yachts on google earth

You are either using a browser that does not support JavaScript, or you have disabled JavaScript. OpenSeaMap uses JavaScript for its maps.

VAR 3.5°5'E (2015)

ANNUAL DECREASE 8'

• Map with JOSM Remote

• Tidal Scale
• Aerial photo
• Coordinate Grid
• Elevation Profile
• Marine Profile (1:920.000)
• Marine Traffic
• Compass Rose
• Depth contours (beta)

• Water depth

• OpenCPN (Kap)
• Navico (Lowrance, Simrad, B&G)

• Trip Planner

• Bridges/Locks

Mayday! 22 mysterious shipwrecks you can see on Google Earth

Google Earth has captured images of rotting and rusting hulls that are wasting away in shallow waters the world over.

The world's most famous shipwreck may be the RMS Titanic , but the remains of the luxury steamship are visible only to people in deep-sea submersibles and those watching feeds from remotely operated vehicles (ROVs).

But countless other shipwrecks are much more accessible, so long as you have Google Earth . This worldwide map has captured images of rotting and rusting hulls wasting away in shallow waters the world over.

Here are 22 mysterious shipwrecks you can see on Google Earth that have yet to be fully salvaged or worn away by the elements. 

SS City of Adelaide

The steamship SS City of Adelaide is wrecked off the coast of Magnetic Island in Queensland, Australia. Built in 1864 in Glasgow, the 253-foot-long (77 meters) vessel was a passenger ship for many years before it became a coal storage vessel in 1902, according to Magnetic Community News . In 1912, its coal caught fire and part of the vessel went up in flames. Later, a Magnetic Island businessperson bought the ship with plans to make it into a tourist attraction or breakwater against the waves. But in 1916, the SS City of Adelaide met another disaster: During transport, it ran aground in Cockle Bay, where it remains today.

At low tide, it's possible to wade out to the ship. Sometimes, locals collect oysters that grow on its sides.

MV Captayannis

On Jan. 27, 1974, fierce winds hit the merchant vessel MV Captayannis, also known as the "Sugar Boat," while it was moored in Scotland's River Clyde, according to the BBC . The Greek-registered vessel was carrying raw sugar from East Africa to a refinery in Greenock at the time. The 60 mph (96.5 km/h) winds dragged the ship's anchor, and the Captayannis started drifting. The crew fired up its engines, but the boat ran straight into a BP tanker's anchor chains. The collision ripped a hole in the MV Captayannis' hull.

The crew managed to steer the sinking MV Captayannis into a sandbar, where it became stuck and tilted on its side, the BBC reported. It still sits there today; looters have stripped some of its materials, but the wreck doesn't interfere with other ship traffic, so it's been left to rust.

The MV Plassy, built in 1941, was the first motor vessel owned by Limerick Steamship Company Limited, whose boats mainly traded between ports in Ireland and continental Europe, according to the National Maritime Museum of Ireland . However, the Plassy was a "tramp ship" and went wherever its cargo took it, including South Africa, Greece and Russia, carrying chilled items such as fruit and fish. But a local voyage, from Fenit to Galway, proved its last.

In the early morning of March 1960, strong winds and heavy squalls of rain blew the Plassy ashore at Finnis Rock, which tore a hole in the vessel's bottom. "Next thing, Wallop, such a thump. We hit it so hard," said crewmember Eddie Reidy, according to the museum. "I was taken off the deck and hit the ceiling. Water started to rush in from underneath. There was shouting and running in all directions."

The ship lost power, and the crew abandoned ship. They were helped by locals who rushed out to rescue them. The ship was unsalvageable, but the crew got jobs elsewhere. The ship's remains are still at Finnis Rock.

The 100-foot-long (30 m) Shale Scow — a flat-bottomed boat — sank in 1903 while tied to a dock in Elk Rapids, Michigan, according to Michigan Underwater Preserves . Because the boat sank in just 12 feet (3.6 m) of water, it's a popular site among snorkelers.

The Norwegian steamship SS Benwood was armed to the gills during World War II. Built in England in 1910, the 360-foot-long (110 m) vessel was registered as a merchant marine freighter at the time it sank in 1942, but because of the U-boat threat, it was carrying 12 rifles, a 4-inch (10 cm) gun, six depth charges and 36 bombs, according to the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary .

However, a U-boat didn't sink it — rumors of one did.

On April 9, 1942, the Benwood was traveling from Tampa, Florida to Norfolk, Virginia carrying a cargo of phosphate rock. That night, the crew heard rumors a German U-boat was in the area, so they turned off the lights to stay out of sight. Another steamship, the Robert C. Tuttle was heading the opposite direction and didn't see the Benwood until the two crashed in the dark.

The Tuttle was larger and newer and wasn't in immediate danger, but the Benwood began taking on water, the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary reported. So the captain told the crew to abandon ship.

The shipwreck wasn't a total loss. The U.S. Army used it for aerial target practice after World War II and salvage missions recovered some of its materials. Nowadays, it's a popular dive site in the sanctuary.

Altair off Brazil

This wrecked ship — known as the Altair — is wasting away on the coast of southern Brazil, just south of the Rio Grande. A strong storm sank it in the winter of 1976, and it was later abandoned and looted, according to the Municipal Prefecture of Rio Grande .

The ship is now the habitat for many species, and the beach is well known for fishing and nautical sports, including surfing. Tourists visiting the boat can also see sand dunes, waterfalls and wild animals, including black seagulls, tortoises and hawks. 

Capsized in Iraq

This giant vessel met disaster in Basra, Iraq. It capsized in the Shatt al-Arab, also known as the Arvand Rud, a river that runs through southern Iraq and forms the border between Iran and Iraq near the Persian Gulf. The river formed where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers come together at Qurna, which some people reportedly believe is the site of the biblical Garden of Eden, according to The National , an online news agency in the Middle East.

The river seems to be a graveyard of sorts: According to estimates by the General Company of Ports of Iraq (GCPI), around 36 sunken ships lie in the Shatt al-Arab, according to niqash.org .

Japanese B5N2 Kate torpedo bombers sank the USS Utah during the Pearl Harbor attack on Dec. 7, 1941. The attack killed 64 crewmen, 58 of whom were entombed in the ship when it capsized, according to the Pacific Aviation Museum in Hawaii .

The USS Utah, a dreadnought battleship, was not an active battleship, but rather an auxiliary ship, when the Japanese bombed it. The Japanese knew this, but one pilot thought it was an active battleship and bombed it by mistake, as did one of his wingmen. Their superiors were furious because the bombers had just 40 torpedoes, and it was a large loss to mistakenly use two, according to the museum. 

During World War I, New Zealand converted this passenger ship — the SS Maheno — into a floating hospital, according to New Zealand History .

