Vessel 10, Nouadhibou, Mauritania, by Jan Smith

Nouadhibou

Nouadhibou means “where the jackals get fat”. It is also where ships go to die. Over 500 abandoned wrecks lie in Nouadhibou Bay, making it the world’s largest ship cemetery.

Nouadhibou Bay (Courtesy of Google Earth)

Nouadhibou – World’s Largest Ship Cemetery

In June 2008 I traveled to Nouadhibou to photograph its boats. Although only a few miles south of the Moroccan border, in Mauritania, access is difficult and adventuresome. I traveled south by land from Casablanca, Morocco but was turned away at the border. With my cameras in tow I was accused of espionage.

Nobody believed I traveled to the remoteness of Nouadhibou to simply take pictures of rotting ships. After a night in a mine field and a brief stint in detention, I returned to Casablanca and managed to fly into Nouakchott. There, with the help of two strangers I met at the airport, I succeeded in traveling north to Nouadhibou.

It was impossible to ignore the inequalities around me. Slavery was formally re-abolished in 1981, but is still manifest in its most docile form as indentured service. Furthermore, illegal immigrants build miles of shacks on the beach, where they dry and husk octopus and rays for markets in Asia. All the while they scavenge oil drums to build rafts to float to the Canary Islands. Many who try die.

Amongst all of this are the ships; originally a vestige of a nationlized fishing industry that found it cheaper to abandon its fleet than service it. This then provided cover for foreign companies to scuttle ships and fradulently claim insurance.

Indeed, there are many visual stories to present from Nouadhibou. This one is about the abandoned ships, and finding beauty in what is meant to be forgotten.