From a ship graveyard that’s now a hotspot for dolphins and other marine life to an abandoned
Rolls Royce, here are 10 mysterious abandoned objects
and vehicles!
10.
TANGALOOMA SHIPWRECKS
At first glance, a collection of 15 submerged boats off the Brisbane, Australia coast resembles
some sort of huge maritime crash.
But this was no accident.
Between 1963 and 1984, the Queensland, Australia government deliberately sunk the old dredging
ships near Moreton Island to create a breakwall for small boats.
Known as the Tangalooma wrecks, they became a haven for reef fish and other marine life,
and coral is starting to form in and around the submerged vessels.
Over 100 fish species are found at the site, which is also visited by dolphins and dugongs.
They love it!
The Tangalooma wrecks are becoming increasingly popular with snorkelers and scuba divers as
images on social media capture more people’s attention than ever before.
Situated in crystal-clear tropical waters with high visibility, it’s an ideal place
for underwater exploration.
The wrecks are sometimes visible above the water during low tide.
Moreton Island is one of the few inhabited islands near Brisbane and is the world’s
third-largest sand island.
It lacks paved roads and is a haven for tourists, with the Tangalooma wrecks ranking as its
top attraction.
Would you like to see for yourself?
9.
FLAMENCO BEACH TANKS
A collection of rusting, graffiti-covered World War II era tanks dotting the beach of
Puerto Rico’s Island look wildly out-of-place against the stunning Caribbean backdrop of
turquoise water, clear skies, and white sand.
But where did they come from?
The American military began using Culebra Island in 1901 after Spain ceded Puerto Rico
to the U.S.
Later that year, then-President Theodore Roosevelt allotted the island’s public territory to
the Navy.
While no official base was ever established there, the site was used for bombing and weapons
practice for decades.
At some point, the Navy tried to evict locals from Culebra Island.
They aggressively fought back through peaceful protests against the navy’s occupation of
the island.
The Navy conceded, and by 1975, the gear left behind, including several large tanks, was
the only remaining evidence of a previous American military presence.
Even after other items were cleaned up, the tanks remained, and they’re still there
today, deteriorating in the sun and the salty ocean breeze.
8.
ELECTRIC CAR CEMETERY
An image claiming to feature a vehicle graveyard in France that’s filled with dozens of electric
cars is currently going viral on social media.
A caption on the post states that electric cars get tossed into lots because replacing
their batteries is more expensive than replacing the cars themselves.
The post also claims that the batteries’ chemicals saturate the ground, defeating the
environmentally friendly concept that the cars are based on.
Not surprisingly, the photo is being circulated mostly by conservatives who are in denial
about climate change and the need to find “green” alternatives to traditional methods
of transportation.
Reuters fact-checked the post and found out that the cars were not taken off the road
for the alleged reason stated in the post.
The vehicles were placed in a field after a contract between a local company and local
authorities expired.
It actually had nothing to do with their batteries.
According to Reuters, the retired fleet was used as part of a car-sharing program called
Autolib, which enabled members to use the cars whenever they needed.
The program fell deeply into debt as it struggled with booking and parking issues, as well as
competition from ride-share companies like Uber.
When the contract ended, the company moved its 4,000 cars out of Paris and into a field
south of the city.
And, contrary to what the social media post claims, the cars are unlikely to sit there
forever abandoned.
They’ve been sold to two different companies, including one that specializes in reselling
cars.
Paul Aouizerate, who heads one of the companies, Atis Production, told Reuters that the cars
are stored properly and are not at risk of polluting the soil beneath them, because their
batteries have been removed.
But the rising popularity of electric cars does pose potential problems when it comes
to battery disposal and recycling, as the Guardian reported in 2017.
Each vehicle contains a half-ton lithium-ion battery, and the question of what to do with
them when they’re spent remains unanswered.
Many lithium ion batteries are not recycled, and this has environmental consequences.
But the answer to this impending crisis remains unknown.
Do you know anyone with an electric car?
What are they going to do with their battery when it dies?
Let us know in the comments below and if you’re liking this video, be sure to hit the thumbs
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7.
LUXURY CARS
In 2010, car enthusiast websites like Top Speed and Auto Guide reported on the discovery
of a Rolls Royce Phantom sitting alongside a railroad in a Russian suburb.
