Drone Videos of Shipwrecks

Lanai is the sixth-largest of the islands which make up the archipelago and US state of Hawaii.  It's situated just south of Moloka'i and west of Maui.  The location of the island creates strong winds and treacherous Pacific Ocean currents which have caused many shipwrecks over the years.  In this video, contributor and pilot iDrone Hawaii uses a DJI Phantom 4 drone to fly over a wreck off of Lanai's Shipwreck Beach, so called because of the number of wrecks which inhabit the sea bottom off the island's shores.

The roughly 700 islands of the Bahamas archipelago, which sit inside the Bermuda Triangle area of the South Atlantic, have always presented a navigational challenge to the many ships operating in the area.  Contributor and pilot semberadventure flew his drone over a Bahamas shipwreck, this of a molasses carrier which sank in the early 1900's.  The crystal-blue waters of the South Atlantic Ocean allow the aerial observer to clearly see the outline of the ship, making for an outstanding bird's eye perspective.

By virtue of its position in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea's busy sea lanes, Malta has always seen more than its share of shipwrecks.  While most of the wrecks surrounding Malta and its subsidiary islands are old, some are quite new.  In this video, top content creator and drone pilot Chris Borg used his DJI Mavic Pro drone to create a short clip of one of these recent wrecks: the Togo-flagged Hephaestus.  This vessel ran aground during a storm at Qawra Point on February 10th, 2018; it's not been recovered.

With its location along key shipping routes in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, Cyprus has become the final resting place of many ships going back to the Antiquity.  Wrecks of both older and more recent vintage dot the waters surrounding the island, the third largest in the Mediterranean.  Contributor Iain Jordan used a DJI Phantom 3 drone to create this amazing aerial video of the Akrotiri Limassol (Three Stars) shipwreck which sank in the waters of the Mediterranean after catching fire in 1972.  

San Andres is an island in the western Caribbean Sea.  While it's a territory of Colombia, the mainland of which lies 750 km (around 450 mi.) to its south, it's actually much closer to the Central American countries of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Honduras.  Because of its location relative to busy shipping lanes, San Andres is the site of many shipwrecks.  In this video, top contributor la.drones flies a drone over one of these wrecks near Rocky Cay, producing an amazing aerial perspective through the deep blue Caribbean waters. 

Contributor Mariansteria created this epic drone video of one of the most famous shipwrecks in the Black Sea.  The Evangelia was a refrigerated cargo ship which was wrecked near the Romanian seaport city of Constanta (Costinești, home of the largest port on the Black Sea) in 1968.  The video contains some epic head-on and overhead shots of the extremely eerie looking 7k+ ton gross ton rusting ship, which stands nearly upright in shallow waters.  The wreck is easily accessible from the nearby Costinesi Resort.  

AirVuz contributor and drone pilot Drone Solutions Greece shot this excellent aerial video of one of the more well known of Greece's many shipwrecks.  In 1978, the Captan Ismail Hakki sank in shallow waters near Lakonia, in the southeastern part of the Peloponnese region of southern Greece.  The rusting hulk lies in 12 meters (about 40 ft.) of water just 100 meters (about 330 ft.) offshore.  For reasons which were never definitively determined, the small (30 meter, 100 ft) ship sank carrying a supply of iron ore.  

The Caribbean Sea has always been a place of shipwrecks, particularly before the age of modern navigation.  With its position in the northeastern corner of the Lesser Antilles islands, and with numerous shallow spots and once-uncharted sand bars, the small island of Anguilla has seen more than its share of ships running aground or sinking off its shores.  In this video by Iain Jordan, you'll get an aerial view of some of these wrecks off of Sandy Ground Road Bay on the northern side of the island.   

If you think shipwrecks are a thing of the distant past, check out this amazing aerial view of a very recent shipwreck in Cyprus, courtesy of contributor and drone pilot Arsen Poshotian.  In December, 2011, the 80 meter (around 265 ft.) Sierra Leone-flagged ship Edro III was headed from Limassol on Cyprus to the Greek island of Rhodes (Rodos).  It hit a storm and ran aground near the port of Pegeia on the far western end of the island, with all crew members rescued.    The ship is off-limits to divers.  

Contributor and pilot Kyriakos - AnotherView created this drone video of a shipwreck in an area of Northern Greece.  Epanomi is a town on the Bay of Thessaloniki (an inlet of the Aegean Sea) in the region of Central Macedonia.  Located about a half hour drive from the great port city of Thessaloniki, it's one of the oldest cities in Macedonia.  Thessaloniki is the country's biggest seaport.  Given the historically heavy ship traffic on the narrow approaches to the port, it's not surprising that shipwrecks have occurred here.  

