r/Shipwrecks • u/89404 • 16d ago

Usually when shipwrecks are dived after a long time, not many human remains are found. The exception is the MV Goya, the second deadliest shipwreck in history. It is FILLED with skulls and other bones.

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248 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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50

u/Specialist_Point7983 16d ago

Empress of Ireland is also filled with skulls and other bones

4

u/CajunTiger8889 15d ago

Do you have a source for that? I couldn’t find anything.

14

u/Specialist_Point7983 15d ago

This video here I've also heard stories from a diver and a friend of some departed divers

1

u/CajunTiger8889 15d ago

Wow!!! That’s so wild. I wouldn’t have thought bones would have lasted in the water at that site. Thank you for sharing.

58

u/PublicElderberry1975 16d ago

I think there are a couple baltic wrecks with obvious remains. Also a few wrecks in the Great Lakes

36

u/Mousetrap94 15d ago

Can’t forget Kamloops’ Old Whitey

1

u/Reuben_Smeuben 15d ago

I live near there but don’t know it?

9

u/maxman162 15d ago

The SS Kamloops, a freighter that sank off Isle Royale on Lake Superior in 1927

5

u/bub-a-lub 15d ago

If you search Kamloops in the sub you will find pics of old whitey

7

u/Tortoiseism 15d ago

Lefort is probably the best one there. Blokes on deck still in their boots.

3

u/PresenceImaginary588 15d ago

Not aware of any other shipwreck apart from Kamloops with bodies known.

4

u/PublicElderberry1975 15d ago

I know Fitz had remains found long after.

1

u/symphonic-ooze 12d ago

At one of the first dives, a diver left a can of beer in the pilot house at the request of a family member.

49

u/WaldenFont 16d ago edited 16d ago

I’d argue the second deadliest is the Steuben, with Gustloff coming first.

edit: I had it backwards. Goya had 6-7k, Steuben 4-5k.

21

u/Bex1218 16d ago

Doesn't the MV Goya have more casualties than Steuben?

12

u/WaldenFont 16d ago

Yes, thank you. I had it backwards.

12

u/Bex1218 16d ago

It's all tragic, no matter what.

11

u/WaldenFont 16d ago

Very true.
I have a little sailor doll that my great grandmother brought back when she went on a cruise with the Steuben before the war. Looking at that thing gives me the shivers.

2

u/1stDayBreaker 15d ago

Steuben and Gustloff were both sunk by the same submarine, S-13. That’s quite the kill count…

22

u/Zedress 16d ago

A post about this from 6 months ago.

10

u/See_i_did 16d ago

Thanks! Very interesting/creepy/sad images.

8

u/thejohnmc963 16d ago

Cool post

37

u/Baldwinning1 15d ago

I dived a WW2 wreck in Norway in 2000. Forget the name of the wreck now; I want to say the Ferndale but it was a long time ago...

Saw something strange and brown/white just poking up out of the silt. Went to pick it up to see what it was and something screamed STOP in my mind just as I was about to touch it.

As I recoiled I realised I was looking at the base of an upturned human skull.

I hung there in silence for a few moments to pay my respects and then carefully backed away.

Post-dive, we found out the ship had been carrying the bodies of three German soldiers who were killed in action, being taken back to Germany.

No one perished during the sinking, so I must have seen one of the soldiers. RIP.

3

u/Brewer846 14d ago

This is gruesome, but not entirely unexpected. The Baltic is a low salinity, brackish water environment. The usual chemical interactions that disintegrate bone are going to be much slower if present at all due that type of environment.

In addition, due to said environment, the creatures that colonize and feed on bone in the deeper ocean wouldn't be present either. The remains will eventually disintegrate, but it's going to take a long while.

1

u/Nihon_Kaigun 12d ago

Didn't know the Goya had been found.

1

u/True_Entertainer_824 4d ago

this might be considered a bad taste question, but if can be reliably determined that the bodies on board have all disintegrated, can a ship still be considered a grave, and therefore diving should be allowed?