Outfitted with a Rolls Royce Centurion bodykit, the luxurious car looks conspicuously out-of-place.
But it’s clear by looking at the image that it had been sitting in place for quite a while.
How the $450,000 car got there -- and why its owner abandoned it -- is a mystery.
The Phantom’s ownership was traced back to a buyer in Las Vegas, who then sold it
to someone in Russia just a few years before it was found, seemingly left to rot.
On top of being mysterious, the deserted Rolls Royce makes for a sad sight in its worn-out
state, covered in snow and sitting next to a wood pile.
In most places, an abandoned luxury car is a rarity.
But it’s a somewhat common phenomenon in some places, including in India and Dubai.
The problem was especially bad in Dubai, where an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 high-end vehicles
were deserted every year during the global financial crisis that lasted from 2008 to
2010.
Outdated laws meant that someone risked a lengthy jail sentence if they fell behind
on car payments.
Thankfully, the law has changed.
But there’s still an abundance of leftover vehicles from over the years.
Last year, social media influencer Supercar Blondie uploaded shocking footage of a scrapyard
filled with hundreds of dust-covered luxury cars in Dubai.
Some appeared to have been in crashes, while others had no visible defects.
Now that a vehicle owner no longer risks imprisonment by falling behind on the payments, it’s
likely that fewer people are leaving their cars behind.
But in the event that this happens, a car owner has up to six months to pay a fine and
retrieve their seized vehicle.
Otherwise, it will be sold at auction for a much lower price than it’s worth.
6.
LUN EKRANOPLAN
Nicknamed the “Caspian Sea Monster,” the Lun-class ekranoplan was a ground effect vehicle,
meaning its wings generated lift and decreased aerodynamic drag while in close proximity
to the ground.
Designed in 1975, it served for the Soviet and Russian navies between 1987 and sometime
during the late ‘90s.
Only one Lun ekranoplan was ever fully built.
Known as the MD-160, and it flew roughly 13 feet (4 meters) above the water’s surface.
It had a maximum cruising speed of 340 miles per hour (550 km/hr) and was equipped for
anti-surface warfare with six missile launchers.
Without a chassis, the Caspian Sea Monster was unable to travel on solid ground.
Instead, it was stored on a dry floating dock that was built specifically for it.
The dock was towed out into the bay and deliberately sunk, leaving the aircraft ready for use.
The ekranoplan remained self-sufficient for up to five days and was the world’s heaviest
aircraft during its time of service.
Today, the MD-160 sits abandoned at a naval base in Kaspiysk, Russia.
The only other planned Lun-class ekranoplan was never completed.
It was intended as a mobile hospital, but a cut-off of military funding left it 90 percent
finished.
5.
SAM RATULANGI PB 1600
Officials in Myanmar were baffled in 2018 when a nearly 600-foot-long (183 meters) ghost
ship appeared in the Gulf of Martaban.
A few days after being spotted by fishermen, the vessel ran aground off the country’s
coast, enabling curious authorities to board and investigate.
With no crew or cargo aboard, the only evidence of the ship’s origin was the Indonesian
flag it flew.
Two cables attached to the freighter’s head indicated that it was being towed before it
went adrift.
The Marine Traffic website provided a few additional clues, including that the ghost
ship, named the Sam Ratulangi PB 1600, was built in 2001.
Its last recorded location was off the Taiwanese coast in 2009.
The Myanmar Navy ultimately determined that the vessel was en route to a ship-breaking
factory in Bangladesh when the crew abandoned it due to rough weather.
After finding a tugboat about 50 miles (80 km) off the country’s coast, navy personnel
interviewed the 13 Indonesian crew members who were last aboard the Sam Ratulangi.
They reportedly admitted to ditching the ship, and the investigation continued from there.
4.
1982 FORD ESCORT
In September 1991, police discovered an abandoned 1982 Ford Escort in DeKalb County, Alabama.
Three months later, they found the long-dead remains of a young man who had seemingly committed
suicide nearby.
They revisited the deserted vehicle in hopes of finding some clues and stumbled upon a
birth certificate bearing the name “Damon Hunter.”
But authorities soon learned that the document was forged, calling into question the car
owner and deceased man’s true identity.