After the war, the SS Maheno became a passenger ship again, and was later sold to an Osaka ship-breaker company for scrap metal in 1935. But the ship never made it there: A cyclone severed the towline connected with the SS Maheno and the Oonah, the ship towing it, according to Atlas Obscura . Three days later, the Maheno and its small crew were found stranded on the beach of Fraser Island, off the coast of Queensland, Australia.

Staten Island boat graveyard

"An accidental marine museum," as one nautical magazine calls it, this boat graveyard on the shores of southern Staten Island, New York, was founded in the 1930s by John J. Witte (who died in 1980), the The New York Times reported ; Witte reportedly would not dismantle any of the ships unless he had a buyer, according to The New York Times. Thus, they continued to accumulate. But soon, the Witte Marine Equipment Co. had more boats than it could disassemble, according to Forgotten New York . Some dated to before World War I, the New York Times reported in 1990.

Since then, the wrecks have become a habitat for underwater marine life. Environmental laws now mandate that the hundreds of hulls stay untouched at the site, which is now known as the Donjon Recycling.

SS Palo Alto

This famous concrete tanker was made to fight the Central Powers during World War I, but the war ended before it could enter battle.  

Why was it made out of concrete? During the war, there were concerns about steel shortages. So, the Emergency Fleet Corporation, formed under President Woodrow Wilson, requested 24 new ships be built out of ferroconcrete and reinforced with steel, according to The Washington Post .

After it was made in Oakland, California, the SS Palo Alto was moved south to Aptos, California, by the Cal-Nevada Company in 1929. In 1930, a pier was constructed to reach the boat, and it became a popular tourist destination, as well as an environmental hazard that was finally cleaned up in 2006.

The ship continues to weather damage. In January 2017, a storm off the coast of California ripped the stern off the SS Palo Alto. 

SS Francisco Morazan

The SS Francisco Morazan sits at the Bottom of Lake Michigan, after it ran aground during a wild snowstorm in 1960.

The Holland-bound ship left Chicago on Nov. 27, 1960, with 940 tons of cargo, according to the National Park Service . But the next day, 40 mph (64 km/h) winds brought water on board the ship. Blinded by snow and heavy fog, the crew mistakenly ran the ship aground by South Manitou Island.

The crew abandoned the ship, and because the ship's owners never came forward, the ship was left in the lake, where it is now home to birds, including cormorants and gulls.

Half Moon schooner-yacht

The Half Moon Underwater Archaeological Preserve is the watery grave for a German 366-ton steel schooner-yacht with two masts. The 1908 vessel once sported the name Germania and sped through the water as a racing yacht, according to Florida's Museums in the Sea .

However, Germania was seized by England during World War I, and it was later sold and renamed the Half Moon. Then, it sailed down to Miami, where it was repurposed as a floating cabaret during the Prohibition era.

The schooner-yacht sank in 1930, when a storm ran it aground, according to DiveSpots.com . The Half Moon is now visited by snorkelers and divers visiting the archaeological preserve.

Abandoned in Argentina

The St. Christopher will likely sit the rest of its days in the harbor of Ushuaia in southern Argentina.

The vessel is an American-built rescue tug that served in the British Royal Navy during World War II, as part of the Lend-Lease Act, according to NavSource Online . The Royal Navy decommissioned the tug after the war, and sold it in 1947 to a man in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He chartered it for salvage operations, but it ran into engine trouble and rudder damage in Beagle Channel by Ushuaia.

The St. Christopher ran ashore and was abandoned in 1957, and photographers have snapped photos of the deteriorating tug ever since. To prevent environmental disaster, its remaining fuel was drained in 2004, according to NavSource Online. 

Skeleton Coast shipwreck

This rusty shipwreck sits on the Skeleton Coast, just north of Luderitz in Namibia.

The 976-mile-long (1,570 kilometers) Skeleton Coast is littered with shipwrecks, according to the HuffPost . That's because when the Atlantic's cold currents mix with the dry, warm air from the Namib Desert, the two create a cold, dense fog that can befuddle even careful ship captains, the HuffPost reported. 

The Khoisan Bushmen, a tribe of hunter-gatherers, apparently call the Skeleton Coast "the land God created in anger," according to Tahir Shah in a BBC article , in which he described the land as being littered with "huge bleached whalebones, the crumbling hulks of shipwrecks, dead plants, and the footprints of infrequent desert creatures, all on a desperate search for sustenance."

MS World Discoverer

The MS World Discoverer sits just off the shore of one of the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

The Danish cruise ship was constructed in 1974 and met disaster after striking a rock during a cruise in 2000, according to the History channel . The crew sent out a distress signal and arranged for all of the passengers to be safely escorted to a passenger ferry.

But the ship's journey wasn't complete. It was looted and damaged during the Solomon Islands Civil War. It still sits at Roderick Bay, where tourists photograph the tropical vegetation growing on its deck. 

Breakwater boat

The Point San Pablo Yacht Harbor in Richmond, California, contains a sunken vessel that was purposefully placed there as a breakwater — a barrier that protects the harbor from San Francisco Bay's never-ending waves.

Capt. Raymond H. Clark, who started the marina, couldn't afford a breakwater levee, so he came up with the unconventional idea of using sunken ships, according to Point San Pablo Yacht Harbor . He got his hands on condemned wooden schooners and towed them to the best position for the marina.

"This graveyard of coastal steamers was quite picturesque," especially for people fishing for striped bass, which were abundant in the area, Harbor's website said.

Oakland treasure

The waters around Oakland and San Francisco are filled with rotting shipwrecks. This one sits in San Leandro Bay, not too far from the Oakland International Airport.

Thames River wrecks

These moldering boats sit in the Thames River, just off the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut.

Disaster in Greenland

This shipwreck is wasting away off the southwest coast of Nuuk, Greenland.

Ship skeleton off Cape Cod

The outline of a shipwreck can still be seen on Cape Cod's Long Point.

Wrecked in Baja California Sur

This enormous vessel washed ashore on a beach in Mexico's Baja California Sur.

Editor's note: This countdown was originally published on Sept. 24, 2017 and updated on Aug. 20, 2024 to include more shipwrecks.

Sign up for the Live Science daily newsletter now

Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox.

Laura is the archaeology and Life's Little Mysteries editor at Live Science. She also reports on general science, including paleontology. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Scholastic, Popular Science and Spectrum, a site on autism research. She has won multiple awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association for her reporting at a weekly newspaper near Seattle. Laura holds a bachelor's degree in English literature and psychology from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in science writing from NYU.

