Surgery, Disappearing Wrecks and Big Money

Text and photos MACIEJ SZCZEPAŃSKI

Whenever a surgeon reaches for a scalpel or a patient undergoes an MRI scan, there is a high probability that both of these tools were made from steel that dates back more than 70 years.

It all connects to the late period of WWII, when the Americans used an atomic bomb for military purposes for the first time. Steel manufacturing has not changed much from that period, the Bessemer process was replaced with the BOS (basic oxygen steelmaking) process, although the air (oxygen in case of BOS) in both is obtained from the atmosphere. However, unlike today, air used in pre-war steel was not saturated with radioactive particles. For this reason such steel, which possesses better properties and durability, is desired all over the world for manufacturing such products as specialist surgical equipment or novelty items, like Böker knives manufactured from steel sourced from the wreck of the German battleship KMS Tirpitz. Another sought metal is phosphor bronze1, which was used for propellers, among other things.

Growing value of “old” steel is responsible for the increasing problem of marine looting. Companies with legal approvals for salvaging wrecks comply with all legal standards. They salvage steel from wrecks specified in their contracts – mainly from vessels deliberately sunk by their crew or destroyed through scuttling at Scapa Flow, shortly after World War I. This is due to the fact that the law prohibits salvaging wrecks designated as war graves.

However, there are also companies that do not care for these laws and salvage steel from the bottom of the seas and oceans all over the world. In recent years many fishermen and sailors on the Java Sea and the Pacific have been reporting unmarked vessels with rusting pieces of metal on board. In 2017 the combined forces of the Indonesian and Malaysian author-

KMS Tirpitz, sunk in 1944 Source pl.wikipedia.org

ities arrested the crew of a Chinese dredger, with fragments of World War II warships on board. Wrecks in those waters are graves for thousands of Japanese, American, British and Dutch sailors, which is why it is important to take actions to stop this HMS Repulse, sunk in 1941 illegal activity. Source en.wikipedia.org

The list of damaged wrecks continues to grow: in 2014 the wrecks of HMS Repulse and HMS Prince of Wales, officially declared as mass graves, were destroyed, and precious metals (phosphor bronze, steel and aluminum) were taken. Both vessels are the final resting places for over 800 sailors. Malaysian divers are aware of this practice and regularly document the destruction of wrecks, sending their photographs to proper authorities. Thanks to a photograph of the HMS Perth wreck, which is the grave for 350 people, the Australian authorities conducted talks with Malaysia, insisting on introducing additional patrols in the region where the Malaysian navy operates. However, this may be insufficient. A lot of wrecks have been lost forever, leaving only a sandy imprint on the bottom of the sea. According to David Yiu, the director of the Friendly Water Seaports Pte., the dredgers that salvage metals illegally desecrate bodies as well, as the corpses of the sailors from the wrecks are found hundreds of meters from the sinking site.

Although director Yiu, like many representatives of the Australian or UK government, has also been fighting for years to ensure better security for the wrecks, in any possible way, it is nearly impossible without the proper approach from international authorities. It is assumed that more intensive looting in these regions is connected not only to growing prices of increasingly rare “low-emission” steel, but the general increase of scrap metal prices in China. According to The Guardian, even a wreck of a small vessel (e.g. a destroyer) may be worth approximately GBP 1 million. Current technology allows scientists, historians and archeologists to find wrecks even in places inaccessible to divers; however, the same technology is used by people looking for profit, even at the cost of disturbing the final resting place of thousands of sailors.

References:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2017/nov/03/worlds-biggest-grave-robbery-asias-disappearing-ww2-shipwrecks https://www.dw.com/en/scavengers-pillage-wartime-wrecks-in-southeast-asia/a-39027260 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/09/images-reveal-three-more-japanese-wwii-shipwrecks-torn-apart-for-scrap

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