An investigation determined that someone going by the name of Damon Hunter had bought the
Escort in Fargo, North Dakota the previous month, and that the person stayed in a hotel
while there.
A threatening note found inside the vehicle indicated that the man had staged a robbery
before his death.
Police discovered that he had also called a local abbey and pleaded for financial help,
telling the monks that he was considering committing a robbery and that the people he
owed money to had assaulted him.
Nobody at the abbey knew who the man was, though.
In fact, to this day, authorities have not identified the deceased individual found near
his abandoned Ford Escort.
3.
ORIENT EXPRESS TRAIN
Several years ago, Rotterdam-based photographer Brian Romeijn spotted what appeared to be
an abandoned Orient Express train in Belgium.
He snapped some haunting photos of the old vehicle, which is a mere shadow of what it
used to be when it operated as a luxury service a little over a half-century ago.
The train has sat in the yard ever since it was taken out of service.
Romeijn, who discovered it while exploring the area, told the Express that seeing it
was like stepping back in time.
The Orient Express, originally called Express d’Orient, operated for 133 years, from 1883
to 2009.
One of its most famous routes traveled between Istanbul and Paris during the 1930s.
Over 75 years later, the final train ride under the Orient Express name ran between
Strasbourg, France and Vienna, Austria.
Once the pride of Belgium’s national railway, the deserted and decaying train is the last
of its kind left.
Some speculate that it may not have been an Orient Express train after all, as those routes
never passed through Belgium.
But the train is impressive in its own right, and it appears as though it could have competed
with the Orient Express in terms of luxury.
2.
MCBARGE
Friendship 500, better known as the McBarge, was a floating McDonald’s restaurant that
was built for the 1986 World Exposition on Transportation and Communication in Vancouver,
British Columbia.
It became famous not only as a McDonald’s on a boat, but for its conveyor belt system
that delivered food to the front counter from a hidden kitchen.
The McBarge closed for business following the 1986 Expo, and the boat failed to find
a permanent home after that.
In 1991, the new owners of the site where it was moored asked the barge’s owners to
move it.
The vessel was relocated to Burrard Inlet, where it sat forgotten for the next decade.
It was rediscovered following its appearance in the 2004 film Blade: Trinity.
Developers Howard and Kathy Meakin bought the McBarge in 2010 with plans to convert
it into the Deep Discovery Centre, an imagined deep-sea museum dedicated to the history of
the Pacific Ocean.
This vision has yet to come to fruition though.
In mid-2020, the Maple Ridge News revealed that the Meakins are still working on restoring
the Friendship 500 to its former glory.
For them, it’s a bucket list item, and at last update, they were searching for the right
location for the vessel.
The couple has owned the barge for over 30 years now, and their plans for it have apparently
changed.
Instead of turning it into a museum, they hope to build it into a seafood restaurant!
1.
MV LYUBOV ORLOVA
Built in Yugoslavia in 1976, the MV Lyubov Orlova was an Antarctic cruise ship that remained
in service until 2010.
After that, the decommissioned vessel spent two years docked in St. John’s in the Canadian
province of Newfoundland.
A company called Neptune International Shipping purchased the ship in 2012 with the intention
of breaking it up, but unfortunately, that never happened.
While en route to the Dominican Republic to be scrapped in early 2013, the tow line pulling
the MV Lyubov Orlova broke, separating it from its tugboat amid rough seas.
Crew members tried to reattach the ship, but they were no match against the 10-foot (3
meters) waves and 22-mile-per-hour (35 km/hr) winds.
The vessel eventually drifted back to the waters off eastern Canada, prompting the government
to task an offshore supply vessel with regaining control of it.
After towing the MV Lyubov Orlova back into international waters, the crew released it
back into the open sea.
Canadian authorities did not see it as their responsibility to salvage the ship and left
that decision up to its owner.
Eyewitness accounts of the free-floating ship were later reported off Ireland and Iceland.
In early March of 2013, its emergency position-indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) was detected off the
Kerry, Ireland coast.
These signals are only transmitted when the device comes into contact with water, indicating
that the MV Lyubov Orlova likely sank somewhere in the Atlantic.
But there’s a small chance that it’s still out there, roaming international waters.
Thanks for watching!
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