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Ships 250 miles inland
[2 minute read ]
Today, Sky News online had an article that stated that 'Dozens of German battleships from the Second World War have resurfaced along the Danube river, which separates Serbia and Romania.' All very interesting to historians and tourists I am sure. However, there is something abut this story that triggers an amazement in me that is not war-related. According to the article, in September 1944 the Germans scuttled up as many as 200 warships which were part of the Black Sea fleet, as the Russians advanced on them.
https://news.sky.com/video/wrecks-of-wwii-warships-emerge-from-danube-as-water-levels-drop-13569875
Photos and video shows at least one very large ship, which could be a battleship, embedded in the Danube off the Serbian village of Prahavo / Prahovo.
As part of my role as a business owner in logistics I had excellent opportunities to explore Europe's road network, including extensive travel in England. I have seen a lot of scenery and generally ignored much of it much to the chagrin of my fellow workers, who, as passengers in my vehicles when I was driving them, would stare at the passing landscape as I efficiently continued to drive on. The need to be somewhere often overrode any interest I might have had in my surroundings. This focus on the destination even prevented me from visiting Chartes cathedral, somewhere I had wanted to visit for long years, which I drove right past on the way to Madrid, in Spain. I saw it just four hundred metres away and my timescale at that point in the journey was still measured in chunks of hours. With two more overnight stops, before my arrival at the destination in Madrid was scheduled, I had ample time to spend an hour looking inside. I drove right on through Chartes and out the other side.
However, the journey to Vienna, Austria from England crosses the Danube, I think, nine times; at least it seems to, to my count. Every time I crossed it I was astounded by its beauty. Even upstream of Vienna it is really wide. Strangely, I have arrived in Vienna as my final destination and not visited the banks of the Danube which flows right through the city.
Of course, when I watched the short video in the Sky News online site I was intrigued. Sunken ships in the Danube which separates Serbia and Romania? Battleships near Serbia? I looked at an online map for the village of Prahovo and discovered that it is about 400km from the Black Sea as the crow flies, which is 250 miles. Surely not? Very brief searches online provided me with the typical draught of a WWII battleship of around 33 feet (10 metres) and the Sky video remarks that the ships have resurfaced which suggests that they weren't really visible beforehand. The video shows the whole ships surrounded by sand. This suggests to me that the Danube 400 kilometres inland is normally really deep. More than 100 feet deep I might suggest. It is truly a magnificent river! Yet, I can't help thinking that A.I. has something to do with this. Battleships 400km inland? I am skeptical, to say the least.