Kvarner's Underwater Museum of Sunken Ships

ELHAWI STAR

Motor merchant boat from Saudi Arabia which sank on 12th October 1982 in front of the Port of Baro?. The wreck lies on its side, at a depth of 43 metres. Several years ago it became a very famous diving destination.

LINA

A cargo steam boat constructed in 1879 in Newcastle on Tyne, Great Britain, for the Granata Company from Bari. On 14th January 1914, during bad weather, it hit the coast close to the Pecenj Cape on the island of Cres and sank. It lies vertically at a depth of 25-55 metres. It is considered a very famous diving destination.

The Kvarner Bay, on which northern part is located the Port of Rijeka, has for centuries been a maritime route and an area through which various world trade and war ships have sailed.

During past milleniums, due to bad weather, errors in navigation, accidents, wars and other causes, a large number of boats suffered misfortunes on the wider Kvarner area. Until recently, authorized state institutions paid special attention to the search, research and protection of ancient ships.

Their locations and remains were researched in 1960s and 1970s and their cargo-amphorae, completed collections in the Rijeka Maritime and Historical Museum of the Croatian littoral as well in the other museums.

Unfortunately, these #antique #shipwrecks were only researched after the alarm was given with regard to the site devastation, so that hydro-archaeologists in the area did not have the chance to research untouched ancient ships.

The locations of these ancient ships for which research,? in that period, was organized by the Regional Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments lead by the late Radmila Matej?i?, were in the port of Omi?alj, close to the island of St Marko, in the Povile harbour and further ahead, close to Ilovik.

The newer boats – sailing boats, steamships and all kind of war ships have not been systematically researched. It was probably considered that their historical importance was much less important than of that of the ancient ships, and the Kvarner Bay's depths of over fifty metres has protected them well from sport divers who were not well-equipped enough to dive the greater depths.

However, in the mid-1980s, things completely changed.

Sport #diving in the world and in our areas in particular, overcame the confines of sports clubs and became one of the main settings for nautical tourism. The improvement of diving techniques and diving treatment, the availability of gas mixtures and new, easier diving devices have contributed to the fact that the limit of recreational and research diving has moved to deeper depths, up to 80 and more metres.

Excellently equipped enthusiast crews have begun to sail around the Adriatic Sea – amateur researches who, well supplied with archive data, have begun to search the sunken new age boats.

Until recently, the depth kept these boats from devastation, but with the appearance of the aforesaid crews, depth no longer represents a problem.

VIS

A cargo steamboat, built in 1921 in the Port of Glasgow, Great Britain. It was owned by the Oceanija Company from Su?ak. It sunk on 13th February 1946 striking a mine some 400 m east of the Ma?njak Cape, at the entrance to the Plomin Channel. It lies vertically at a depth of 60 metres. It is one of the most beautiful wrecks in Kvarner and Kvarneri?.

Bells, compasses and other ?trophies“ have been taken from those boats and have ended up in foreign private collections or have been sold at auction.

That is how numerous wrecks in the #Kvarner area were pillaged before the official institutions actually knew what was happening and their reaction was slow too.

However, it should be admitted that nowadays they are trying to protect their shipwrecks as they characterize day gone by and have a certain historical and cultural importance. As well as this, today they represent a first class underwater attraction to tourists – divers for whom we can provide an undisturbed visit to to our underwatr museum and to take from it, and from the museum above water, nothing more than underwater photographs and video registrations.

In order to understand which #underwater #treasures we are talking about, we will list the wrecks we know exist and for which we have data and those which in future will be taken care of.

As, sooner or later those wrecks whose location is still unknown will be found eventually and it is important to evaluate their historical and cultural importance in time and, if necessary, protect them.

SIGRID

Motor boat built in 1956 in #Germany, sailed under the #Cyprus flag. It sank on 15th January 1977 by the breakwater during strong southern sirocco winds. It is partly cut and also considered a very famous diving destination.

Original text in Croatian written by Danijel Frka. Translated by Ivana Karaniki?. Proofread by Gillian Houghton. Text is taken from Welcome to Rijeka Magazine, issue number 6/2013.