On the far-eastern Russian seaboard is a peninsula called Kamchatka, where volcanoes smoke and ancient industrial ships go to die. Here is a strangely affecting set of pictures taken a few weeks ago in a ship graveyard, where once-imposing metal hulks are slowly sinking into the icy sea. Want to see more?


And here's a closeup of the icy carnage.

Abandoned Frozen Ships [English Russia] (Thanks, SethL!)









Comments
if i was going to have a shootout to the death a la the man with the golden gun i would want it to take place in this ship graveyard.
I LOVE stuff like this except for the environmental hazard they also present.
I'd go looking for old equipment and signage and stuff if I was exploring 'em.
Maybe some day the metal will be worth recovering or something.
These are my favorite kind of posts.
brrrr! cold and kind of sad, but also neat looking.
A hazard and an eyesore. Can't throw rocks at the Russians, our track record is no better.
Kamchatka - also the name of a 10.99 handle of cheap vodka I used to get at college.
I'm at a loss for the science fiction nature of this post.
@Macloserboy: It's io9's love of all things even remotely "dystopian";
Dystopia! Say it loud and it's like singing!
Say it soft, and it's like praying...
Hey! Git off mah land!
I took Kamchatka in a game of risk last week, and triple fortified it. Spies, I say, spies!
@Macloserboy: It's also rather post-apocalyptic looking in a sort of Waterworld meets Day After Tomorrow way.
@Macloserboy: Didn't you see Ming's name on the last ship....he's coming for us.
(These photos are awesome - can I please have some more!)
English Russia is awesome.. they have had pix of abandoned wooden churches and mansions, that are so far beyond Gothic that there is no comparison.. and their Siberian Hot Rods make Mad Max look like kiddie bumper cars..
Russia is an Alternative Universe.
@strider_mt2k: If you like dead ships, check out this guy's website: [oboylephoto.com]
He's also got photos of abandoned hospitals. Very good, albeit creepy, stuff.
Reminds me of a polar version of the American Star: [www.flickr.com]
Probably one of my favorite photography subjects. Too bad it'll be disentigrated before I can ever go see it.
Every now and then, when the 5h1tt1ne55 in America is getting bad, I think to myself "OMG WtF am 1 going to do?" Then I remember that I can always run off to Russia, the Antarctic, or some random 455 place in the world where there's a rundown building, ship, or abandoned structure. Whoot for Survival training!
@Macloserboy: I ask that same question about every comic book post.
Laser Tag anyone?
my new hobby when reading io9.com is to intentionally avoid reading the byline until after i've read the article and tried to guess which io9 nerd spewed the post in question out of their proprietary io9 "content/content-generator interface" implant.
@regis:
Me!
@Seth L: It's true -- you are the master of dystopian ships.
@Macloserboy: Ship graveyard dude. Dystopia + giant machines = teh awesome.
@codydog: Yes, but in Mother Russia, the universe alternates YOU!
@Macloserboy: Yeah, I can't help but think that was intended to be humorous in a dry dead pan way.
I love decay porn. Somewhere I have some photos of an airplane graveyard in Florida that's just awesome. WWII era plane carcasses piled up next to 70s-era jet fighters, random engine bits etc. And my wife and I have some prints hanging in our bedroom of photos of old NASA stuff that's been left out to rot. They all have "Abandon In Place" stenciled on them. Massive concrete installations, rocket fuselages and so forth.
I'm not really sure why we decided to make our bedroom so post-apocalyptic.
@aquarius8me: Whoot for survival being a recreational activity! Get some perspective, dude.
@aquarius8me: i'd be more worried about the fact that you're thinking in leet-speak than anything going on in america if i were you.
@Macloserboy: One of them is the Borealis (and is probably full of frozen cake)!
Didn't this show up on an episode of The X-Files once?
Or was that just one sub sticking out of the ice?
Anyway, Kamchatka's not as great as people think. I'd much rather occupy Alaska and, of course, Indonesia is a key position to any winning strategy.
There's stuff like this all over Russia. Nobody does industrial disaster like the Russians/Soviets! The PRC can't hold a candle to them in magnificance, though they are probably superior in worker deaths.
The Russian sub graveyards are awesome, too.
An interesting tangent is that until maybe the 1980s, this was the standard way of disposing of ships, world wide - park them in an estuary, and let them sink. There were a couple 'boat graveyards' in Boston I used to ogle all the time, and there's still an old Staten Island Ferry sunk/aground south of Elizabeth, N.J.
-Kle.
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