'Richly decorated weapon' from Edo Japan unearthed in World War II rubble in Germany

Bison Licking Insect Bite: A 14,000-year-old lifelike figure carved from a weapon

New invention harvests ambient Wi-Fi and Bluetooth signals to power small devices

Most Popular

• 2 200 meteorites on Earth traced to 5 craters on Mars
• 3 Scientists collect high-resolution images of the North Star's surface for 1st time
• 4 Supercharged 'cocoon of energy' may power the brightest supernovas in the universe
• 5 AI and brain implant enables ALS patient to easily converse with family 'for 1st time in years'

The Easy Way To Find Shipwrecks On Google Earth

Who doesn't like hidden treasure , sunken ships, and all that? Just fetch your map that someone conveniently marked with a big "X," grab your magnifying lens, toss on a Jumanji hat, and get cracking on a globetrotting adventure. Or you know, stay melted into your couch and tap open the app of a megabillion-dollar data collection corporation — Google — that controls satellites in non-geostationary orbit capable of taking pictures of your cellphone screen in your hand while you're searching for "How to find shipwrecks on Google Earth." Fun? Up to you. Possible? You bet.

Yes, Google Earth allows folks to prowl the planet and see sights hitherto unknown — provided they aren't below the ocean's surface. Some ships, like the forever famous Titanic , deteriorate at untouchable depths of thousands of feet below the waves and could never be spotted by satellites. But tides carry everything toward land, and a lot more shipping accidents happen than you might realize. The Global Maritime Wrecks Database has records of over 250,000 shipwrecks throughout history, including their locations. Even across 2018, 2019, and 2020, we lost about 50 ships per year, as the 2021 Allianz Safety and Shipping Review depicts. Some of these ships are bound to reach shore despite Earth's oceans covering 71% of our planet's surface. And if you want to see a wreck, just open user-curated Google maps like  Visible Shipwreck Collection V 1.2  — containing over 1,800 ships — or enter coordinates on Google Earth to find some yourself.

Enter latitude and longitude, please

Could it be so easy to find shipwrecks? No recruiting a salty crew of hardened sailors on the cold, gray dock of a far-flung port town with promises of lost gold bullion ferreted away in the secret cargo hold of a long-abandoned vessel? No. But let's be honest: There's something to be said for ease and comfort. How easy? Go to Google Earth, find the little search box in the upper left-hand corner, and try typing some coordinates. You can start with, "42, -60." Bam: Instant Google copyright sign floating in the Atlantic Ocean south of Nova Scotia. It's not a shipwreck, but we're getting there.

That really is all there is to it. At minimum, you need to enter two coordinates on Google Earth: latitude and longitude, both as decimals. Latitude — measured in degrees — refers to the distance north and south from the equator, with positive numbers heading north and negative numbers heading south. Longitude — technically a measure of time expressed in minutes — refers to the distance west or east from its conventional starting point at Greenwich, England. Eastern positions are expressed in positive numbers and western positions in negative numbers because the Earth rotates west to east. If you want to get more precise just keep adding numbers to the 10th, 100th, 1000th, etc., decimal position, like "79.8567" latitude. If you're precise and patient enough, you just might find a shipwreck. Or, you might find your own house.

The dwindling unknown

Those wanting to be the first to find an unsunk shipwreck better get their fingertips typing, because loads of digital explorers have already uncovered thousands of vessels worldwide, like the aforementioned Visible Shipwreck Collection V 1.2, which at the time of writing compiled over 1,800 ships and has over 450,000 views. Some ships on that list have labels no more complex than "Wreck. 901," while others get more specific, like "Komores, Mayotte, stranded sailing boat," complete with pictures. Yet others we know by name, like the C-22 USS Charleston.

We've even got known ship graveyards like the Staten Island Boat Graveyard, a legitimate dark tourism location featured in write-ups on sites like Atlas Obscura and Wired . Yet other shipwrecks (see the picture above) look like Caribbean beach parties plus a whole lot of mangled and rusted metal. In other words, with tools as powerful as Google Earth useable by anyone on the planet, the number of unknown planetary spots and objects will continue to dwindle faster and faster.  

So why, the reader might wonder, aren't all these crashed and battered ships removed from their locations? Is it mere laziness or cost efficiency? According to Maritime Goods , there's a far more romantic, even surprisingly noble, reason behind the decision. Dead ships, like the dead people they once carried, are regarded as a kind of lost life that should be left where it is and not disturbed. This is something that physical and digital tourists alike should remember.

• Advertising
• Subscriptions

Viewing and Downloading Nautical Charts with Google Earth

By David Burch, Starpath Navigation

We have been working on using Google Earth (GE) for practice with echart navigation, which led to a couple short videos on the process listed at the end here.  In this process we discovered a remarkable NOAA service that I am embarrassed to say that I did not know about till now.  I am not sure how long it has been online, but it is there now and works great. It is part of their new products on seamless display, that we discuss more at the end here.  The GE feature of that program is the subject at hand.

With this easy to use utility you can see at a glance all 2100 NOAA charts outlined on the GE world map, with the ability to actually view the individual charts, with or without a border, as well as a very quick way to download the RNC echart of any one of them.

The process is explained on a page of the NOAA site called  Seamless Raster Navigational Chart Server & Web Map Services , but you pretty much have to know it is there to find it. Once there the main link that is needed is the Google Earth kmz file, called  NOAA_RNCs.kmz.

When you click that link it will download the 340-kb kmz file to your downloads, and then just open Google Earth and drag and drop that file onto the GE world. You will see something like Figure 1.

Then just zoom to the region you care about. Below is the region we use for our coastal nav training program near the chart 18465.  In Figure 2 I have rolled the cursor over the 18465 boundary, which highlight it, then clicked the boundary line to pop up the control panel shown.

At this point you can start experimenting with the options.  The “collarless preview” loads the chart without the borders; the collared preview shows a full copy of the paper chart with all borders and scales.

As noted earlier, NOAA is getting started with their own version of this  type of display from their own server , which has a lot of potential, but it is not yet nearly as convenient as the GE version. Especially promising is the counter part they have for vector charts , but this one is even less developed than their seamless raster chart. All in all though, NOAA has been doing a tremendous amount of development of their site with many benefits to mariners.

Melges 24 World in Victoria in 2018

A good ketch, you may also like, online boating education is so now, mighty miniboats, students thrive in maritime, lady ship lessons, learning by doing, ghhs announces new maritime program, stem sailing camp for girls, first aid at sea, staying sharp, cyc winter speaking series.

Can’t seem to be able to open the charts themselves on an iPad. No curser to point and click. The kmz file overlays the goggle earth map. Can this be used on an iPad or does the program require a computer?

Have you subsequently managed to integrate CHS RNC or ENC charts into Google Earth? The NOAA charts work great, but I spend a lot of time farther north in BC and would really like to have those charts integrated as well.

How do you remove these from Google Earth? Great if needed, but annoying if not.

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Privacy Overview

• Skip to primary navigation
• Skip to main content
• Skip to primary sidebar

Google Earth Blog

The amazing things about Google Earth

Sunken ships in Google Earth

August 29, 2013

A recent article by  Mark Fillman of Ocean Cruises  featured shipwrecks that then linked to various sites, but it only showed a handful of shipwrecks that can be found in Google Earth. There are far more than that can be seen in the MyReadingMapped’s  five Google Maps of Sunken Ships , representing several hundreds of sunken ship sites, but only a fraction of those ships can be seen in Google Earth because some are above water, while others are below water.

