Are There A Lot Of Sunken Boats on Aruba?

I like to snorkel and I was just wondering if there were a lot of sunken boats and reefs to explore? I would love to see some wreckage. I like exploring around things like this. You never know what you may find.

I know of one, but there may very well be more. The one I am thinking of is located not far from shore at the far end of the high rise hotel section of the island. Maybe a little past that area (it's been a while since I've been there).

Anyway, you can snorkel it or SCUBA, whatever your preference. Naturally, I think you would get more out of SCUBA diving, but if strapping on a tank isn't your cup of tea, you should be able to see some of it by snorkeling and surface diving.

There are a few ship wrecks in the Aruban waters.
The antilla is the most famous. This German freighter was scuttled on May 10, 1940 when the Germans invaded Holland during World War II.

Then there is the california, this ship make history when it recieve SOS signals from the Titanic. But it did nor react on these signals. The ship is almost 100 years old and is on the north coast of Aruba.

The Jane Sea is a 250’ cement freighter. Location is a little bit to the south from Oranjestad.

And then are there a few airplanes in the water.

I caught something on TV the other day that mentioned a crazy number of ship wrecks that are still unaccounted for world wide. I would imagine that Aruba is just one of many places that has hidden treasures, even if its not gold.

SunSeeker wrote:

There are a few ship wrecks in the Aruban waters.
The antilla is the most famous. This German freighter was scuttled on May 10, 1940 when the Germans invaded Holland during World War II.

Then there is the california, this ship make history when it recieve SOS signals from the Titanic. But it did nor react on these signals. The ship is almost 100 years old and is on the north coast of Aruba.

The Jane Sea is a 250’ cement freighter. Location is a little bit to the south from Oranjestad.

And then are there a few airplanes in the water.

These are interesting facts! Thanks for sharing it with us.

How did the Antilla, which is a German vessel, reach as far as the Caribbean Sea? Does this mean that Germans came as close as this to US soil at the early part of the war? That seems to be scary to me.

I wonder what happened to the ship California. Did it had the same fate as the Titanic did?

About the planes, I have seen some of the pictures you posted on sunken airplanes and they really look amazing! I can't wait to go there now!

The Story of the Antilla

When Germany invaded the Netherlands on May 10, 1940, the relationship between the two nations was obviously strained. As part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, this extended to Aruba. The Antilla was a German U-boat supply ship that was anchored off the coast of Aruba at the time. A contingent of Dutch Marines told the Antilla to surrender, the captain asked for extended time the Dutch accepted and the Marines gave the ship 24 hours to surrender.

The Antilla was fairly new at the time, and rather than see her turned over to the enemy, the Captain decided to scuttle the ship. After putting the crew ashore, he heated up the boilers, which were amidships, and opened the seacock. When the cold sea water hit the hot boilers, they exploded, ripping the ship in half. It sank in eight minutes.

(Source: Wikipedia.org)

This means German U-Boats were there that time.