Don't take this the wrong way, but looking at the issue dispassionately and logically: Why shouldn't sunken ships be cleaned up off the ocean floor, recycled, and in the process provide income for the living? We don't leave wrecked cars in the middle of the freeway with dead passengers as a memorial to their demise. Why not? Think about it. Like the rest of the war, it's mainly about the money.
The far more moral thing to do would have been to recover the lost mariners, ship their remains back to their families, and clean up their mess, but instead they left the lost lying in a cold steel wreck at the bottom of the ocean. So how did they spin that one around? It would have been very expensive for the war machine to do the right thing, so first of all, "out of sight = out of mind = so let's leave them their because it will save us the hassle of cleaning them up, and sinking ships is how we get rid of them anyway". Then to prevent anyone else from profiting, they declare it a "memorial site". It's brilliant! It's also hypocritical. But look how everybody gobbles it up instead of thinking about it.
They also make purposefully sunken ships off limits by declaring them "artificial reefs":
I agree in part, but I would say this:
and I will freely admit it is wishful and unpractical sentiment on my part:
Any deceased Sailor who's family wants their relatives body repatriated should be able to do so, so long as the deceased sailor in question had not directly specified that they wanted a sea Burial.
And the governments should pay for it as it was they who put them there.
However my understanding is that the attitude of many of the sailors was: that being buried at sea was fine, or even preferable to being buried on land.
Extreme levels of cooperation and comradery were essential to life on board a ship, that is to say that: if we go down, we all go down together, we are united in triumph and tragedy alike.
There is also a long tradition of "ship burials".*
I see these memorial wrecks as a combination of the two.
They are Graves and should be treated as such.
I will also say that too many people have no grave or memorial at all, they were left where they fell and forgotten.
In fact my great Grandfathers remains were only found years after he was killed in action, but it was actually a good thing they found him, because my Great grandmother could actually start to grieve. He had been listed as missing for many years, until a farmer in France discovered his "Identity Necklace" (dog tag).
He now has a Marked grave in a Cemetery near where he was killed, but there are many unmarked and mass graves there too, not to mention all of the undiscovered remains.
The reason I added this is because I wanted to acknowledge that I am biased on this issue because of family experience.
Also, as I believe we came from the sea, I might have less issue than others about "returning" there.
As always, I value your input, I could not be offended because you tell the truth as you see it.
Best wishes.
*
Ship burial - Wikipedia
