Three Million Shipwrecks Mostly Unseen

Over the course of human seafaring, researchers estimate that about 3,000,000 ships have wrecked in the world’s oceans. Underwater archaeologists and salvage teams have explored less than 1 percent of these sites, leaving the vast majority still hidden on the seafloor. During World War II, the nearly six-year Battle of the Atlantic alone saw German U-boats and Allied forces sink over 3,500 merchant vessels, 175 warships, and 783 submarines.

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