Java Sea battle war graves violated and warships possibly sold for scrap

[ComradeP]

With the 75th anniversary of the battle of the Java Sea approaching, a Dutch film crew travelled to the area to film the wrecks and show the wrecks to surviving children and relatives of the Dutch sailors who died during the battle.

They discovered that the wrecks of the Dutch cruisers Hr. Ms. De Ruyter and Hr. Ms. Java as well as the destroyer Hr. Ms. Kortenaer have disappeared from the Java Sea. There are only some pieces of Kortenaer still on the sea floor. The ships were the final resting place for some 1150 Dutch and Indonesian sailors.

One possibility is that the ships were recovered and sold for scrap.

It is unclear at this point if other Allied ships belonging to the task force that were sunk during the battle are still there.

[Martok]

That's f-ing low.  >:(  I hope whatever twat-mops stole the ships found the sailors' remains to be a most unpleasant surprise. 

[GDS_Starfury]

How the hell do you salvage that much metal without being noticed?

[Nefaro]

How the hell do you salvage that much metal without being noticed?

Hasn't that area been infested with pirates for a long time, too?

Perhaps some of them were involved, or people didn't hang around and investigate when they saw activity in the area.

[Hartford688]

Three British ships a US submarine also have gone...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/16/british-second-world-war-ships-illegal-scavenging-java-sea

[Uberhaus]

How the hell do you salvage that much metal without being noticed?

Apparently long hoses and explosives and the Malaysian Navy did make some arrests.

Three British ships and a US submarine are also missing http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37997640
and linked to in the BBC article
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/16/british-second-world-war-ships-illegal-scavenging-java-sea

This is despicable, I hope the scavengers fucking drown.

[Greybriar]

Despicable as it may be, I am not surprised at what happened. You can't expect anything of value to stay in the middle of the ocean without being guarded.

[Staggerwing]

I hope the ghost of Admiral Doorman comes back and haunts those responsible into raving madness.

[MikeGER]

I hope the ghost of Admiral Doorman comes back and haunts those responsible into raving madness.

+1

i think the best way to protect this sides in our times of social media viral spread 'news' would be carefully staged and injecting stories of local (simple) people involved getting haunted by ghosts of disturbed maritime grave sites in conjunction with a ton of bad karma things that happend to them and their relatives, and those who had handled an bought scarp items... 

in conjunction with a hidden/disguised high tech technical device placed at the gravesides that cause nausea and vision distortions by acoustics (i guess infrasound? - dunno if that works underwater too) when divers are getting close to the wrack   

also some high radioactive scrap item splinters placed inside the wracks. the ghostly blue Cherenkov glow of 'bones' (bent uranium rods spliters) would help too >:D 

[Con]

Its even worse than originally feared

I say they should put huge contact mines around the sites and f- any junkyard pirate who gets too close

https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2017/nov/03/worlds-biggest-grave-robbery-asias-disappearing-ww2-shipwrecks

[Shelldrake]

Very disturbing - clearly there are no bounds to human greed.