To help fill that gap, MyReadingMapped assembled 43 shipwreck images in a 4-part article of  The Shipwrecks of Google Map , complete with links to each location. Those shipwrecks that  can be seen underwater  are in another article.

Many other visible ships are  abandoned ships in ship grave yards , or  musem(ed) ships . In any case there are hundreds of shipwrecks, abandoned ships, and museum(ed) ships that can be seen in Google Map and all these  links make it easy for ship enthusiasts to find them.

[UPDATE by Frank] : as commenter SpiderX22 mentions below, there’s an excellent collection of visible shipwrecks curated by the Google Earth Community since at least 2006 which I wrote about back then. It currently has nearly 2000 placemarks of visible shipwrecks around the world organized by several categories.

If you’re looking for more, you can also find a large collection of shipwrecks over at Google Earth Hacks .

About Mickey Mellen

Mickey has been using Google Earth since it was released in 2005, and has created a variety of geo-related sites including Google Earth Hacks. He runs a web design firm in Marietta, GA, where he lives with his wife and two kids.

• More Posts(1431)

Reader Interactions

August 29, 2013 at 8:07 am

You can find Titanic on Google Earth. There is a .kml for it.

August 29, 2013 at 8:34 am

The Google Earth Community actually has a really good one too: http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/gec-transportation/YmOcgJMZOSI/X2triWckBJYJ

Right now, that collection has 1854 shipwrecks which are visible in Google Earth

February 21, 2015 at 8:39 am

MyReadingMapped recently changed from a blog to a .com, so here is the new URL for the Google Maps: http://www.myreadingmapped.com/2011/01/sunken-ship-map-documentaries.html

October 22, 2016 at 3:13 am

How do I find shipwrecks off the south African coast

Google Earth

Create stories and maps.

With creation tools, you can draw on the map, add your photos and videos, customize your view, and share and collaborate with others.

Create on Earth

Draw on the map.

Add placemarks to highlight key locations in your project, or draw lines and shapes directly on the map.

Add your photos and videos

Feature images and videos on your map to add rich contextual information.

Customize your view

Make use of Google Earth's detailed globe by tilting the map to save a perfect 3D view or diving into Street View for a 360 experience.

Share your story with the world

Collaborate with others like a Google Doc and share your story as a presentation.

• Yachting World
• Digital Edition

Google Earth navigation: how to sail off the chart with confidence using satellite imagery

• January 1, 2016

Pacific cruiser Rory Garland uses a range of new techniques to navigate safely in far-flung places with poor chart coverage

Using Google Earth to navigate

Cruising in remote tropical regions can be challenging, especially where there are no charts suitable for pilotage. Often the charts that do exist are old and inaccurate. To make matters worse, coral can grow surprisingly fast and what was a clear channel 20 years ago might now have coral heads just below the surface.

In these situations the navigator needs to piece together every available bit of information in advance and Google Earth navigation is the way to go. We have been sailing our Grand Soleil 52, Streetcar , in the Pacific for over two years. During this time we have adopted a range of new techniques to supplement standard navigation and pilotage practices using publicly available satellite imagery to fill in the gaps and give us the confidence to explore off-chart.

Most people are familiar with using Google Earth satellite imagery to explore on land, or even to see into their neighbour’s garden. Many cruisers are now finding satellite imagery can help with navigation. Coverage extends over coastal waters and captures most of the reefs and rocks associated with the land.

On this Google Earth image reef systems and shallows appear as light blue areas on the western side of Fiji

In tropical zones the water is clear enough for shallow areas to be visible on satellite imagery. Even in murky lagoon water suspicious discoloured patches can be identified. Conveniently, satellite images can be easily referenced to WGS84 for plotting GPS positions.These features combine to provide a powerful tool to support navigation and pilotage.

Getting the technology right

In our navigation station we use a PC with a Garmin puck-type GPS plugged into the USB. Reception is good enough from the chart table, although this might not be the case on all boats. I use a PC with Windows because it’s the most common platform for all the various navigation software and avoids compatibility problems when exchanging files with other cruisers.

You also need good-quality access to the internet to download the images. In some parts of the Pacific there is good enough mobile coverage to allow continuous downloading as you sail. Otherwise, you need to anticipate your areas of coverage and download when you can.

We use three programs for navigation:

• Google Earth running on the PC
• Open CPN with Google Earth charts
• SAS.Planet connected to other satellite image resources.

With Google Earth you can pan along a proposed route and zoom into areas of interest. The detail is automatically adjusted as you zoom. You can even explore archived images to find the clearest pictures.

If you connect a GPS, the boat’s location is shown on the images, although I find this can be temperamental in Google Earth.

Google Earth saves (caches) viewed imagery up to a memory size limit. In the options you can maximise this cache size. This means that while you still have a good internet connection you can traverse a planned route zooming in and panning as you go along. Provided you don’t exceed the memory limitation, all the images will be available later when you are under way and not connected to the internet.

Electronic chart with Google Earth overlay in Open CPN, showing our tracks in and out of a well-known Fiji anchorage

Open CPN is freely available chartplotting software. It is the product of an online community of volunteer programmers. Electronic charts can be displayed and overlaid with waypoints, routes and tracks. And there is a whole range of additional plugins that add to the functionality.

Using another freely available program called GE2KAP alongside Google Earth, you can create your own Google Earth charts. These can then be imported to Open CPN and overlaid onto navigation charts. You can toggle between the satellite images and the chart to compare features.

SAS.Planet is another Geographic Information System, like Google Earth. It is a Russian freeware program, which is easy to download and does not even need to be installed. You just double click the downloaded file.

Many cruisers in the tropical Pacific are now using SAS.Planet because it provides access to images from other sources, such as Bing and Yahoo. In some areas these are better quality than the Google Earth images.

Like Google Earth, SAS.Planet can be connected to your GPS so that you can see the boat’s position superimposed over the satellite images. You can also use it like a chartplotter to create waypoints and routes as well as record your tracks.

In the Great Astrolab Reef we found Bing images viewed in SAS.Planet much clearer than Google Earth in OpenCPN

The drawback with SAS.Planet is that converting the images into charts for later use in OpenCPN is not straightforward. So if you do not have access to the internet, you’ll have to rely on images stored in the cache. As with Google Earth, this cache is limited by the amount of memory allocated.

With good internet coverage OpenCPN and SAS.Planet used together is our best option. In Fiji there is very good mobile phone network coverage and I can usually download images through SAS.Planet as we sail. When this is possible I like to run Open CPN alongside SAS.Planet so I can watch the chart and satellite imagery side by side.

In order to run both at once on the same PC, I installed a piece of software that makes the GPS input available to both programs. I use Franson GPSGate, which is easy to install and use.

