Naufrágio Macau

The Macau was built in the United States as a tank landing ship (LST) and served the US Navy in the Second World War. Sold to the Companhia de Navegação São Jorge, of Rio de Janeiro, it was converted into a Brazilian-flagged cargo ship and renamed Macau, in honor of the town of Macau in Rio Grande do Norte, a major salt producer. The ship had left Cabedelo (PB) bound for São Luís, carrying sugar, plants, cement, paper, hardware and fuel oil. A fire that the crew could not put out, with barrels of alcohol and sacks of sugar on deck, led to the ship being abandoned, and the crew was rescued by another merchant vessel. The corvette Ipiranga, which tried to tow the Macau, also sank years later, at Fernando de Noronha.

Today the ship lies upside down, with the bottom of the hull facing the surface and the bow raised. It was precisely the shape of the hull, with its flat bottom, two propellers and two rudders, that allowed divers to identify it as a former landing ship. Fishermen dropped large stones onto the structure to open cracks and improve the fishing spot. In 2011, divers removed about 30 kg of fishing nets caught on the wreck and freed animals trapped by so-called ghost fishing.

On the wreck there are schools of galos, parus, guarajubas, xilas and pirangicas, as well as many lobsters, reef fish, rays and turtles.