Derelict Graveyard: Difference between revisions

[[File:abandoned shipyard 5851.jpg|frame]]

 

 

Of course, all sorts of important [[Plot Coupon|plot-related things]] could be hidden in such a place - [[Pirate]] [[Pirate Booty|gold]], the lost plans to a [[Forgotten Superweapon]], spare parts for the heroes' own badly damaged ship, an unexplainable [[Distress Call]]—and there is no end to the possibilities of having mutant enemies or [[Durable Deathtrap|ancient security systems]] that get between the heroes and their goal.

 

* In the [[Backstory]] of [[David Brin]]'s ''Startide Rising'', a Terran starship discovers a fleet of derelict [[Precursors|Progenitor]] ships and unleashes a galaxies-wide holy war.

** "Bronco", in ''Clear and Present Danger'', speculates that the [http://www.amarcexperience.com/AMARCDescription.asp Boneyard] in Arizona is where the a captured druggie DC-7B will eventually be dumped, given that one more old aircraft in storage there won't be particularly noteworthy.

* The [[Redwall]] book ''The Bellmaker'' has a Derelict Graveyard of old wooden ships, which the heroes cannibalize for parts.

* In the ''Dream Park'' South Seas Treasure Game, some important items are found amid a collection of abandoned ships and planes, which the villainous {{spoiler|Fore sorcerors}} had summoned to New Guinea with their [[Cargo Cult]] magic.

* Star Trek's ''Dominion War'' series placed one of these in the Badlands.

** The previous novel, ''Chain of Attack'', actually outclasses it, though—the derelicts there include lifeless ''planets'' throughout a huge sector of space.

* In the ''[[Starfleet Corps of Engineers]]'' series, we've got the Sargasso Sector, named for the Sargasso Sea on Earth. It's a junkyard of abandoned ships floating around a collection of black holes and quasars. The protagonists are assigned to clear a path through it to allow a convoy access - one of the series' more notable cases of [[Space Is an Ocean]].

 

== Live Action TV ==

* ''[[Andromeda]]'' had a graveyard full of abandoned High Guard ships, captured by the Nietzscheans after the war and left to sit there for 3 centuries until they could figure out how to deal with the [[A Is]] defending them. There were also a couple of episodes where they came across single abandoned ships from the same time, generally presumed to be haunted wrecks (including the Andromeda itself in the pilot).

* The ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' episode "Psirens" featured an asteroid belt full of wrecked spaceships; it was there because the titular creatures were causing the ships to crash.

== Tabletop Games ==

 

** Examples of merely a lot of spread-out wrecks happen occasionally, including in the graphic novel ''Bloodquest''.

** Space Hulks - giant asteroids with the ancient wreckage of hundreds of ships embedded in them - are a recurring plot device and the basis for an entire series of Space Hulk games, whether full of handfuls of Genestealers, millions of Orks, or an STC device the Imperium has to snatch from the claws/choppas of aforementioned nasties.

** ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'' has the Ozmone Plain, which may ''appear'' to be a nice, pleasant grassland, but all around, you find the wrecks of crashed airships...

** In ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'', {{spoiler|the final battle map is a "Graveyard of Airships".}}

** {{spoiler|Actually, pretty much the entire game takes place in one.}}

* The ''[[Homeworld]]'' games had at least two boneyards-in-space, the Karos graveyard (light years wide and has many functional ships inside too) and the ancient ships in the garden of Kadesh.

* Several levels in ''[[Super Mario Galaxy]]''.

* In ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'', the planet Rakata becomes a ship graveyard due to an ancient jamming field installed there to keep wandering ships away from [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon|the Star Forge]].

== Western Animation ==

 

* In ''[[Atlantis: The Lost Empire]]'', the expedition finding one of these is the first sign of trouble: They were sunk by the Leviathan.

* At the end of ''[[The Little Mermaid]]'', [[One-Winged Angel|The now gigantic]] Ursula creates a whirlpool that exposes several damaged ships. Prince Eric finds one of them, and uses it to dispatch Ursula.

** Although apparently the only reason the Bermuda Triangle accumulates shipwrecks is because so many shipping lanes pass through it. Statistically, it's actually safer than the rest of the ocean.

** Subverted with quiet, methodical, bludgeoning research by [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Bermuda_Triangle#Larry_Kusche Larry Kusche in ''The Bermuda Triangle Mystery: Solved''] where he discovers that while there are genuine mysteries most disappearances either happened well outside the Bermuda Triangle, occurred during a time of bad weather, the start of the search was delayed, had a number of plausible explanations, wreckage was found, the vessel never existed and/or [[Did Not Do the Research|it was reported missing but eventually got home safely]]!

* This is actually true of the aptly-named Ironbottom Sound. Fifty or so ships went down in fierce battles. It is said that a compass will deflect off true north at least twice on any trip across the sound, sometimes as many as five times.

* The area off Cape Hatteras in North Carolina is referred to as "The Graveyard of the Atlantic" with good reason, having a remarkably high shipwreck density; partially because of the ever-shifting sandbank known as Diamond Shoals, and partially because of German U-boats during two World Wars.