Shipwrecks

A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. Shipwrecking may be intentional or unintentional. There were approximately three million shipwrecks worldwide as of January 1999, according to Angela Croome, a science writer and author who specialized in the history of underwater archaeology (an estimate rapidly endorsed by UNESCO and other organizations). When a ship’s crew has died or abandoned the ship, and the ship has remained adrift but unsunk, they are instead referred to as ghost ships.

Naufragios

Historic wrecks are attractive to maritime archaeologists because they preserve historical information: for example, studying the wreck of Mary Rose revealed information about seafaring, warfare, and life in the 16th century. Military wrecks, caused by a skirmish at sea, are studied to find details about the historic event; they reveal much about the battle that occurred. Discoveries of treasure ships, often from the period of European colonisation, which sank in remote locations leaving few living witnesses, such as Batavia, do occur as well. Some contemporary wrecks, such as the oil tanker Prestige or Erika, are of interest primarily because of their potential harm to the environment. Other contemporary wrecks are scuttled in order to spur reef growth, such as Adolphus Busch and Ocean Freeze. Many contemporary and historic wrecks, such as Thistlegorm, are of interest to recreational divers that dive to shipwrecks because they are interesting to explore, provide large habitats for many types of marine life, and have an interesting history.

Schiffswracks

沉船

D-Day Shipwreck Museum in Normandy, France

Order Image 18.270

Well-known shipwrecks include the catastrophic Titanic, MV Doña Paz, Britannic, Lusitania, Estonia, Empress of Ireland, Andrea Doria, Endurance or Costa Concordia. There are also thousands of wrecks that were not lost at sea but have been abandoned or sunk. These abandoned, or derelict ships are typically smaller craft, such as fishing vessels. They may pose a hazard to navigation and may be removed by port authorities. Poor design, improperly stowed cargo, navigation and other human errors leading to collisions (with another ship, the shoreline, an iceberg, etc.), bad weather, fire, and other causes can lead to accidental sinking. Intentional reasons for sinking a ship include: intending to form an artificial reef; destruction due to warfare, piracy, mutiny or sabotage; using the vessel for target practice; or removing a menace to navigation. A ship can be also used as breakwater structure.

حطام السفن

Naufrages

Shipwrecks in some freshwater lakes, such as the Great Lakes of North America, have remained intact with little degradation. In some sea areas, most notably in Gulf of Bothnia and Gulf of Finland, salinity is very low, and centuries-old wrecks have been preserved in reasonable condition. However, bacteria found in fresh water cause the wood on ships to rot more quickly than in seawater unless it is deprived of oxygen. Two shipwrecks, USS Hamilton and USS Scourge, have been at the bottom of Lake Ontario since they sunk during a violent storm on August 8, 1813, during the War of 1812. They are in “remarkably good” condition. Wrecks typically decay rapidly when in seawater. There are several reasons for this:

Iron-based metals corrode much more quickly in seawater because of the dissolved salt present; the sodium and chloride ions chemically accelerate the process of metal oxidation which, in the case of ferrous metals, leads to rust. Such cases are prominent on deep-water shipwrecks, such as RMS Titanic (sank 1912), RMS Lusitania (sank 1915), and German battleship Bismarck (sank 1941). However, there are some exceptions; RMS Empress of Ireland (sank 1914) lies in the saltwater portion of the St. Lawrence River, but is still in remarkably good condition.
Unprotected wood in seawater is rapidly consumed by shipworms and small wood-boring sea creatures. Shipworms found in higher salinity waters, such as the Caribbean, are notorious for boring into wooden structures that are immersed in sea water and can completely destroy the hull of a wooden shipwreck.

Gemi enkazları

Кораблекрушения

Wrecks are often considered separately from their cargo. For example, in the British case of Lusitania (1986) QB 384 it was accepted that the remains of the vessel itself were owned by the insurance underwriters who had paid out on the vessel as a total loss by virtue of the law of subrogation (who subsequently sold their rights), but that the property aboard the wreck still belonged to its original owners or their heirs. Military wrecks, however, remain under the jurisdiction – and hence protection – of the government that lost the ship, or that government’s successor. Hence, a German U-boat from World War II still technically belongs to the German government, although Nazi Germany (the government at the time) is long-defunct. Many military wrecks are also protected by virtue of being war graves.