In more remote areas you need to prepare all your satellite image charts in advance. Recently, we spent six months cruising through Tuvalu, Kiribati and Marshall Islands. Being ex-colonies, all these atolls have previously been charted. However, charts are dated and there are plenty of omissions and inaccuracies.

We knew that satellite imagery was going to be a real asset. But in this region the internet is not good enough for downloading data. So before we left Fiji we used GE2KAP to assemble portfolios of Google Earth charts for all the atolls.

These Google Earth charts proved to be invaluable, allowing us to explore further and providing us with enough information to find useful protected anchorages around the lagoons.

Those who have cruised atolls in convergence zone regions will know that you always need an exit strategy from your anchorage. Sudden and sometimes violent wind reversals can turn your idyllic spot into a lee shore with many miles of fetch across the lagoon. Having the Google Earth charts allowed us always to have a plan ready for these situations.

When anchoring a 30m radius swing circle is first superimposed on a satellite image clear of coral heads. We approach slowly and drop anchor in the middle

Another benefit of taking time to collate this type of cruising information is being able to contribute to the communities of cruisers who cross your path in these remote areas. Thumbdrives full of Google Earth charts, tracks, waypoints, anchorages, etc, are the currency of these anchorages. It’s useful information, but remember to check for errors.

Additional resources

Most cruisers write blogs and upload cruising information to websites. We always spend time going through these resources before heading off.

We always check out the website www.noonsite.com , and some of the best cruiser resources for the Pacific are compiled by Soggy Paws on http://svsoggypaws.com .

Changing how we navigate

The use of satellite imagery for navigation in tropical areas is a huge step forward. It allows us to explore further with confidence and we can usually find alternatives if plan A doesn’t come off. But it doesn’t replace traditional methods of pilotage. We always have someone on lookout. The radar is always on to provide accurate measurement and the hand-bearing compass is at hand.

I treat every piece of information with suspicion, especially when there are inconsistencies. The challenge is to separate the ‘fact’ from the ‘uncertainties’ and then figure out the best way to make use of the information. But I have found satellite imagery can contribute significantly to the ‘fact’ side of the equation. As they say, the camera never lies. Well, almost never.

Sources of free software for using satellite imagery

Google Earth www.google.com/earth/download/ge/

SAS.Planet www.openhub.net/p/sasplanet

OpenCPN www.opencpn.org/ocpn/download

GE2KAP www.gdayii.ca/Downloads.php

This is an extract from a feature in the November 2014 issue of Yachting World

• PRO Courses Guides New Tech Help Pro Expert Videos About wikiHow Pro Upgrade Sign In
• EDIT Edit this Article
• EXPLORE Tech Help Pro About Us Random Article Quizzes Request a New Article Community Dashboard This Or That Game Happiness Hub Popular Categories Arts and Entertainment Artwork Books Movies Computers and Electronics Computers Phone Skills Technology Hacks Health Men's Health Mental Health Women's Health Relationships Dating Love Relationship Issues Hobbies and Crafts Crafts Drawing Games Education & Communication Communication Skills Personal Development Studying Personal Care and Style Fashion Hair Care Personal Hygiene Youth Personal Care School Stuff Dating All Categories Arts and Entertainment Finance and Business Home and Garden Relationship Quizzes Cars & Other Vehicles Food and Entertaining Personal Care and Style Sports and Fitness Computers and Electronics Health Pets and Animals Travel Education & Communication Hobbies and Crafts Philosophy and Religion Work World Family Life Holidays and Traditions Relationships Youth
• Browse Articles
• Learn Something New
• Quizzes Hot
• Happiness Hub
• This Or That Game
• Train Your Brain
• Explore More
• Support wikiHow
• About wikiHow
• Log in / Sign up
• Computers and Electronics
• Website Application Instructions
• Google Applications
• Google Maps

Go Underwater in Google Maps + Google Earth

Last Updated: September 22, 2023 Fact Checked

Using Google Maps

Using google earth.

This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Darlene Antonelli, MA . Darlene Antonelli is a Technology Writer and Editor for wikiHow. Darlene has experience teaching college courses, writing technology-related articles, and working hands-on in the technology field. She earned an MA in Writing from Rowan University in 2012 and wrote her thesis on online communities and the personalities curated in such communities. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 144,974 times. Learn more...

Google Maps' Street View, as well as Google Earth, can be used to explore the world's oceans and dive underwater without leaving your seat. There are only selected underwater locations currently available, but the views are breathtaking. You can see lots of aquatic life and reefs from around the world. This wikiHow article teaches you how to look underwater using Google Maps and Google Earth from your computer's web browser.

Things You Should Know

• Open Google Maps and use the person icon to see what Street Views are available.
• For specific places like the Great Barrier Reef, you can use Street View to go underwater.
• Alternatively, open the World's Ocean page in Google Earth to see what images are available underwater in the Earth's oceans.

• You can also use the Google Maps mobile app if you want to go underwater on your smartphone or tablet! Simply open the app and follow these steps!

• Your best bet is to choose The Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Philippines, or Hawaii, which have underwater viewing available in Google Maps. [1] X Research source

• Again, these areas are The Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Philippines, and Hawaii. [2] X Research source
• Click the "Underwater Earth" author link when you're viewing underwater scenes to see the rest of the underwater locations they have available.
• Alternatively, see which areas have Underwater View available without typing in a location by clicking the person icon. You'll see where Street View/Photo Sphere is available if there are little green dots with blue outlines. With that overlay enabled, you can move your view over the water and see if there's a view available.

• If you want to exit the view and search for a new one, just click the arrow pointing left at the top leftmost area of the screen. You'll be taken back to the maps view of the location.

• The page may take a while to load, but once it does, you'll see a list of all the underwater places you can see in the "The World's Ocean" pop-up.
• You can also view this on your smartphone or tablet! You'll need to click the link above for the World's Oceans and the Google Earth mobile app will open to that page so you can explore the seas!

• Zoom out by pressing the - button on your screen to leave that underwater view.

Expert Q&A

You might also like.

• ↑ https://www.google.com/maps/about/behind-the-scenes/streetview/treks/oceans/

About This Article

• Send fan mail to authors

Is this article up to date?

Featured Articles

Trending Articles

Watch Articles

• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• Do Not Sell or Share My Info
• Not Selling Info

wikiHow Tech Help Pro:

Level up your tech skills and stay ahead of the curve

Explore Google Earth

Grab the helm and go on an adventure in Google Earth.

• Subscriptions

Grab a Seat at the Captain’s Table

Essential news coupled with the finest maritime content sourced from across the globe.

Join our crew and become one of the 108,395 members that receive our newsletter.

Google Earth Ship Simulator

Share this article.

Ship Simulator – It may not have the capabilities of a Transas Full Mission Simulator , the unique characteristics of a Tall Ship simulation or the pure fun of the nautical game Ship Simulator 2008 but none of the above have the real life data of google earth driving the background images.

