Precious metals are found in sunken and semi-looted WWII ships in Brazil. But the concern about the risk of ecological destruction is obvious. For many years the riddle had remained unanswered for the locals, but also for the scientists: Where do the huge rubber boxes, weighing up to 200 kg, that wash up in the sea come from? beaches of northeastern Brazil? Perhaps from some undiscovered shipwreck?

Marine biologists from the LABOMAR Research Institute of the state of Ceara, as well as the Autonomous University of Barcelona, ​​carried out extensive research in the area and gave an answer that gives rise to new questions: At least some of the findings come from the “carcass” of the German ship MS Weserland, which had sunk on January 3, 1944 and has since been abandoned at a depth of at least 5,000 meters.

Raw materials for war

In both World War I and World War II rubber was essential for the manufacture of vehicles and aircraft. During the Second World War, the Germans procured the valuable material mainly in Southeast Asia and especially in Indochina. But they also transported other valuable raw materials with their ships, such as copper, cobalt and tungsten.

According to Brazilian biologist Luis Ernesto Arunda Bejera, the MS Weserland “carried tungsten, a commodity that was in huge demand in commodity markets, especially during the pandemic, as it is used to make mobile phones and computers.” Based on May 2021 copper prices, the sunken German ship’s cargo is estimated to be worth anywhere from $17 to $68 million…

“Time bomb” for the environment

In their research, which will be published soon in the journal Ocean and Coastal Research and has been obtained by DW, the scientists show that the recovery from the wreck coincides with rising prices for its precious cargo. “This reinforces the suspicion that some attempted to profit in an illegal way, retrieving part of the cargo in international waters,” the investigation points out.

It is estimated that there are more than three million sunken and abandoned ships like the MS Weserland around the world. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, about 8,500 of these have “potentially distressing consequences for the environment”.

Allied bombing in the war

Analyzing mathematical models, but also the sea currents that prevail between Brazil and Africa, researchers from the Universities of Ceará (UFC) and Alagoa (Ufal) have concluded that the cargo of rubber comes from two Nazi ships. Aiding in their research was the website Sixtant, which collects data on sunken ships in the South Atlantic Ocean. He has recorded a total of 548 ships, of which 56 were German, which were sunk in the period 1939-1945.

Some of them, such as the Esso Hamburg which sank in June 1941, carried over 7,000 tons of heating oil. At least five ships carried rubber. The first pieces that washed up in the sea in 2018 came from the also German ship MS Rio Grande. It was sunk in 1944 when it attempted to break the American naval blockade.

Researchers believe that the pieces of rubber are not only detached from the wreck due to the natural wear and tear of the materials, but also because illegal circuits and modern pirates have launched a “hunt” for valuable raw materials. Now they want to map the wrecks to record the dangers they pose. “But this is not an easy task, as most ships are at a depth greater than 4,000 meters,” says Marcelo Soares, a researcher at the University of Ceara.

The risk of ecological disaster

As the biologist Arunda Bezera explains, “when an illegal expedition breaks up pieces of the ship to locate precious metals, there is a risk that pieces of rubber will be detached, but also that oil will leak. The question is not if oil will leak, but when it will leak…”

In the period 2020-2024, the Brazilian navy had recorded, every month, 14 incidents of oil spills on the coast of the country. A total of 758 incidents. Aruda Bejera fears that the oil spill from the “forgotten” wrecks could cause an ecological disaster similar to that of 2019. At the time, more than 5,000 tons of oil had washed up on the coasts of eleven different Brazilian states and all “from an unknown cause”. It was the largest ecological disaster ever recorded in tropical seas.

Photo file

Edited by: Yiannis Papadimitriou