Celebrated British warships being stripped bare for scrap metal

3rd world grave robbers.
Wouldn't expect anything less.

During WWII, my Dad used to patrol the Indian Ocean with long range aircraft. One of the souvenirs that he brought back was a knife made by natives of Cocos island. It has blade about four inches long an it is quite well made with a coconut wood handle. It's just mid steel, though and it doesn't hold an edge, so it was relegated to "letter opener" status.

It was made out of steel salvage from the German light cruise Emden that was beached there following a sea battle in 1914. That wreck supplied the whole region with metal for decades.

Krupp of Essen on the cheap...

One of the major problems is that these ships lay only 50 miles off the coast of Malaya so, it's quite easy for these grave robbing thieves to get there and dive on them. But even so, the Malaysian and British Gov't's should be doing alot more to make examples out of the bastards who are doing this. A war grave is a war grave and these thieving bastards wouldn't be allowed to get away with it on land so, why should they be able to desecrate the memory of these men just because they happen to be buried under water instead of dirt?

If this was a Malaysian fisheries or sovereignty concern I'm pretty sure their Gov't would have no problem setting up a watch to ensure their valuable resources weren't stolen. Why should this be any less important and as for cost, the British Gov't should be investing money to help pay for the patrolling and prosecuting of these assholes.

BTW, Martin do you seriously think that the metal thieving crackhead assholes in BC wouldn't be doing exactly the same thing if they could? This isn't as much about the 3rd world as it is about being a thieving, grave robbing, low life, pig fucking animal, who doesn't care about anyone but themselves and their own creature comforts.

And 3.......2.......1

We're upset because they are RN Battle Cruisers and the graves of our "brother" seamen. if those were Japanese ships, we wouldn't consider it to be a story. I'm quite sure that the Malaysians couldn't give a shit about them being British war graves ... or Japanese. They wouldn't feel any affection for ether nationality.

I used to crew with a guy (on his sailboat) when I was a teenager who survived the sinking of the Prince of Wales and then survived being a POW of the Japanese. Nice fellow. I had no cue, at the time, what he had gone through.

You may not be but, any sailors grave is sacred to me especially a war grave and country of origin doesn't matter.

So given your assumption that it's only because were white here's a thought. Why not open up the Arizona to salvagers? It's easy to access and the metal could be used to fund something important. Or why did the world get so upset when the Taliban destroyed the 1700 year old Buddha Statues? The reason is that these are historically sensitive sites that should be preserved and being underwater doesn't make one bit of difference.

No, they are happier stealing the collection boxes...........


Salvage, or stealing, requires organization, a boat, and some teamwork.

Things most crackheads lack.


I don't care about the steel, it's a graveyard, and should be respected as such.

No, they are happier stealing the collection boxes...........


Salvage, or stealing, requires organization, a boat, and some teamwork.

Things most crackheads lack.


I don't care about the steel, it's a graveyard, and should be respected as such.

Thankfully or there wouldn't be a piece of metal left between Victoria and St. John's

I'm kinda surprised that it's survived this long.

You may not be but, any sailors grave is sacred to me especially a war grave and country of origin doesn't matter.

So given your assumption that it's only because were white here's a thought. Why not open up the Arizona to salvagers? It's easy to access and the metal could be used to fund something important. Or why did the world get so upset when the Taliban destroyed the 1700 year old Buddha Statues? The reason is that these are historically sensitive sites that should be preserved and being underwater doesn't make one bit of difference.

You are preaching to the choir. I feel the same way that you do. I wouldn't be surprised, though, if Malaysians or any other Third World "native" group may not give a shit about us or our sense of honour. I doubt that the feel they owe us anything beyond the old "bum-titty".

I'm sure that they wouldn't care less if it was a Japanese war grave, either.

Disgusting. Grave robbing S.O.B.'s.

-J.

These are not graves, they are wrecked ships. Hunks of metal and some wood and rubber sitting on the ocean floor.

A shrine or memorial market would be a different thing to steal, but trash left to rust because it would take too much money to raise the ships and do something with them are not graves to be respected.

"There are 60 wrecks designated under the Protection of Military Remains Act, 12 of which are 'controlled' - meaning that diving them is strictly prohibited - and 58 which have the lesser designation of "protected", including the Repulse. These sites can be dived under a "look but don't touch" policy."

The insanity of the human race is truly boundless. These ships are so important that you can't even look at them. So holy.

Cut it up and carry it off bit by bit, doing something useful with the metal to improve people's lives is a real tribute to a ship.

These people are as poor as shit and they do stuff like this for basic survival. It's only possible for them because the wrecks are in shallow water. It's an unfortunate situation but they're not like organized treasure hunters or the sort of high-tech well-financed looters that are someday going to be able to start stealing stuff from deep water wrecks like the Titanic or Bismarck.

I'd also suggest that the Royal Navy has much more pressing modern problems, such as getting rid of too many actively-serving ships, most of the Fleet Air Arm, and far too many service personnel, all in the name of the fantasy of fiscal austerity. Poor folk in other parts of the world stealing scrap metal from seventy-year-old wrecks hardly matters at all in comparison to what the British government is deliberately doing to the British military right now.

And fucking ditto for what the Canadian government, regardless of which party is in control of Parliament, has been doing to our own military for almost fifty years now too.

Well then, how about we dig up and burn every Military Cememtary in Europe so the land can given to the poor people and turned into farmland or maybe they should scrap the Arizona and turn it into Toyota's cause god knows it's nothing but a hazard to navigation sitting in the middle of the Channel like that and to be honest, it actually makes berthing at the Sub base harder than it should be.

Hell, why stop there. We should fucking dig up every grave in North America and turn the land into malls and parking lots because they serve the people better than some stuffy old graves. Oh wait, there's a law that prohibits the desecration of civilian graves so that wouldn't work but what the hell. When it's 1353 Sailors buried under a couple of hundred feet of water and a couple of thousand miles from their home port then it just doesn't matter, does it?

But here's a novel idea. Why don't you do me a favour and give those two boys from India a shout when you're laid to rest so they could drop by and have a BBQ with you.