TheMaritime blog tells us :

I came across this free ship simulator that allows you to control different types of ships in different areas of the world using Google Earth in your web browser. Its very basic, and the true simulator connoisseur may find many faults, but hey, its fun! There are no explosions or special effects if you try ramming your ship aground….I tired it.  Looks like they are also looking for investors to make the simulator better.  You’ll need a free Google Earth plugin for your browser if you don’t already have it installed.  Takes just a second to install it.

Here is a video of the Google Earth Ship Simulator :

Of note the game was developed by PlanetInAction  with help from Google Earth blogger  Frank Taylor .

Related Posts: Free Ship Simulator Game

Unlock Exclusive Insights Today!

Join the gCaptain Club for curated content, insider opinions, and vibrant community discussions.

Be the First to Know

Join the 108,395 members that receive our newsletter.

Have a news tip? Let us know.

Stay Ahead with Our Weekly ‘Dispatch’ Email

Dive into a sea of curated content with our weekly ‘Dispatch’ email. Your personal maritime briefing awaits!

Related Articles

Berge Bulk Deploys Sofar’s Wayfinder Platform Across Fleet To Cut Fuel And Emissions

Berge Bulk is deploying Sofar Ocean’s Wayfinder dynamic voyage optimization platform across its fleet to save time, fuel, and emissions, and to optimize the performance of new decarbonization technologies. “Using...

Black And White In A World Of Grey

WinGD To Debut Short-Stroke Engine Design After Successful Shop Test

Swiss marine power company WinGD will record the first installation of its new X-S short-stroke engine design following successful factory acceptance tests with engine builder Dalian Marine Diesel in March....

Why Join the gCaptain Club?

Access exclusive insights, engage in vibrant discussions, and gain perspectives from our CEO.

OUT AT SEA?

We’ve got you covered with trusted maritime and offshore news from wherever you are.

JOIN OUR CREW

Maritime and offshore news trusted by our 108,395 members delivered daily straight to your inbox.

Your Gateway to the Maritime World!

Join our crew.

Privacy Overview

• EO Explorer

• Global Maps

Smoke Streams from Fires in Madeira

August 17, 2024

In mid-August 2024, fires raged on Madeira, a Portuguese island 700 kilometers (430 miles) west of Morocco. As of August 20, the flames had burned more than 5,700 hectares of forest, according to the European Forest Fire Information System .

The blaze, which started in the mountains of Serra de Água on August 14, quickly spread east toward Curral das Freiras and Câmara de Lobos. When the OLI ( Operational Land Imager ) on Landsat 8 acquired these images on August 17, the fire was burning on three active fronts, and smoke streamed from the southern coast of the island over the Atlantic Ocean. The natural-color scenes are overlaid with an infrared signal to help distinguish the heat signature of active fires.

August 17, 2024 JPEG

Heat and high winds helped the fire spread in the forested mountains of the island. In the days after the fire started, local reporting indicated wind gusts up to 70 kilometers (43 miles) per hour and temperatures hovering around 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit). After August 17, the fire fronts expanded west and north of Serra de Água. On August 18, more than 160 people were evacuated from their homes, local authorities said, as firefighters attempted to tackle the blazes in difficult-to-access hilly terrain.

The European Forest Fire Information System , which uses data from the MODIS ( Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer ) sensors on NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites, estimated that much of the 5,700 hectares of burned area was woodland, shrubland, and broadleaf forest. As of August 20, blazes were close to residential parts of Curral das Freiras, although the fires had not damaged any property.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey . Story by Emily Cassidy .

View this area in EO Explorer

Heat and wind gusts helped the blazes spread through over 5,700 hectares of forest.

Image of the Day for August 21, 2024

Image of the Day Heat Land Fires

View more Images of the Day:

2024 Fires in the Northern Hemisphere

Whether sparked by lightning, intentional land-clearing, or human-caused accidents, wildland fires are burning longer and more often in some areas as the world warms.

References & Resources

• Agence France-Presse (2024, August 19) Forest Fire On Portugal’s Madeira Raging After Five Days . Accessed August 20, 2024.
• Copernicus (2024, August 19) Forest fire in Madeira . Accessed August 20, 2024.
• European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) Current Situation Viewer . Accessed August 20, 2024.
• Madeira Regional Civil Protection Service (2024, August 18) Fire Situation Report (8:30 pm) . Accessed August 20, 2024.
• Portugal Pulse (2024, August 18) The Funchal Port Authority extends strong wind warning until Monday . Accessed August 20, 2024.
• Reuters (2024, August 18) Hundreds of firefighters battle Madeira wildfire . Accessed August 20, 2024.

You might also be interested in    ( view all )

Forest fires in russia’s far east.

After the winter snow melts in Amur province, people often burn grass and croplands.

Image of the Day Land Fires

Fires and Smoke in Nepal

Wildfires burned through Nepal’s forests amid dry conditions.

Atmosphere Land Fires

Smoke over Moscow

Acquired August 7, 2010, this natural-color image shows thick smoke over Moscow and clusters of fires burning around the city.

Atmosphere Land Dust and Haze

Fires Rage Near Lake Baikal

Several pyrocumulus clouds are lofting dense smoke high into the atmosphere.

• Track A Ship
• View Ship Traffic In A Port
• World Map of Ports

Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.

Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.

• Guest Register If you are reading this it means you have not yet registered. Please take a second to REGISTER (it's FREE). You will then be able to enjoy all the features of Cruising Earth .

Ship Tracker / Live Ship Tracking Map - Cruising Earth

Ship tracker / tracking map live.

Track Ships Worldwide In This Live Ship Tracker

Track a specific ship live by searching for it by name below or by selecting it from the ship line options below. Tracking a specific ship will give you additional details like the ship's current location, recent track, speed, course, next port destination, estimated time of arrival (ETA) and more.

Track Cruise Ships , Cruise Ferries , Research Ships , Military Ships and Famous Ships right here live on Cruising Earth !

Track A Specific Ship

If you know the ship you want to track, enter the ship name or ship line name in the search box below. Then select the ship from the available search results.

Track A Ship From One Of These 194 Ship Lines

First select the ship line below. You will then be shown a list of ships that are available for tracking within that ship line.

Get the latest current and forecast weather information that may affect your cruise vacation travel plans.

It looks like you may be utilizing ad blocking software or another ad filtering technology while visiting Cruising Earth. Certain areas of this site may not work properly because of this, particularly live updates of ship trackers and webcams.

We work hard to strike a balance between content and ads and as a free site we greatly appreciate your support in permitting ads to render. Ads help us cover our server and maintenance costs, which helps us continue to keep this site free to use. You also don't want to miss out on any specials or discounts posted from the Cruise & Travel Industry! For the best site experience please disable your ad blockers for cruisingearth.com, then click the button below. Thank you.

