Damon Bates
History resting on the ocean floor

Wrecks

Caribbean, North Carolina, Great Lakes

Every wreck has a story. Sometimes lives were lost. Sometimes the sinking was deliberate — ships purpose-sunk as artificial reefs and monuments to the history they witnessed. The Kittiwake pictured here, for example, was the vessel that recovered the black box from the Challenger shuttle disaster. The U-352 and the smuggling vessel Oro Verde have less noble histories, but they're no less compelling to explore.