Ship graveyard

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French naval ship graveyard at Landévennec on the river Aulne, to the south of the roadstead of Brest.

Ship graveyard

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Wrecks

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Gravesend Bay, Brooklyn

File:Wreck of the Sunbeam.jpg

Wreck of the "Sunbeam", near Port Adelaide, South Australia

A ship graveyard or ship cemetery is a location where the hulls of scrapped ships are left to decay and disintegrate, or left in reserve. Such a practice is now less common due to waste regulations and so some dry docks where ships are broken (to recycle their metal and remove dangerous materials like asbestos) are also known as ship graveyards.

By analogy, the phrase can also refer to a large number of shipwrecks which have accumulated in a single area but not been removed by human agency, instead being left to disintegrate naturally. These can form in places where navigation is difficult or dangerous (such as the Goodwin Sands or Blackpool), where a large number of ships have been deliberately scuttled together (as with the Kaiserliche Marine at Scapa Flow), or where a large number of ships have been sunk in battle.

List of ship graveyards

France

• Guilvinec-Lechiagat
• On the River Rance
• Magouër (Plouhinec, Morbihan)
• Plouhinec, Finistère
• Landévennec

United Kingdom

• The River Tamar downstream of the Saltash Bridge used to be used as a mooring site for mothballed vessels, including submarines, of the Royal Navy. These have now all been removed.
• Portsmouth Harbour hosts a number of ex Royal Navy vessels, awaiting removal for scrapping.

United States

• The US Navy "phantom fleet" at Suisun Bay, to the north of San Francisco Bay
• Witte's Marine Salvage - the Staten Island boat graveyard.
• Bikini Atoll was designated as a ship graveyard for the U.S. Pacific fleet; it later became known as a nuclear testing facility.
• Mallows Bay, Maryland.

Africa

• Wrecks all along the peninsular coast at Nouadhibou

Asia

• Several locations near the Aral Sea
• The ship-breaking yards of Alang (India), Chittagong (Bangladesh), and Gadani Beach (Pakistan)

Australia

All states and territories of Australia, except the land-locked Australian Capital Territory, have ships' graveyards

New South Wales:

• Stockton Breakwater (Newcastle)
• Homebush Bay Ships' Graveyard (Sydney)
• Pindimar Bay Ships' Graveyard/The Duckhole (Myall Lakes)

Northern Territory:

• Darwin Harbour East Arm

Queensland:

• Bishop Island Ships' Graveyard (Brisbane)
• Tangalooma Ships' Graveyard (Moreton Island)
• The Bulwer Wrecks (Moreton Island)
• Curtin Artificial Reef

South Australia:

• Port Adelaide and environs - sites at Mutton Cove, Jervois Basin, Garden Island, Angas Inlet and Broad Creek.

Further information: Port River

• Port Augusta
• Port Flinders
• Port Pirie
• Planned scuttling sites near Ardrossan, Cowell, Glenelg, Goat Island, Kangaroo Island, Port Noarlunga, Port Stanvac, Stenhouse Bay, Whyalla and Yankalilla Bay.

Further information: HMAS Hobart (D 39) and No 5 dumb hopper barge

Tasmania:

• Little Betsey Island Ships' Graveyard (Hobart)
• East Risdon Ships' Graveyard (Hobart)
• Strahan Ships' Graveyard (Strahan)
• Tamar Island Ships' Graveyard (Launceston)

Victoria:

• Barwon Heads Ships' Graveyard (Port Phillip Bay)

Western Australia:

• Careening Bay Ships' Graveyard
• Rottnest Island Ships' Graveyard (off Rottnest Island)
• Jervoise Bay Ships' Graveyard
• Albany Ships' Graveyard (Albany)

See also

• Ghost ship
• Derelict (maritime)
• Marine debris
• Marine pollution
• Shipbreaking

External links

• Gadani Beach
• (French) Ship graveyards
• (French) Ship graveyard on the Rance
• (French) Ship graveyard at the port of Guilvinec-Lechiagat
• (French) Ship graveyard at Magouër
• Google maps view of ships graveyard