Back in ‘89-91, I don’t remember precisely the year, I was staying in Miami Beach for a few weeks off of Collins near Ocean Drive when one night a small tramp steamer like one of those shown here washed up right onto the beach, and lay on its side near 5th Street and beside a beach club known as Penrods. It held a cargo of Vespa motor scooters, of all things, but not for long. IRRC, it was empty by the second night, after which they posted guards.
I like the ads for rust removers next to the picture:)
Or the car seat snuggled up next to the one wreck.
Retired from the sea, I now enjoy pictures of old wrecks far more than when I steamed past the actual wrecks.
its cargo of hemp and matches caught fire
Wow. Who coulda seen that coming.
Too bad Americans could not have such stark visual images of once-great nations who, through ignorance or neglect, suffered a similar fate.
"...experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms (of government), those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny; and it is believed that the most effectual means of preventing this would be, to illuminate...the minds of the people...to give them knowledge of those facts, which history exhibiteth. History, by apprizing them of the past, will enable them to judge of the future...it will qualify them as judges of the actions and designs of men; it will enable them to know ambition under every disguise it may assume; and knowing it, to defeat its views...." - Jefferson's Bill for the more general diffusion of knowledge for Virginia
"Although all men are born free, slavery has been the general lot of the human race. Ignorant--they have been cheated; asleep--they have been surprised; divided--the yoke has been forced upon them. But what is the lesson?...the people ought to be enlightened, to be awakened, to be united, that after establishing a government they should watch over it....It is universally admitted that a well-instructed people alone can be permanently free." - James Madison
I saw the Dimitrios last October when I was in Greece. It’s just outside the town of Githio. I was driving on the coast road on a bluff and when I rounded a corner I could see it below. I hadn’t known it was there and so it was a real surprise.
In 1918 as WWI was drawing to a close and the Germans knew they had lost, an agreement was made whereby the Germans were instructed to bring their entire High Seas Fleet to the British Grand Fleet’s home harbor at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands. The German ships, 74 in total, were manned by skeleton crews at anchor while the details of the armistice were drawn up. Right before the agreement was reached and fearing that their ships would be divided up among Britain, France, Italy and the U.S., the Germans scuttled all the ships one night when a prearranged signal was given.
http://scapaflowwrecks.com/
Beautiful wrecks. Yet when any commercial company tries to salvage anything off a wreck they are treated like criminals and the various courts and countries try to take it all. Apparently they woudl rather let the wrecks decay and be lost forever.
FMCDH(BITS)
Very cool shots thanks for posting this.
One of those photos reminds me of the wrecked ships and barges from Hurricane Betsy that were washed up on the banks of the Mississippi. We used to play around those when we were kids.
The wreck that I really love seeing pictures of is the schooner “Sweepstakes” up in that cove in Canada. It’s hull is about 25’ down in the crystal clear water of a cove. It’s pretty, and surreal.
The ship on it’s side in front of the barges, listed as being in Lasalle Missouri, is the Admirable class minesweeper ex-USS Inaugural.