Bored? Let's have a heated wreck debate!

Ones I've dived that I enjoyed:
Pres Coolidge - Vanuatu
Yukon - San Diego, CA
Fing Mang - La Paz (not a worlds greatest, but thoroughly enjoyable to me)


Ones that I wanna dive:
Oriskany - Pensacola, FL
Any wreck - Truuk Lagoon
Saratoga - Marshall Islands
Salem Express - Red Sea
Rhone - BVI

Others:
Andria Doria-north Atlantic (out of my diving range)
Scapa Flow wrecks (not sure about specifics)
The WW2 and WW1 wrecks, one on top of the other, in Guam. Forget the names and specific harbor. But looks pretty amazing.

Hello

I just joined this forum because I came across this particular thread. I am always intrigued by the different shipwrecks people put at the top of their own personal list. I spend my time engrossed in shipwreck research and I am surprised at my not having previously even heard of some of your favourites.

The original question was; What are the other 24 top wrecks after the Zenobia? Before I add my own two penneth-worth, I would like you to consider the following point.

As a writer, I believe there are three important ingredients to any shipwreck story:

1. Technical details (and a photo) of the original ship before she sank.

2. The story of her loss (after all, if the Titanic had gone to the scrapyard, nobody would have ever heard of that ship).

3. What the vessel is like today – underwater.

I take the view that there are so many shipwrecks caused by storm, error (whatever!) and that each of these provides the reader with an exciting story that I will not be spending any time on the sanitised prior to sink wrecks such as Spiegel Grove or Oriskany – if only because there is no fascinating story about how they came to be lost.

So, having set the scene from my own viewpoint, I would suggest the world’s top 25 shipwrecks are:

Aruba - Antilla
Australia - Yongala
Bikini Islands - USS Saratoga
British Virgin Is. - RMS Rhone
Canada - Empress of Ireland
Croatia - Baron Gautsch
Cyprus - Zenobia
Egypt - Thistlegorm
Ethiopia (Dahlak Is.) - Nazario Sauro or Urania
France - Lancastria
Gibraltar - Rosslyn
Greece - Sea Diamond (Brand new cruise liner – status underwater not known).
Grenada - Bianca C
Incidentally, the Bianca C is not the largest shipwreck in the Caribbean. That accolade belongs to the Antilles which foundered off Mustique in 1971. The Antilles, however, ran hard up onto a shallow reef and was then gutted by fire. She is now an extensive debris field in shallow water.
Italy - Haven -
Malaysia – Repulse or Prince of Wales
Malta - Polynésien
New Zealand - Mikhail Lermontov
Oman – City of Winchester
Orkney - HMS Royal Oak
South Africa - Produce
Spain (Ibiza) - Don Pedro (very big new wreck – future not yet decided (i.e. to salvage or not?)
Sudan - Umbria
Truk Lagoon - Fujikawa Maru or Sanfrancisco Maru?
USA - Andrea Doria
Vanuatu -President Coolidge

And one from England - but that’s a whole new argument!

I have been actively researching most of the above for some time now and I am planning to set off to dive one after the other in a single trip that will take over 3 years. That said, I was previously unaware of the Iro (or Iro Maru?), Aaron Ward, Windjammer, HMNZS Moa, Yukon or Fing Mang. I would like to know more of these and of any others which might spring to mind. Who knows – you might get your name in a book due to appear in about 4/5 years time.

Best wishes.

Ned

That is a great list Ned, welcome to the forum.

Thanks Phil - very kind of you - but I do seem to have killed the topic.

Sorry about that.

Best wishes.

Ned

Shouldn't you be including the Carpathia (liner famous for rescuing survivors from the Titanic)?! Bit tricky to get to (to say the least!!) but it's just been done... there's a write up of the expedition here

Also Globaltourist, you aren't supposed to dive the Royal Oak in Scapa...It's a designated war grave (not trying to be snippy). Plenty of other fab wrecks up there that you can do though!!

Carpathia would be a great dive.
Anyone here dove the Salem Express (Red Sea)?

<blockquote>Quote
<hr>Thanks Phil - very kind of you - but I do seem to have killed the topic.<hr></blockquote>

don't worry, this forum is generally pretty slow, with the odd flourish of decent info and controversy every now and again.

I didn't realise that about Bianca C - just shows you can't trust what you read.

There is a very famous (locally at least) wreck here in Hong Kong too. Its and old mercedes car that was dumped in a bay by triads when they were surprised by the British Army :-)

OK, I'll get my coat...

Hello HRM

You said: you aren't supposed to dive the Royal Oak in Scapa...It's a designated war grave (not trying to be snippy).

I didn't say war graves were excluded. Having dived the Royal Oak with the RN diving team a few years ago, I can only say she is the most outstanding shipwreck I have ever seen in over 30+ years of diving.

Haven't researched the Carpathia but I do seem to recall she is a tad too deep. That's why I didn't include the Lusitania.

Please be assured, I really am willing to amend my list to include any that you think are better.

Hello jdlastra

Anything you want to know about the Salem Express just drop me a private e-mail to <<ned "at" ned "dot" middleton.demon.co.uk>>

I am sure you can condense that into an email address.

Same goes for the rest of you guys. If I know anything about a wreck I am happy to share it - but I only have detailed info on those I have actively researched.

Hello Phil

You said: don't worry, this forum is generally pretty slow

Trust me to shrug and walk away just as the replies start coming in.

Last request

Is it possible you guys can sign your posts so that I can reply by saying hello to you by name?

Best wishes.

Ned

Hello again

I have had to delete the Sea Diamond from my list.

Apparently the bay in which this cruise liner was lost is a vocanic crater and the veseel rests at a very precarious angle some 100m from the surface.

She has also been placed out-of-bounds by the Greek authorities.

In her place I have added the "City of Winchester, Oman.

Regards.

Ned