‘Very upsetting’: Australian families fear navy shipwrecks will be desecrated

There are concerns rising metal prices will lead to more illegal scavenging unless the government acts to protect wrecks

Vera Ryan doesn’t know much about her uncle Jack. Petty officer Jack Messenger was one of 35 men who were on the HMAS AE1 submarine when it sank in the early days of the first world war.

But she knows the site of the wreck is an important place, a place of memories for her and the hundred-odd other descendants and families of the Australian and British sailors who died.

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from World news | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3mvJfOw