The World Discoverer was a cruise ship dedicated to explore polar regions, it was abandoned in 2000 on Nggela Island, (Solomon Islands) after hitting a reef. I want to thank Lucas E. who contacted me to have the World explorer included on AO, not only did he send me all the information he gathered but he also wrote the entry on Wikipedia.
The following text is a shortened version of his article:
"The vessel was originally built in 1974. The ship was subsequently resold to many different owners along the years, and renamed as many times. The vessel has a double hull construction allowing for periodic voyages to Antarctic Peninsula region for its passengers to observe ice floe movements and protection for any iceberg impacts. The ship carries of fleet of inflatable dinghies allowing passenger to move closer to ice floes for observation.
The ship conducts cruises near the Southern Hemisphere and visits places like Antarctica, the Falkland Islands, Chile, Ushuaia, Argentina. During the period between March and May, the ship cruises the South Pacific Islands. It also cruises this area between the months of August and October. And finally, between the months of June and August, the ship around the Alaskan region and also near the Russian border around the Bering sea. Very few vessels have been constructed for exclusive cruising expeditions near or around icebergs. The double hulled construction could allowed impact with glaciers while sustaining very little damage to the ship or crew. The World Discoverer also has a 8,000 mile cruising range allowing the ship to be the first ship to ever transit the Northwest Passage.
On April 30, 2000, The ship struck a large uncharted rock or reef on the Sandfly Passage, Solomon Islands. A passenger ferry was dispatched to the ship where all passenger were then transported to safety. The captain then brought the ship into Roderick Bay after the ship began to list 20 degrees and grounded the ship to avoid sinking. The ship has remained in Roderick Bay ever since. The World Discoverer still sits in Roderick Bay on Nggela Island with a 46 degree list."
coordinates : 9°01'23.49"S 160°07'23.34"E
google map
pictures sources : 1 2 3 4
text source : 1
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Artificial Owl is one year old!
To celebrate this first great year of existence, here is a new type of articles called "Best of AO".
They recap the best posts from the past year on a specific subject...Let's start with the 10 most spectacular shipwrecks.
On a completely unrelated note, you can now follow AO on twitter.
Enjoy!
The Artificial Owl
The American Star
Read her story [+]
The Ydra
Read her story [+]
The Mediterranean Sky
Read her story [+]
The Olympia
Read her story [+]
The Dimitrios
Read her story [+]
The Eden V
Read her story [+]
The Murmansk
Read her story [+]
The Eduard Bohlen
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The Panagiotis
Read her story [+]
The United Malika
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See more shipwrecks on AO [+]
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They might not be the most spectacular shipwrecks you have ever seen, but the story that lead those 2 ships to wreck on the reef coast of new Caledonia is pretty unusual..jpg)
Ever Prosperity grounded in 1965
The strange story of the two "Ever Prosperity". They were twin ships ("Liberty ships"), they had same name and same base port in Monrovia, Liberia. The first "Ever Prosperity" went straight up on the West Coast barrier reef in 1965. The second one did exactly same in 1970. It was the same captain, a Korean man, who had been commanding each ship at the time of her grounding!
Ever Prosperity grounded in 1965
Ever Prosperity grounded in 1970
Ever Prosperity grounded in 1970
Ever Prosperity grounded in 1970
coordinates Ever Prosperity 1970 : 22°27'20.70"S 166°22'00.69"E
google map
coordinates Ever Prosperity 1965 : 21°54'38.45"S 165°45'19.01"E
google map
pictures sources : 1 2 3 4 5
text source : 1
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Muynak is a city in northern Karakalpakstan in western Uzbekistan. Home to only a few thousand residents at most, Muynak's population has been declining precipitously since the 1980s due to the recession of the Aral Sea.
Once a bustling fishing community, Muynak is now a shadow of its former self, dozens of miles from the rapidly receding shoreline of the Aral Sea. Fishing had always been part of the economy of the region, and Muynak became a center of industrial fishing and canning. A regional agricultural monoculture dominated by cotton production which diverts water from tributary rivers of the sea into irrigation, and severe pollution caused by agricultural chemical runoff, are causing the sea to evaporate and the water that remains is highly saline and very toxic, causing the ecological disaster which is inevitably destroying the sea and killing the residents of the towns in its vicinity, including Muynak.
Muynak is now home to a incongruous armada of rusting hulks that once made up the proud fishing fleet during the Soviet era. Poisonous dust storms kicked up by strong winds across the dried and polluted seabed give rise to a multitude of chronic and acute illnesses among the few residents, weather unmoderated by the sea now buffets the town with hotter-than-normal summers and colder-than-normal winters.
The Aral Sea was once the world's fourth-largest saline body of water, it has been steadily shrinking since the 1960s, after the rivers that fed it were diverted by Soviet Union irrigation projects. By 2004, the sea had shrunk to 25% of its original surface area, and a nearly fivefold increase in salinity had killed most of its natural flora and fauna. By 2007 it had declined to 10% of its original size, splitting into three separate lakes, two of which are too salty to support fish. The once prosperous fishing industry has been virtually destroyed, and former fishing towns along the original shores have become ship graveyards. With this collapse has come unemployment and economic hardship.
The disappearance of the lake was no surprise to the Soviets; they expected it to happen long before. As early as in 1964, Aleksandr Asarin at the Hydroproject Institute pointed out that the lake was doomed explaining, "It was part of the five-year plans, approved by the council of ministers and the Politburo. Nobody on a lower level would dare to say a word contradicting those plans, even if it was the fate of the Aral Sea."
Shrinkage of the Aral sea between 1989 and 2008
coordinates : 43°46'28.87"N 59°02'20.02"E
google map
pictures sources : 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
text source : 1 2
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The rusted hulk of the Gallant Lady leans against a rocky shore on North Bimini in the Bahamas. I can't find any information about the reason for the wreck, any details are welcome.
coordinates : 25°43'13.02"N 79°18'07.69"W
google map
pictures sources : 1 2 3
text source : 1
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The city of Nouadhibou (Arabic: نواذيبو) is the second largest city in Mauritania and serves as the country's commercial center.It is famous for being the location of one of the largest ship graveyard in the world. Hundreds of rusting ships can be seen all around, in the water, and on beaches. 
One of the most commonly read explanation for that situation is that Mauritanian harbor officers were taking bribes and allowing ships to be discarded in the harbor and around the bay.
This phenomenon started in the 80's after the nationalization of the Mauritanian fishing industry, numerous uneconomical ships were simply abandoned there. I'm guessing that foreign ship owners later found very convenient to get rid of their old vessels in the bay.
My feeling balances between anger and amazement by the sight of those rusted skeletons Amazement for the dreamy vision, anger for the ecological and social disaster.
coordinates : 20°54'03.23"N 17°02'31.56"W
google map
pictures sources : 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
text source : 1 2 3
