Brilliant Maps

Making Sense Of The World, One Map At A Time

  • BOOK!
  • Newsletter
  • Board Games
  • Posters
  • Scratch Maps

Map of World War 2 Shipwrecks

December 28, 2018 4 Comments

Map of World War 2 Shipwrecks

Map created by Rean Monfils

The map above shows many (but not all of) of the ships sunk during World War 2. The map was created by Rean Monfils and combines the Geographic Information System (GIS) database of Asian Pacific shipwrecks with the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Indian Ocean (AMIO) WWII shipwreck database.

The GIS database has records of 3,800 vessels lost in WWII while the AMIO database has records of a further 3,950 vessels. The combined total of WWII shipwrecks stands at 7,807 vessels worldwide according to The Global Risk of Marine Pollution from WWII Shipwrecks:Examples from the Seven Seas.

Obvious omissions from the map include Hawaii (location of Pearl Harbor), Midway and many missing ships from the Baltic Sea campaigns. This is presumably due to the fact that these wrecks are not part of either database at the time of the maps creation (2004).

To learn more have a look at the following books:

  • SS Thistlegorm: WW2’s Greatest Shipwreck
  • In Harm’s Way: The Sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors
  • Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II
  • Death in the Baltic: The World War II Sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff

Enjoy this post? Please help us by sharing it:

Think This Map Was Brilliant? Get Our Most Brilliant Maps Free Each Week!

Filed Under: World Maps

Comments

  1. Paul says

    December 28, 2018 at 11:38 pm

    Well that’s interesting. I’m working on putting my own database together and am about 85% of the way through the way with about 11,000 records, 8,000 of them with positions. I’ll be delving into this a lot more. Thanks for the post.

    Reply
    • Ben says

      May 28, 2019 at 12:37 pm

      would you perhaps be interested in sharing this database? im creating an interactive ww2 map for public use, id love to have this inthere

      Reply
  2. Dr. G. David Shows says

    February 25, 2019 at 12:52 pm

    My father was a Merchant Marine in WWII, joined when he was 15 by lying about his age. Dad talks about only certain things. He could never watch the “Titanic” because “it’s the thing I fought my life against. It’s the death of a ship and people”. Everyone of those spots represents people lost to horrific circumstances. Ships had to keep moving as others were sank. On the Mermansk run my father was on only a dozen ships made it out of around 40.

    The British have a war memorial to their merchant fleet; I’ve been there. As an island nation they appreciate the sacrifice by Merchant sailors. Unfortunately the U.S. armed services during the war minimized their service, even though they had the highest casualty rate of the war. Thanks to the U.S. who officially recognized them as veterans in 1988. And many thanks for this map. It makes me appreciate the sacrifice these men made all the more.

    Reply
  3. Lukas says

    March 28, 2019 at 3:06 pm

    And the German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee that sunk of Montevideo in Uruguay?

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.


World Atlas · Settlers of Catan · Risk · Game of Thrones · Coloring Books · Globes
Monopoly · Star Wars · Game of Life · Pandemic · Ticket To Ride · Drinks Cabinets
Copyright © 2021 · Privacy Policy · Fair Use, Attribution & Copyright · Contact Us
Follow Us: E-mail · Twitter · Facebook · Pinterest · Flipboard