
since 1989 what’s left of the arizona
has been registered as a national
historic landmark
if you’d like to visit the memorial and
pay your respects
you might be advised to do so sooner
rather than later
a large crack was noted on the exterior
of the arizona in may 2018
and although it was repaired it quickly
cracked again
visitors were suspended for a full year
after that
and although they’ve recently been
permitted again nobody knows how much
longer the ship will last

Duke of Lancaster

it might still be possible to rescue the
tss duke of lancaster but time is
running out fast
the british railway steamer operated
throughout europe between 1956 and 1979
and was supposed to begin a new life as
an entertainment vessel after that
but a series of legal disputes have left
it beached on the river d
in wales for more than 40 years the duke
of lancaster used to operate as a ferry
service
but the route she worked on was
withdrawn in november 1978.
a welsh company bought her and attempted
to reopen to fill her with arcades and
funfair attractions
renaming her the fun ship but the local
council
and lanark moore weren’t happy with the
idea
the owners battled with the authorities
until 2004 but eventually conceded
defeat
and so the ship appeared to be doomed as
rusty as the exterior appears
internally she’s said to be in good
condition a new plan to turn the ship
into an art gallery was announced in
2012
and saw some of europe’s best graffiti
artists invited to come and decorate the
hall
but in 2017 the ship was painted jet
black without any explanation
there’s been no further news since

The Swanny Bell

heading back to the united states of
america you’ll find the swanny bell
looking conspicuous on dry land
in east central pennsylvania despite the
riverboat’s antiquated appearance
she’s not actually as old as she looks
the ship was built by the lacrosse
riverboat company in wisconsin in 1985
but she was based on the much older
paddle wheel bell of swaney
that used to run on the swanee river in
florida many years earlier
initially she carried up to 150
passengers at a time between the hudson
river
and east river bay in new york but only
stayed there for a year or so before
moving on to mobile alabama
and then to john’s pass in florida
eventually and inevitably she started
operating on the swanee river in january
1988
just like the vessel she was based on
used to
she didn’t last long though in november
of that year she was ripped from her
moorings by a storm
and drifted for more than 60 miles
breaking a hydraulic line before running
aground
at hernando beach the incident damaged
her badly
and so she was decommissioned in 1991.
ten years later the wreck was bought and
moved to pennsylvania by a businessman
who intended to turn her into a
restaurant
but the company went bankrupt and the
swanny bell
was left to abandonment
our next location is known by two
different names the staten island
graveyard
and the tugboat graveyard both names
give you a strong clue about what you
can expect to find
at the new york city site this is the
place that many of the hundreds of ships
that used to serve the piers of new
york’s coast
were taken to be scrapped over the years
but the scrapping service
no longer operates it didn’t even have
the good grace to clean up its mess
before it stopped trading
at last count there were more than two
dozen ships still floating on the
waterway
most of which are in a desperate state
of disrepair
tugboats are moored for all eternity
right next to dredgers
rubbing together as the waters rise and
fall
and slowly being weathered away some of
them have sunk so far into filth
that only a few rotting timbers remain
anything that might have scrap value or
salvage potential was either sold or
stolen a long time ago
now the sad remnants of these old boats
have no owner
and no future the site is an eyesore
and it’s a wonder that the city hasn’t
done anything about it since 1990

USS Inauguration

it’s a lot easier to identify the wreck
of the uss inaugural in st louis
missouri
than it is to identify anything at the
tugboat graveyard
but it’s still a rusty abandoned
spectacle of a ship
in her prime she was an admirable class
minesweeper
that saw action during the second world
war when she
sailed to okinawa but she was
decommissioned long before she ended up
in this state
when she first arrived in saint louis
she became a floating war museum
but she was torn from her mississippi
river moorings by the great flood of
1993 and carried downstream
she didn’t make it far she ended up
sunken on her side half a mile away
for most of the next 20 years it was
impossible to gain access to her
but an unusually dry spell in 2012
lowered the level of the river and
exposed the shell of the inaugural for
all to see
what was there wasn’t pretty it was
immediately obvious that she didn’t have
any future use
other than as a canvas for the area’s
graffiti artists
and so she was eventually sold for scrap
that’s a sad end for a ship with such a
distinguished history
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