For nearly 80 years , two Dutch Cuban sandwich have been occupy the sea trading floor off the coast of Malaysia , with the remains of their gang still inside . They were among dozens ofshipwrecksin the same arena , all of them casualties of underwaterWorld War IIbattles . Now , the ships — known as HNLMS O 16 and HNLMS K VII — are move .
There ’s nothingparanormalat oeuvre , though . alternatively , the ships have go away as a resultant role of covetousness . scavenger in the area have made a profitable pursuit of place explosive within the wrecks , blowing them into manageable opus and taking off with the scrap alloy using a crane . Copper and bronze materials can also be resold . It’sestimatedthat about 40 ship in Indonesia , Singapore , and Malaysia have been demolished as a result of such elbow grease in recent years .
Because the ship are typically consider unmarked graves , the thieves may be commit the crime of desecrating army corps . After several British ship were found ransacked , the UK ’s Ministry of Defense urged Indonesia to increase their elbow grease to protect the ship . The United States has dispatched representatives in Indonesia to guard ship they believe have been targeted by the scavengers .
Marine archeologist have expressed some puzzlement at the phenomenon , as the rubbish can often take week to find , is oft corrode , and would seemingly be price - prohibitory to steal considering the labor involve . It ’s possible that the ships may be targeted for experience low - background knowledge metals , which are free from radiation sickness because they pre - date atomic dud testing and can be used in delicate scientific instruments like Geiger counters . In China , scrap metallic element could bring in in about $ 1.3 million per ship .
[ h / tLive Science ]
