Iraqi Shipwrecks
Friday, 5th August 2005 by Alex Turnbull
In the waters of Shatt al-Arab in Basrah, Iraq, lie the wrecks of several ships, some just lying there floating on their sides, others half-submerged and seemingly covered in rust (or perhaps it's actually damage from explosions?)
They look like oil tankers (at least I don't think they look like military craft) but I guess that these shipwrecks are a litle different to the ones we usually post. However, they're still fascinating to look at from up here.
There's actually loads of these ships lying around in varying states of decay. In fact it's all a bit creepy...
Thanks to Serge Lyubomudrov, Ian Luria and James.
About the author
Alex has decided that his title will be Senior Vice President of Stuff.
There’s a pontoon bridge just to the south of this one, which looks like it replaced a permanent structure. There appear to be some other half-finished vessels across the river. Could this be remains from the Iran-Iraq war, the war to liberate Kuwait, or the latest action in Iraq?
Eerie indeed. I like this river, its really dark and there are ghost ships just lined all along it. I guess nobody wants to spend the money to salvage them?
What’s been going on with all the downtime you guys have been having? I needs me the googlesightseeing!
Is this ship actually on fire?
wow, that’s freaky! i’ve been tooling down this river now for a while, and it’s just creepy.
though, it was reassuring to see some signs of life on there: View Placemark View Placemark
There’s an old airstrip just to the west of the river. It’s pretty messed up, so something tells me SOMETHING happened in this area, but who knows when these pictures were taken. If it were recent, US Forces probably would have restored the air strip to use themselves once it was captured and we’d see some actually aircraft instead of rubble.
I don’t think that ship is on fire – there’s no sign of any smoke or haze in the air. Perhaps just a lucky sun reflection off of the deck plates/hatch covers.
here are some more shipwrecks down to the southeast.
and even more shipwrecks further SE.
are these three ships partially sunken?
check out the trail of oil? behind this boat.
Another pontoon bridge a bit upriver: now that is one annoying detour. Also interesting how easily frequently and rarely used alphalt roads can be distinguished just by their color. More white dust: less traffic.
Looks like one of Saddam’s palaces just to the south of Jack’s pontoon bridge. Nice contrast to the clearly beat up surroundings.
That “white dust” is commonly referred to as “sand”
View Placemark A boat that is actully moving
This looks like a really bad situation, three ships all destoyed.
View Placemark
anybody notice these odd shapes in the sand? View Placemark
I think this may be an older diesel-electric attack submarine laying on its side.
and what’s up with this area? View Placemark
Gabe – probably salt from evaporation.
I wonder if this one is Saddam’s yacht. Here’s what it looked like after being bombed and here is what it looked like after capsizing.
It’s my belief that these shipwrecks would have been from Iraq-Iran (or anything middle-east) wars. They wouldn’t really have been a target for the War on Terror of the last couple of years.
Tulip City Madman,
I have to agree that it does looks suspiciously like the boat in the pictures you posted, but surely it’s lying on the wrong side, no?
Larry PDX: I think that boat might just be kicking up silt. The river seems to be pretty shallow
This picture seems to correspond with the yacht’s position: http://www.operations.mod.uk/telic/images/misc/yacht.jpg
iran
Having served in Basra for 7 months with the british army, I can positively identify that the pontoon bridge was built by the british royal engineer’s, the ‘palace’ to the south of the bridge was actually once a casino for Basrah’s weathier business men, the larger of all the damaged ships was once one of Saddams many yachts, the ‘ghost ships’ moving up and down the riverare just civilian Iraqi boats and maybe the ocasional ridgid raider, nothing ‘messed up’ happened at the airfield excpet that it was take by the british at the same time as the Shat-al-Arab hotel and the reason it is now being used as a conventional road is that the construction of the british base at the hotel encompassed most of the surrounding roads so the airstrip had to be used as a transit route. The buildings to the west of the runway are the remains of an old naval academy whilst the whiter ones further west are an old university. The train yard to the south is also littered with old T-72/52’s, BRDM’s , BMP’s, and anti aircraft positions dotted along the runway though its hard to make them out. Hope this clears up some things.
The ships are from the iran-iraq war. There are hundreds and a lot fo them are leaking. The river is nearly unnavicable for large ships anymore. http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/oct2004/2004-10-06-01.asp that shows a couple from the ground level.
This is probably due to the US invasion in 1998 as they destroyed hundereds of ships and boats in Basrah. Mostly were fishing boats as of what I heard in Baghdad.
Of course!! this is one aspect of our aggressive, destructive, immoral policy in Iraq the good thing is that we left them the water in that river
I was at the Shat al arab hotel for 4 weeks and all the ships in the shat river was sunk in the Desert storm war. And for the runway in front of the hotel it is being used by the local pop as a road(there is nothing wrong with it ,its just to Dangerous to land there). But everything in the erea is verry muth destroied.