Spookiest shipwrecks on Google Maps – from torpedoed battleships and boat graveyards to sea disasters
SOME people travel far and wide to see the world’s most majestic shipwrecks but now you don’t need to thanks to Google.
Live Science created a list of shipwrecks that can be found on Google Earth and Google Maps, a few of which are featured below along with our own spooky suggestions.
SS Maheno
During WWI, New Zealand converted this passenger ship into a floating hospital.
After the war it returned to being a passenger ship but was then sold for scrap in 1935.
The ship was being towed from Sydney harbour to it’s final location when a huge storm cut off the rope between it and the boat it was attached to.
The ships propellers had been temporarily removed so the eight crew members on board had no choice but to travel with the ship as it washed up on the beach of Fraser Island.
The crew were found on the island a few days later and all survived but attempts to refloat the SS Maheno failed so the Australian island became her final resting place.
Garden of Eden shipwreck
This ship capsized in an area which some people believe was the location of the biblical Garden of Eden.
The giant vessel can be spotted off the coast of Iraq in the Shatt al-Arab river.
According to various reports, lots of other ships lie at the bottom of this river.
MS World Discoverer
MS World Discoverer was a cruise ship that had a fatal collision with an uncharted rock near the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
The accident happened in April 2000 and luckily a near by ferry was able to save everyone on board.
The ships captain had to beach the ship that began to tilt heavily to one side so that it wouldn’t sink.
It has remained at Roderick Bay ever since.
California breakwater boat
Some boats end up being sunk on purpose like this one in Point San Pablo Yacht Harbor in Richmond, California.
It was sank there as a breakwater barrier to protect the harbour from the never ending waves.
Sinking unwanted or unusable ships can be a much cheaper way to protect against waves than building a brand new barrier in the sea.
Half Moon Schooner Yacht
This is the image that pops up if you type in “Half Moon Underwater Archaeological Preserve” to Google Earth.
The Half Moon was a German racing yacht that was seized by the British during WWI and sold on to become a US cabaret boat during the Prohibition era.
It sank off the coast of Miami after a storm and is now visited regularly by divers.
Abandoned St Christopher
This St Christopher shipwreck can be seen in the harbour of Ushuaia in southern Argentina.
It served as a rescue tug boat for the British Royal Navy during WWII but was sold to Argentina in 1947.
A decade later the ship had engine problems, which meant it had to be beached and abandoned.
Shipwrecks of the Skeleton Coast
The Skeleton Coast, just north of Luderitz in Namibia, has such poor sailing conditions that lots of ships end up running into problems there.
A local tribe “the land God created in anger” because of the wild conditions and the ships and whales that wash up.
Torpedoed battleship
Japanese torpedo bombers sank the USS Utah battleship during the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941.
The attack killed 64 of the ships crew and 58 of them have the boat as their final resting place due to the ship capsizing.
Oakland and San Fran shipwrecks
The waters around Oakland and San Francisco in the US are said to be full of rotting shipwrecks like the one pictured above.
This one that you can spot on Google Maps is in San Leandro Bay.
Shipwreck graveyard
Staten Island accidentally became the home of a boat graveyard and maritime time capsule.
The ships were taken there to be sold on or disassembled for scraps but with no buyers they became habitats for sea creatures.
SS Palo Alto
This famous concrete tanker ship was made for WWI but the war finished before it could be used.
It was moved next to a pier in Aptos, California, was partially sunk and became a popular tourist attraction.
However, it soon became so weather damaged that it was no longer safe to walk on and a storm in 2017 ripped the ships stern off.
The Costa Concordia disaster
Although you can’t actually see the wreckage of the Costa Concordia on Google Maps, it can show you exactly where the boat sank and the route the ship was taking.
The cruise ship capsized in January 2012, killing 32 people.
The captain was sent to prison for 16 years for manslaughter.
Titanic resting place
Google Maps also provides coordinates that let any web user see the exact spot where the Titanic tragedy occurred.
Simply head to the Google Maps app and type in the following coordinates: and you’ll be able to see just how close the Titanic was to its intended destination.
The British passenger liner sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on April 14, 1912, killing more than 1,500 passengers and crew.
Its resting place wasn’t discovered again until 1985.
Titanic facts
Here's what you need to know about the 'unsinkable ship'...
- Titanic was the world’s largest passenger ship when it entered service – measuring 269 metres – and was the largest man-made moving object on Earth
- It burned around 600 tonnes of coal a day and almost 100 tonnes of ash were ejected into the sea every 24 hours
- There were 20,000 bottles of beer on board, 1,500 bottles of wine and 8,000 cigars – all for the use of first-class passengers
- Up to 246 injuries and two deaths were recorded during the ship’s 26-month construction in Belfast
- The last supper served to first-class passengers consisted of 11 courses
- First-class passengers were given a book containing 352 songs, with musicians on board required to know all of them in case requests were made
- James Cameron’s 1997 film Titanic about the disaster has grossed more than £1.5bn, won 11 Oscars and is one of the highest grossing film of all time
In other news, Google Maps is getting Incognito Mode for the first time – and users warn it will be ‘tool for cheaters and scumbags’.
Abandoned mental asylums, ‘village of the dead’ and Chernobyl – here are the creepiest places you can visit on Google Street View.
And, Google Maps has exposed mysterious giant penises carved into playing field on the app.
Which shipwreck do you think is the most spooky? Let us know in the comments…
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