Top contributor and pilot harispomonis created this stunning drone video of one of the world's top beaches.  It's called  Navagio Beach, aka Smuggler's Cove, and it lies on the north side of the Greek island of Zakynthos in the Ionian Sea.  It's famous in part because it's the home of the wreck of the MV Panagiotis, which ran aground here in 1980 after allegedly being chased by the Greek navy for suspected smuggling.  It became even more famous in 2018, when Lonely Planet named it the world's #1 beach.  

Check out this amazing aerial view of a shipwreck in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa, compliments of AirVuz contributor and drone pilot Iafar.  Odessa is major seaport on the northern side of the Black Sea.  The largest city in the southern Ukraine, it's sometimes called the Pearl of the Black Sea for its beauty.  Once the most important body of water in the world, the Black Sea is home to countless shipwrecks. This one is unusual in that it occurred so close to shore; most of the ships which have sunk in the Black Sea have never been found.  

Former Drone Video of the Week Winner oculusfilms brings us this fantastic drone video of Tangalooma Wrecks, a well-known "shipwreck" site in the eastern Australian state of Queensland.  The site is located off the western coast of Moreton Island on the northeastern side of Moreton Bay, near Brisbane.  It consists of over a dozen ships which were deliberately scuttled here in the early 1960's to form an aquatic recreation site.  It's since become an extremely popular spot for snorkeling and scuba diving.  

Prepare to be amazed by this amazing drone video of a well known modern-era shipwreck in Scotland's Firth of Clyde, the great estuary on Scotland's western coast.  The ship is the  MV Captayannis, a 120 meter (just under 400 ft.) Greek-flagged ship which was carrying sugar to the port of Greenock.  She sank in a storm in January, 1974, and was never removed.  In this drone video by contributor Highlandroner, you can get a bird's eye view of this wreck, which has since become an unofficial bird sanctuary.  

Combining the chilling audio of the actual mayday call with current drone footage of the sunken ship's remains, talented drone videographer (and DVOW winner) iskenderfilm created a dramatic perspective on the shipwreck of the Northern Belle.  The fishing vessel which sunk in the Gulf of Alaska in 2010; the ship's captain perished but the other three crew members were saved. The production serves as a reminder of the dangers of working on ships as well as the time-honored duties of ship captains.  

The Hoo Peninsula of Kent, England separates the Thames and Medway rivers. Along the River Medway there lies a boat graveyard formed of sunken vessels. One of those is the 111-year-old Sailing Barge Ena, a ship that sailed as part of Operation Dynamo in World War II - the 1940 call from Winston Churchill for civilian boats to sail to Dunkirk and rescue the trapped British army. This was considered a pivotal moment in the war, as it preserved Britain's fighting capacity against Nazi Germany.

Top AirVuz contributor Amith brings us this rather haunting drone video of a recent shipwreck in southwestern India.  The tugboat Alliance, operated by Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd., capsized on May 15, 2021 during a cyclone on the Arabian Sea coast in the state of Karnataka.  A few days later, the ship washed up on Padubidri Beach, south of the city of Udupi.  The bodies of three of the eight crew members were recovered from the wreck; in addition, two of the five crew who had escaped the ship drowned swimming to shore.  

The Dmitrios is a famous shipwreck in the Laconia region of southern Greece.  In December, 1980, he 67 meter (220 ft.) Greek-flagged ship docked at the port of Gytheio due to a medical emergency.  It remained there for nearly a year due to a series of financial and mechanical issues, until it was swept away by a storm and temporarily anchored at sea.  Unmoored by another storm in December, 1981, it ran aground at the nearby Valtaki Beach.  Now a popular tourist destination, you can see it from above in this drone video by Viajes Lost Planet.  

Contributor and drone pilot Sneba created this fascinating aerial video of a "ship cemetery" in the northern reaches of Russia.  It's situated off the Kola Peninsula in the Murmansk Oblast (province), the northernmost of the provinces on the Russian mainland and part of the Northwest Federal District.  Lying in these icy waters are dozens of nuclear-powered ships which are no longer in service but which have not been properly de-commissioned.  It's an example of how the end of the Cold War created its own set of problems.  

The SS Palo Alto was a World War I era tanker which actually wasn't launched until 1919, after the cessation of hostilities.  The ship was placed off the coast of Seacliff State Beach on Monterrey Bay in Northern California (about 90 minutes south of San Francisco) in 1929, following which a pier was built linking the ship to the shore to create a small amusement park.  The pier was subsequently dismantled and the ship was damaged by storm.  Currently closed to the public, you can check it out from above in this drone video by travispacheco.

Multiple DVOW Finalist Dronescapes Ireland brings us this stunning drone video of a tiny island off the coast of western Ireland.  It's called Inisheer (Inis Oírr), and it's the easternmost of the three Aran Islands which form the outer boundary of Galway Bay.  The video features footage of the island's two most prominent landmarks: its namesake lighthouse, which dates to 1857, and the carcass of the MV Plassy, a merchant ship which ran aground in 1960 and which appeared in the opening credits of the 90's British TV show Father Ted.