Morbid Monday: Shipwrecks & Disasters at Sea

by Annetta Black June 13, 2011

Today’s Morbid Monday shipwreck theme turned out to be a bonanza of strange and unsettling stories (Rhinos! Sharks! Operas for Dogs!), most of which did not inspire us to embark on sea adventures, to be honest. One of them was particularly haunting:

Shipwrecks

The clear and shallow waters surrounding the tropical Caroline Islands of Palau, Micronesia are littered with sunken ships, warplanes, and tanks.

On February 17, 1944 the Allies attacked the Japanese Imperial Fleet at Truk Lagoon. Just days before the Japanese had reinforced their numbers, so that when Operation Hailstone rained down bombs approximately 250 aircraft were destroyed and more than 50 ships sunk. Despite the scale of devastation, the wrecks, and the hundreds of bodies contained therein were essentially forgotten after WWII. It was not until Jacques Cousteau arrived in 1969 and found a graveyard amongst the ships that repatriation of the remains began. Today most of the bodies are gone, although a few stubbornly refused to leave, tucked into awkward crevices or trapped by marine life that had grown up over the decades.

Today the lagoon, now known as Chuuk, is a popular and accessible dive site (assuming you are in Micronesia, that is), and the most extensive WWII wreck site in the world. (Photo Source)