Daily Briefing: A leisurely cruise ends deep under water

At this point, the chance of survivors looks unlikely after a luxurious super yacht sank off the coast of Sicily. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is expected to accept the Democratic vice presidential nomination on Wednesday. Americans are getting sick with COVID-19, but booster vaccines are hard to find.

🙋🏼‍♀️ I'm Nicole Fallert , Daily Briefing author. TikTok has unveiled the songs of the summer . 

A perfect storm led to yacht sinking, experts say

Experts are piecing together why in the early hours of Monday the Bayesian yacht was quickly pulled under the waves amid a storm that saw at least one tornado spin up over the water. The event left the vessel's cook dead and six of its passengers, including at least two Americans, missing, prompting a massive search that has drawn international attention. The combination of unlikely factors that could have contributed to the ship's fate constituted a "black swan event," experts told USA TODAY. Read more

'A Fight for our Freedoms'

The third day of the 2024 Democratic National Convention begins Wednesday in Chicago with Democrats focusing on "a fight for our freedoms" as the day's theme. A packed schedule at the United Center features meetings of the Black, LGBTQ, Hispanic and AAPI caucuses, among others, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz officially accepting the vice presidential nomination.

In case you missed last night: Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama called on Democrats across the country to get involved in the 2024 race.

• "I'm feeling fired up!" : In his speech, Barack Obama praised Harris' record and her economic agenda aimed at lowering costs for the middle class.
• The job Trump wants might just be a "Black job" : Michelle Obama had the harshest words for the former president.
• Protests outside the United Center are likely to continue Wednesday after dozens of demonstrators were arrested outside the Israeli consulate in Chicago on Tuesday night.

Click here for Wednesday's full DNC schedule and access to USA TODAY's livestream. Read more from USA TODAY's journalists on the ground in Chicago:

• Here's how the DNC honors each state with unique songs .
• Which state has the best DNC swag ?
• Harris needs two-thirds of Latino voters in her corner to win .
• Is Harris the ally LGBTQ voters need ?
• An ex-Trump insider went after her former boss in a DNC speech .
• Michelle Obama's DNC outfit has internet buzzing .

More news to know on Wednesday

• Israel's Netanyahu says a cease-fire deal may not happen .
• Officials missed chances to avert a Lewiston, Maine, mass shooting .
• Young adults are major targets for back-to-school scams .
• After hundreds of LGBTQ+ books tossed, a library dean at a Florida college was placed on leave .
• Take a game break. Our expert Sally has the crossword answers .

What's the weather today?  Check your local forecast here .

Sweating as you read this?

You're not alone. A heat dome blanketing the southwest and Texas has caused widespread hazardous conditions for tens of millions of Americans as forecasters predicted record highs in the regions. More than 23 million Americans were under some level of heat advisory or warning early Wednesday, officials said. In Texas, scorching temperatures are pushing the state's electric grid as power demand hit a record high. Drink water and stay inside, if possible .

COVID boosters are hard to find right now

Supplies of the current COVID-19 vaccine are spotty as pharmacies await the updated vaccines that target more recent variants. The good news is that the Food and Drug Administration could soon approve the updated vaccines, which would be shipped to chain pharmacies in the weeks following such an announcement. Read more

Keep scrolling

• How is it possible for a surgeon to lose part of a patient's skull ?
• Taylor Swift can " Do It With A Broken Heart. "
• Beyoncé launched a new whiskey .
• "It Ends With Us" star Brandon Sklenar defended Blake Lively .
• Alex Cooper's "Call Her Daddy" podcast is headed to SiriusXM .

Usher bared all as he launches his Past Present Future tour in an exclusive series of conversations with USA TODAY.

Don't cry — but 'bennifer' is over.

The "Bennifer" love story that first blossomed more than two decades ago has come to an end. On Tuesday, Jennifer Lopez, 55, filed to divorce Ben Affleck, 52, in Los Angeles Superior Court, according to court filings obtained by USA TODAY. Tuesday marked the second anniversary of the estranged couple's Georgia wedding ceremony.  Read more

Photo of the day: A billionaire and 3 astronauts launch into space

Four non-government astronauts are about to embark on what could become a defining mission to the upper reaches of Earth's orbit when Polaris Dawn potentially launches within a week .

Nicole Fallert is a newsletter writer at USA TODAY, sign up for the email here . Want to send Nicole a note? Shoot her an email at [email protected] .

Log in or Sign up

You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly. You should upgrade or use an alternative browser .

brunick Senior Member

just found "le grand bleu" on live(c) maps http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v...lt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=397075&encType=1 its in the docks of blohm & voss where lady moura stayed last year somebody finds some bigger yachts?

Rene GER Senior Member

Octopus at her berth in Antibes, France http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=...,7.129446&spn=0.001663,0.003648&t=h&z=18&om=1 Dubai in Jebel Ali http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=...55.053134&spn=0.002081,0.003648&t=h&z=18&om=1 Here are some other threads about yachts in Google earth Large yacht in Google earth http://www.yachtforums.com/forums/g...acht-google-earth.html?highlight=google+earth Yachts in Google earth http://www.yachtforums.com/forums/g...chts-google-earth.html?highlight=google+earth Rising sun in Google earth http://www.yachtforums.com/forums/g...-sun-google-earth.html?highlight=google+earth

HIBANX Member

HI-BANX in Daytona This is my current ride...it looks smaller from space

Attached Files:

Hibanx google.jpg.

HIBANX said: This is my current ride...it looks smaller from space Click to expand...

Broward She's a 124' Broward

HIBANX said: She's a 124' Broward Click to expand...

http://maps.live.com/?v=2&sp=Point.szc4t7hwqgmj_Pelorus in Lübeck___&encType=1 pelorus live - click on birds eye

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Watch CBS News

5th body recovered from Mike Lynch's family yacht off Sicily as questions mount over luxury vessel's sinking

By Anna Matranga

Updated on: August 22, 2024 / 10:48 AM EDT / CBS News

Rome — Divers recovered the body of a fifth victim of the Bayesian superyacht wreck Thursday morning, Sicily Civil Protection Chief Salvo Cocina confirmed to CBS News, and the Reuters news agency cited Italian Interior Ministry official Massimo Mariani as saying it was the body of Mike Lynch, the British tech magnate whose wife owned the vessel.

Italian Coast Guard spokesperson Vincenzo Zagarola told CBS News that teams were still working to recover the body of the sixth and final person left missing when the boat went down. The six bodies had remained stuck inside the 184-foot luxury yacht for days after it sank early Monday morning off the coast of Palermo, Sicily in a severe thunderstorm.

Four bodies were retrieved Wednesday from the Bayesian, which was resting on the seafloor at a 90 degree angle at a depth of over 160 feet. The vessel's position and items that moved around inside the ill-fated yacht made recovery efforts slow and hazardous.

Italian authorities have not officially identified the remains recovered from the Bayesian, which belonged to Lynch's wife Angela Bacares. She was among the 15 people who managed to escape from the boat as it sank quickly on Monday morning, but Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah were among those left missing.

