MV Goya 1945
Marker: recorded wreck position (Second World War).
Key facts
| Name | MV Goya | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Year lost | 1945 | Wikidata P793 significant event, point-in-time qualifier |
| Era | Second World War | derived from year |
| Ship type | passenger vessel | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Nationality / flag | Norway | Wikidata P8047 country of registry |
| Operator | Kriegsmarine | Wikidata P137 operator |
| Conflict | World War II | Wikidata P607 conflict |
| Sea / ocean | Baltic Sea | Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon |
| Nearest coast | Poland | Natural Earth (public domain); approx. 43 km from land |
| Position | 55.2000, 18.3000 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
MV Goya was a Norwegian freighter used as a troop transport by Germany and sunk with a massive loss of life near the end of World War II. Completed in 1940 for the Johan Ludwig Mowinckel Rederi company, the ship was named after Spanish artist Francisco Goya. Following Germany's invasion of Norway that year, she was seized by the Kriegsmarine and pressed into service as a troop transport. Near the end of the war, Goya took part in Operation Hannibal, the evacuation of German military and civilian personnel from remaining pockets held by the Germans along the Baltic Sea. Loaded with thousands of refugees, the ship was sunk on 16 April 1945 by the Soviet submarine L-3. Most of the crew and passengers died in the sinking. The sinking of Goya was one of the biggest single-incident maritime losses of life of the war, and one of the largest such losses in history, with just 183 survivors out of roughly 6,700 passengers and crew.
Diving & visiting
The position of the wreck had long been known to Polish fishermen but was not identified and referred to as "Wreck No. 88" on Polish Navy maps. On 26 August 2002, the wreck was discovered by Polish technical divers Grzegorz Dominik, Michał Porada, and Marek Jagodziński, who also salvaged the ship's compass.
Exactly 58 years after the sinking of Goya, the wreck was located on 16 April 2003 by an international expedition under the direction of Ulrich Restemeyer, aided by 3D-sonar scanning. The position records of Goya's accompanying ships were found to be incorrect, probably made during a hasty escape.
Location
- Recorded position: 55.2000, 18.3000 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Sea / ocean: Baltic Sea
- Nearest coast: Poland
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article MV Goya (revision 1354975166), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “Discovery of wreck”; condensed by selecting paragraphs; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Nearby wrecks
- German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin 1947 · 35 km
- U-1015 1944 · 53 km
- MV Wilhelm Gustloff 1945 · 58 km
- U-272 1942 · 60 km
- U-649 1943 · 67 km
- German torpedo boat T3 1945 · 69 km
Other wrecks of the World War II
- USS LST-507 1944
- USS Tang 1944
- USS Tullibee 1944
- USS Turner 1944
- Yamashiro 1944
- German torpedo boat T3 1945
- German torpedo boat T9 1945
- HNLMS O 12 1945
- HNLMS O 19 1945
- Japanese cruiser Isuzu 1945
All 599 wrecks of the World War II →
Browse more: Europe wrecks · wrecks off Poland · Baltic Sea · Second World War