For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated with shipwrecks. My love for this topic is not limited to just the most infamous shipwreck— the Titanic— though that is where it started. Even though each wreck is a tragedy, there’s something beautiful about each of them. The cold, deep ocean acts as a natural preserver to these tragedies. I find beauty in how well each memory is kept unbothered at the bottom of the ocean. 

What is it that preserves these wrecks though? According to Kit Chapman, author of Raising Expectations, “Polyethylene glycol…a water-soluble long chain hydrocarbon that, once dry, turns waxy, replacing the water in the wood and at higher grades provides a protective coating on the outside” is what protects ships with wooden beams from rotting and falling apart when removed from the water. When it comes to metal ships, however, those are harder to remove due to mass corrosion from metal and salt water.  Johanna Rivera, a professor at Clemson University states, “Eventually, as the wreck reaches an equilibrium with the environment, you have precipitates from the seawater itself and this allows a colonization process of shells and barnacles over the metal…That creates an anoxic environment, there’s no oxygen, which helps preserve the metal…If the metal dries out, the salts or chlorides trapped in the metal would crystallize and then we wouldn’t be able to remove them.” 

As amazing as it is that people are trying to lift and preserve these wrecks to the best of their abilities, I say leave them alone. Lifting them, to me, is destroying the preservation of memory and disrupting the peace. Many years ago, a team of professionals was able to successfully remove a wall—also known as The Big Piece— from the Titanic and bring it up to the surface, however halfway up the piece snapped in half.  I feel as if that should’ve been a warning to leave it at rest.