Another victim, the Bayesian superyacht's chef, was found dead soon after the boat capsized. 

Along with Lynch and his daughter, the technology mogul's American lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda, and British banker Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, were believed to have been trapped in the yacht when it sank.

Questions as to how the state-of-the-art boat could have gone down so quickly have mounted steadily since the accident. 

Italian media were reporting Thursday that, after questioning survivors and witnesses, Italian prosecutors had opened an official investigation into a possible "culpable shipwreck." No individuals had been named as potential suspects.

On Thursday, Giovanni Costantino, head of the Italian Sea Group, which owns the company Perini Navi, which built the Bayesian in 2008, blamed human error.

"A Perini ship resisted Hurricane Katrina, a Category 5 [hurricane]. Does it seem to you that it can't resist a tornado from here?" he remarked to the newspaper Corriere della Sera. "It is good practice when the ship is at anchor to have a guard on the bridge, and if there was one he could not have failed to see the storm coming. Instead, it took on water with the guests still in the cabin. ... They ended up in a trap, those poor people ended up like mice."

One possible factor could have been that the ship's keel — a fin-like structure that sticks out from the bottom of the boat, designed to provide stability and counterweight to the huge mast — was not fully deployed. The yacht had a retractable keel that could be raised for entry into shallow harbors. But a raised keel at sea would have made the ship much more vulnerable to instability in the strong winds that struck early Monday morning.

When asked whether divers had seen the ship's keel in a raised position, a spokesman for the Italian Coast Guard told CBS News that only the prosecutor investigating the incident could confirm such information but that the Coast Guard "was not denying" it. 

The ship's captain, 51-year-old New Zealand national James Cutfileld, was questioned for two hours by prosecutors on Thursday, according to Italian media.

More from CBS News

Woman dead, 5 rescued after Viking ship replica sinks off Norway

Iceland police say 1 U.S. tourist dead, 1 injured in ice cave collapse

"Curious" 4-year-old accidentally breaks a 3,500-year-old jar

Shark kills 16-year-old high school student in Jamaica

Advertisement

Supported by

Final Body Is Recovered From Yacht That Sank Off Sicily

Hannah Lynch, the 18-year-old daughter of the British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, was on board a yacht that was hit by a storm and went down in the early hours on Monday.

• Share full article

By Emma Bubola and Elisabetta Povoledo

Emma Bubola reported from Porticello, Italy, and Elisabetta Povoledo from Pallanza, Italy.

For nearly a week after a violent storm sent a luxury yacht to the bottom of the sea off the coast of Sicily, Italian scuba divers plunged deep underwater, moving through ropes and fallen objects inside the yacht in a desperate search for the six people missing.

On Friday, the recovery of the body of Hannah Lynch, 18, put an end to the wrenching search and to the slim hopes that any of the missing people might have survived.

Ms. Lynch, the daughter of the British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, who also died in the yacht’s sinking, was the last person to be formally unaccounted for since Monday after tragedy struck a group that had been celebrating her father’s acquittal in a high-profile fraud case.

There were 10 crew members and 12 passengers on board the 180-foot vessel, the Bayesian, when it was hit by a storm and went down about 4.30 a.m. on Monday, the boat’s management company said on Friday.

Fifteen survived.

The body of the ship’s cook, Recaldo Thomas, was found on Monday, a few hours after a downpour hit the northwestern coast of Sicily, near the port of Porticello, where the yacht had been anchored.

But it took several days to recover the bodies of the six passengers who were apparently trapped inside the yacht: Mr. Lynch and Ms. Lynch; Jonathan Bloomer, the chairman of Morgan Stanley International; his wife, Judy Bloomer; Christopher J. Morvillo, a lawyer at Clifford Chance; and his wife, Neda Morvillo.

On Friday, a round of applause could be heard from the firefighter’s tent set up on the dock in Porticello after the last body was pulled out in what the corps described as a “complex” search operation at a depth of about 165 feet. The firefighters said they had made 123 immersions into the sea to try to retrieve the bodies.

The body bag was then loaded onto an ambulance. A local man had left a small wooden cross on the rocks in front of the dock where the bodies were brought ashore.

Mr. Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, was among those who managed to reach the safety of a raft. They were rescued by a sailing schooner that had been bobbing about 150 yards from the yacht.

In a statement, the family thanked the search teams and said that it was enduring a “time of unspeakable grief.”

“The Lynch family is devastated, in shock and is being comforted and supported by family and friends,” the statement added.

As prosecutors from the nearby city of Termini Imerese began conducting interviews with the survivors and possible witnesses, the crew and passengers of the Bayesian have been confined to a local hotel, where the news media have been denied access.

Salvatore Cocina, the head of Sicily’s civil protection agency, said on Thursday that the survivors had turned down the psychological assistance his department had offered to them.

In Porticello, the sprawling presence of rescue services made a haunting backdrop for an otherwise tranquil port town. People sunbathed and ate ricotta-filled pastries, and stores selling sandals and dried fruit opened as normal, while coast guard and firefighting vessels came and went from the shore, taking scuba divers out to the shipwreck.

Other reminders of the tragedy could be seen along the coast, among palm trees and ice cream shops, with groups of onlookers staring out at the sea, now tranquil and flat.

Local and national news organizations have complained that prosecutors have not issued a statement or held a news conference. Prosecutors may shed more light on the yacht’s sinking when they hold a news conference on Saturday.

The marine accident investigation branch of the British transportation ministry was also looking into the shipwreck of the vessel, which was registered in Britain.

One of the major questions is what caused the boat to sink: Was it the fault of the boat maker, of the crew or of a powerful act of nature — or some combination of the three? None of those who were onboard the Bayesian have spoken publicly.

The luxury yacht, built by the Italian manufacturer Perini Navi and launched in 2008, had the second-tallest aluminum mast in the world, according to its makers.

Giovanni Costantino, the chief executive of the Italian Sea Group, which in 2022 bought Perini Navi, has been assertive in defending the design and construction of the yacht, saying that the Bayesian would be “unsinkable” if the proper procedures were followed.

But yacht design experts have cautioned that the lesson of the Titanic, the ocean liner that sank on its 1912 maiden voyage, showed that no vessel, no matter how robust, was worthy of that label.

Nautilus International, a maritime-focused labor union, criticized any implication that the crew had been at fault, especially at this stage. In a statement , the union’s general secretary, Mark Dickinson, said, “Experience tells us that maritime tragedies are always the result of multiple, interconnected factors,” and he urged people to refrain from drawing any conclusions until a thorough investigation had been carried out.

The investigation into the causes will take months, prosecutors said.

Michael J. de la Merced contributed reporting.

Emma Bubola is a Times reporter based in Rome. More about Emma Bubola

Elisabetta Povoledo is a reporter based in Rome, covering Italy, the Vatican and the culture of the region. She has been a journalist for 35 years. More about Elisabetta Povoledo