MS World Discoverer Wreck She cruised the world over and the Pacific world from Tahiti to Western Samoa. It was a great adventure for many passengers. Sadly, in April of 2000, World Discoverer hit a rock or reef in the Sandfly Passage, Solomon Islands. At least the captain was able to bring her to shore.
Furthermore, the captain hit an uncharted object, so there was not much he could have done.
Why Did Titanic Sink?
Fortunately, unlike the Costa Concordia, everyone on board was rescued when the captain radioed for help and a ferry was sent to disembark all of the passengers.
Shortly after all the passengers were safe, the boat was listing dangerously and the captain brought her into Roderick Bay, where she remains today.
The locals stole anything and everything of value, which by defacto made it their problem.
Incredible to think that the ship has been there only about 20 years. As it looks like a wreck from ‘history’, not quite post the year 2000!
The shipwreck is a lovely place to visit. There is a local village right next to it and the water by the ship is a popular local swim hole.
Happily there is no oil or gas visible. Local kids play on it daily and tourists love to go in and dived under the ship.
Several salvage companies made attempts to retrieve the ship, but all found that it had already been ransacked by locals during the civil war the Solomon Islands endured. In addition, tidal activity has caused further damage to the structure and surface rusting. Moreover, the Solomon Islands were in a civil war then. It’s also a developing nation. Most of SI live in leaf huts on the islands.
There’s not much infrastructure on the islands.
There are also complicated laws in the SI. Tribal custom laws and legislated laws. There was a lot of conflict and claims over the ownership (the locals where it came to rest wanted compensation for it saying it’s theirs as it landed on their beach).
So the complications and cost to get salvage equipment to this location was too great. As a result, it was left to rust away.
