Naufrágio Márcia

The Márcia was built in 1944 as the United States Navy infantry landing craft LCI No. 953, served in southern France that same year and, in 1947, was converted into a fishing and fish-processing vessel. On 17 August 1952, it left Rio de Janeiro bound for Porto Alegre, with stops in Angra dos Reis, Rio Grande and Pelotas, carrying mixed cargo. There are two versions of the cause of the sinking: bad weather, or a calm sea and a collision with an unknown object. The crew abandoned the ship in a whaleboat, rowed to the Abraão cove on Ilha Grande, and from there was towed by a launch to Angra dos Reis, where they went ashore. There were allegations and even an inquiry into a deliberate sinking, with hard-hat divers examining the wreckage.

Today the ship lies capsized, upside down, showing its flat-bottomed hull with no keel, and among the wreckage you can still see stacked bags of cement from the cargo. The wreck lies inside the access channel to the port of Sepetiba, which calls for attention to ships leaving the port, and there are many fishing nets caught on the wreckage.

The wreckage has been colonized: there are many schools of olho-de-cão and sargos, as well as chernes and the groupers known as garoupas. Yellow gorgonians cover the hull, and the compartments shelter many cerianthids.