The final resting place of Tirpitz

[Bodhi]

War graves are not "recovered".

The Tirpitz was "recovered" in the form of salvage....

[Karnak]

The Tirpitz was "recovered" in the form of salvage....

So were most of the BBs at Pearl.  But none of the salvaged ships where considered War Graves.  There was some talk of salvaging the Prince of Wales, but the British government blocked it saying she was a war grave.

[Bodhi]

The definition of a "war grave" is not the subject of a decree by a nationality.  For this case, it is a place where men were lost in equipment never destined to fight again.

[Guppy35]

They'll never recover a sunk ship, not unless it's immediately after it goes down in shallow water. Most of the others are technically war graves, and won't be disturbed other than subs/ROVs and documenting their resting places.

I don't know that a blanket statement like that really works Krusty.  Most times they leave wrecks alone, but it isn't always the case.  The Hunley from the Civil War being a good example.  They recovered the remains of the crew in that one.  There was a U-Boat brought back up a few years back that's now in England.  Seems like the Mary Rose had remains on her still after all those years too.

I wish there would have been the desire and the money to recover and restore the Yorktown.  Talk about a time capsule.  I've got a number of histories of the Pearl Harbor battleships.  Really a shame they didn't preserve at least one.  The pictures of them being scrapped are tough to see.  Imagine the West Virginia in place of the Missouri at Pearl Harbor.  Talk about stepping back in time

Saratoga getting sunk at Bikini also is a hard one considering her place in the history of US Aircraft Carriers, or the scrapping of the Enterprise for that matter.

[Masherbrum]

I read this as an Advance Reading Copy in the Winter of 2003.   An absolutely fascinating look into men who were without question, ahead of their time.   

http://www.amazon.com/Submarine-Warfare-Civil-Mark-Ragan/dp/0306811979
 
As Dan stated, the H.L. Hunley was raised and the entire crew were found at their battle stations.   Not to mention the crew IIRC, were given a Full Military Burial w/ Honors somewhere around Charleston, S.C.   

[Krusty]

Fair enough RE: Hunley, but I think that's the exception to the rule. It's "small enough" that it can be placed inside a museum somewhere. Full battlecruisers, on the other hand, carriers, battleships, cannot be displayed so easily.

I can think of only one other example, and that was a wooden sailing ship preserved in cold water fjords off of Finland or Sweden or something.

WW2 wrecks? Most folks treat them with a reverence (well deserved) that prohibits exploitation of the wreck.

[Reaper90]

UGH I am terrible in one plane.  A formation of 3, no way...  Stuka will remain my girl!

mmmmm... STUKA! I do love that thing for killing a CV. I just recently (couple of weeks ago, one night) got a wild hair and upped one, dropped on the CV that was pounding one of our fields that no friendly was really trying to defend, and somehow after upping from quite a ways away in order to climb up to about 15K (seemed like an eternity), we still had the base and the CV was still right there close off shore. Managed to zigzag through the puffy, and dove nearly vertical to about 2-3K then released the volkswagen I had strapped to the belly. CV dead. Ended up losing my oil to ack from one of the other ships, but got almost to the field before the engine died and ditched dead stick on the beach. Had a few beers there on the beach with a couple chicks who were out watching the lightshow, told them all the war stories 'bout how I was the one who caused that big bang and flash they had been amazed by. Towered out and got two more CV's that night (although I didn't make it tot he beach after either of those two  )

[Simba]

"I wish there would have been the desire and the money to recover and restore the Yorktown.  Talk about a time capsule.  I've got a number of histories of the Pearl Harbor battleships.  Really a shame they didn't preserve at least one.  The pictures of them being scrapped are tough to see.  Imagine the West Virginia in place of the Missouri at Pearl Harbor.  Talk about stepping back in time

Saratoga getting sunk at Bikini also is a hard one considering her place in the history of US Aircraft Carriers, or the scrapping of the Enterprise for that matter."

As a great chief once said, "nothing lasts forever, not even the mountains." Those ships were made famous by the men who served aboard them, and those men and that fame is what's worth preserving in our memories.

 

[Bodhi]

WW2 wrecks? Most folks treat them with a reverence (well deserved) that prohibits exploitation of the wreck.

That was not the case until the mid eighties when the military finally started to defend them.  It is also limited to a few nations.  For example, the Russians allow disturbance of war graves for profit.  One only has to look at several recoveries of aircraft there in the last ten years to see that.