Shipwrecks have occurred throughout history, with an estimated 3 million on the ocean floor. Some become prime dive spots and offer insight into lost civilizations. Famous wrecks include the Titanic, and artifacts discovered include the Antikythera Mechanism and various treasures.
A shipwreck can refer to the event of a ship wreck or to the physical wreck itself. Shipwrecks have occurred throughout maritime history and it is likely that millions of people have died as a result of them. The United Nations estimates that there are 3 million shipwrecks on the ocean floor worldwide. Some of these have become prime dive spots, as many marine organisms will encrust a wreck if given one. Some known wrecks are very old, including Greek merchant ships dating to 400 BC, Phoenician wrecks dating to 1200 BC, and a Levantine wreck dated to 1400 BC, the Late Bronze Age.
There have been many famous shipwrecks throughout history and there are many atolls around the world with dozens if not hundreds of wrecks in their shallows. Wrecks occur for a variety of reasons, usually in stormy weather, grounding due to poor navigation, or due to enemy attack during warfare. Probably the most famous wreck in history is HMS Titanic, an 882-foot (269m) luxury cruise liner that sank in the North Atlantic after hitting an iceberg. The sinking killed 1,500 people and the ship sank about 2.5 miles (4 km) from the ocean floor. Many years later, in 1982, the Titanic was photographed and investigated on the spot by a remotely operated deep-sea submarine. Periodically, the idea of surfacing the wreck has been mooted, but undertaking it would likely require hundreds of millions of dollars.
The study of old wrecks and other sunken artifacts is a whole discipline known as maritime archeology. Studying ancient shipwrecks can give us a lot of insight into a lost civilization, preserving cultural objects that would have been looted and consumed long ago or disassembled if left ashore. One of the most famous objects from an ancient shipwreck, the Antikythera Mechanism, is actually the earliest known mechanical computer and was used to calculate the cycles of the Sun, Moon and planets. The precision and complexity of the gears are considered to be on par with 17th-century clocks, and mechanisms of similar complexity do not appear in the archaeological record until over 17 years later.
Some artifacts that have been discovered from shipwrecks dating back to antiquity include large quantities of gold, Egyptian ebony for furniture, ostrich eggs, amber, raw glass, various resins for perfume or incense, ivory vessels, clay lamps, jewelry, bronze carpentry tools, spears, swords, ceremonial axes and hundreds of other items. Many of these fascinating exhibits can now be found in museums around the world.
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