Cruise Ship Anchor Damages Historic WWII P-38 Wreck in France

A WWII Wreck Lost to a Legal Anchoring Maneuver

A piece of WWII history off the French Riviera has reportedly been destroyed by an anchor drop from a new cruise ship, according to a report by The Maritime Executive. Divers near Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer, a town between Marseille and Toulon, say the wreck of an American P-38 fighter aircraft has been reduced to scrap metal after the sailing vessel Orient Express Corinthian anchored in the vicinity.

The aircraft was shot down by German forces on January 27, 1944, over the Bay of Les Lecques, and remained undisturbed underwater for more than 50 years before diving club director Marcel Camilleri located it in 1996. He later identified its serial number, and the site became a well-known attraction for recreational divers in the area.

What Happened

The wreck sat inside a zone officially designated for ship anchoring. Last Thursday, the Corinthian — described as the world’s largest sailing vessel — arrived and dropped anchor in that general area. A subsequent dive inspection, according to local diver Jean-Michel Blanc, found the fighter wreckage severely damaged, likely from anchor contact. Blanc described the site as reduced to scrap metal, lamenting the loss of eight decades of history in an instant.

French maritime authorities confirmed that the Corinthian was responsible for the damage, per reporting from France3. Yet despite the outcome, the vessel does not appear to have broken any rules — the anchorage zone was officially sanctioned, and the ship’s crew had properly notified authorities of its intended anchoring location in advance.

Regulatory Response

In the aftermath, French maritime authorities imposed a temporary ban on diving and anchoring at the site, allowing exceptions only for law enforcement and state-sanctioned archaeological research. For area divers, the response feels overdue. Patrick Bell António, the current director of the Lecques Aquanaut Center, told France3 that adjusting the anchorage zone’s boundaries even slightly, or relocating it, could have easily kept the historic wreck out of harm’s way.

What This Means for Owners and Operators

This incident highlights a gap that technical superintendents and charterers should take note of: full compliance with an approved anchorage does not guarantee that a vessel’s anchor and chain won’t cause damage to submerged hazards, cultural sites, or seabed infrastructure that fall outside a captain’s normal chart review. Anchorage zones are typically drawn up with navigational safety and depth in mind, not necessarily with awareness of every heritage site, cable route, or environmentally sensitive feature on the bottom.

For vessel operators, particularly those running large sail-assisted or specialty ships with unusual anchor patterns or swing radii, this case is a reminder that pre-arrival planning should go beyond confirming permission with port authorities. Where possible, checking for known wreck sites, protected zones, or archaeological markers within an assigned anchorage — even informally, through local diving clubs or harbor records — could prevent reputational and environmental fallout, even when no regulation is technically broken.

It also raises a broader question for coastal administrations: as more large sailing cruise vessels and specialty tonnage enter service, should legacy anchorage zones be reassessed for compatibility with known underwater heritage sites? The French authorities’ decision to ban diving and anchoring at the site only after the damage occurred suggests that proactive surveying and boundary adjustments — the kind of preventive assessment that hydrographic and condition surveys are designed to support — may be the more effective long-term solution rather than after-the-fact restrictions.

Reviewed by Ibrahim Halil Ceylan, Marine Surveyor at Apeks Marine.