Shipwreck

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Edward Thatch: "Nothing 'round this spot, sadly. But there's a few wrecks yonder that haven't been scoured by nothing but crabs and coral."

Edward Kenway: "I'll have a look."

—Edward Thatch and Edward Kenway on searching shipwrecks for valuables, 1718.^[src]^-[m]

A shipwreck is the remains of a ship that has wrecked and either sunk to the bottom of a body of water, or become beached. They were frequently explored by scavengers hoping to recover some of the vessel's cargo or valuables.

History[edit | edit source]

In ancient Egypt, ships were wrecked either because of bandits, military acts, rogue animals such as hippopotamuses and crocodiles, or simply because they were misguided.^[1]

In regions such as the Caribbean, the shallow waters combined with the frequent hurricanes and tropical storms led to a high amount of ships being tossed onto the rocky shores; their stranded crews often perished before they could be rescued.^[2] In regions farther north, such as the Northwest Passage, vessels sometimes became encased in ice instead.^[3]^[4]

In 1715, the Spanish Treasure Fleet entered a tropical storm and subsequently sank off the coast of Florida, taking with it a fortune of reales. This caused pirates of all kinds to flock to the region in search of wealth, many of them previously being privateers that were unemployed due to the Peace of Utrecht in 1713.^[2]

Through the use of diving bells, many managed to reach the sunken wrecks and search them for contents; through this vein, the pirate Edward Kenway recovered a lot of treasure, after he attempted to find medicine at the San Ignacio wreck in January 1718 on behalf of the Pirate Republic of Nassau.^[2]

Sometime during the 18th century, a small ship ran aground in the Louisiana Bayou and came to be used as a camp by a burgeoning cult. The encampment was subsequently dispelled by the Assassin Aveline de Grandpré, who sought to erase the band of followers' influence in the swamp, on the orders of her Mentor Agaté.^[5]

The Kanien'kehá:ka Assassin Ratonhnhaké:ton also explored several shipwrecks in his quest for Captain Kidd's treasure. In 1774, he traveled to Dead Chest Island, where he chased a scavenger through a ship graveyard, eventually assassinating him and recovering a piece of Kidd's treasure map. Two years later, he journeyed to the wreck of the Octavius, a ship that had become stuck in ice, and managed to acquire another piece of the map.^[3]

In 2023, the Abstergo Industries agent Yuki and Animus test subject Noa Kim explored the shipwreck of the SS Ourang Medan near the Strait of Malacca to find a crescent-shaped Piece of Eden that had been hidden there.^[6] Despite several attacks by the local wildlife and the Piece of Eden causing him to experience hallucinations of his ancestor Edward Kenway's memories,^[7] Noa ultimately managed to retrieve the artifact before he and Yuki returned to their diving bell.^[8]