Have you ever thought about what happens to ships that have served their time? For their disposal create special man-made cemeteries of ships. They can be dry docks in which ships containing asbestos and other materials that can have a harmful effect on the environment are stored.
Man-made cemeteries of ships can also be created at sea, where old ships are left to collapse or disassemble into components. But, undoubtedly, the most interesting are not these artificially created resting places, but ship cemeteries that spontaneously arose.
Insidious Atlantic
During the existence of shipping, the Atlantic became the last refuge for millions of ships created in different eras. Usually, ship cemeteries arise at the intersection of sea routes, where brave sailors are guarded by insidious reefs, wandering sands, not indicated on rock maps. So, near Dover there is a place where the terrain is constantly changing its shape, posing a real threat to sailors even today. What can we say about those sailors who did not know modern instruments? Near Dover there is a cemetery of sunken ships, on which, according to historians, hundreds of "floating vessels" and more than 50 thousand people who lived in different historical times rest. Having drilled the bottom to a depth of 15 meters, scientists discovered that the entire core taken consists of the remains of ship linings, wood, iron. Crayons of Goodwin are thoroughly saturated with ship's decay.
No wonder even today this terrible place is called the "Great Ship Eater." There are many such places. There are ship graveyards in the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, the Bermuda Triangle, the Indian Ocean, Fiji and hundreds of other places. In some of them, triremes created in ancient times are under a thick layer of the remains of Viking ships, medieval caravels, modern time frigates and modern ships that have disappeared in our time. Why do such graveyards arise?
Why?
The causes of ship cemeteries may be:
- Storms that sailing ships could not resist.
- Fogs in which to navigate without special equipment was almost impossible.
- Strong currents that ships could not resist. Carried out on reefs, they remained there forever if they did not have time to remove them at high tide.
The most famous ship cemeteries
In addition to the Great Ship Eater, there are other places where sunken ships have accumulated for centuries (photo). The ship graveyard in Taranto (Italy) is quite well-known; there is one among 16 vessels that has received special fame because of its cargo. The ship was carrying coins, marble and tamarisk sarcophagi. Interestingly, centuries later, the cargo is still in good condition. Among modern cemeteries, a fairly large one is located in Mauritania. After nationalization, many fishing and transport vessels were simply abandoned by the owners. They still rot near the coast. There is such a place in Russia, in the Aral Sea. There, as a result of an environmental disaster, hundreds of ships are destroyed in the middle of the desert, recently the former seabed. The largest ship cemetery is in Pakistan. Huge tankers and luxury cruise ships are cut into small parts and disposed of here.
