The World Discoverer: the ship that got left behind.

MS World Discoverer was a cruise ship designed for and built by German shipbuilding company, Schichau Unterweser, in 1974.
The ship had a double hull construction, allowing for periodic voyages to the Antarctic polar regions to allow its passengers to observe ice floe movements and providing protection for minor impacts. It carried a fleet of inflatable dinghies, allowing passengers to move closer to ice floes for observation.
During the Austral summer, from November through February, the ship conducted cruises in the Southern Hemisphere and visited places like Antarctica, the Falkland Islands, Chile and Argentina, while from March to May and August to October, the ship cruised the South Pacific Islands. Between the months of June and August, the ship cruised around the Alaskan region and also the Russian border around the Bering Sea. Once a globetrotting cruise ship, the World Discoverer also had a 13,000 km (8,100 mi) cruising range, allowing the ship to travel the Northwest Passage.

On current days, both eerie and impressive to behold, this half-sunken oceanliner has been lying, tipped to one side, half-submerged since 2000. It was a fateful date with an uncharted reef ended its seafaring career for good. On Sunday April 30, 2000, at 4 p.m. local time, the ship struck it, in the Sandfly Passage, Solomon Islands. Captain Oliver Kruess sent a distress signal, which was received in Honiara, the Solomon Islands’ capital city.
While everyone aboard was safely evacuated, the ship began to list as it was brought into Roderick Bay, and the captain had no choice but to ground it, lest it sink entirely. The ship has remained in Roderick Bay ever since and has become something of a tourist’s attraction.

Several salvage companies have made attempts to retrieve the ship, but they found that it had already been ransacked by locals during the civil war the Solomon Islands endured. In addition, tidal activity has caused further damage to the structure and surface rusting, with many of the windows removed. Thus, It is likely that this ship will remain in its place for a long time to come, until it slowly crumbles into the ocean.

coordinates : 9°01’23.49″S 160°07’23.34″E

Source and images: Wikipedia