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This Group Is All About The Fear Of Submerged Man-Made Objects, And Here Are 30 Of The Scariest Pics That Will Make You Want To Swim Away
Interview
Imagine that you’re swimming out into your local lake. You’re a capable swimmer, you know this body of water like the back of your hand, and you feel confident while athletically stroking through water enveloped by the early morning mist. You decide to dive underwater for a bit—you know, for fun—and that’s when you see it: the shadowy silhouette of something huge, rusted, and covered in seaweed. You panic, rise to the surface, and swim to the shore. Trembling. Terrified.
What even was that?! That, my dear Pandas, was but a taste of submechanophobia, the fear of fully or partially submerged man-made objects, from sunken ships and propellers to sculptures and buildings. The r/submechanophobia subreddit, a vast community of 375k people, is a place to explore that deep, lurking fear in photo format.
Let’s plunge in, shall we? Remember to upvote the pics that scared the bejesus outta ya as you’re swimming through this list. We’d also love to hear your thoughts about the photos, so if you’re brave enough, you can dive to the very bottom and drop us a line in the comment section.
One of the moderators of the 'Submechanophobia' subreddit, redditor Pubocyno, gave us a glimpse into the exciting underwater currents of the community, shared their take on tackling our fears, and revealed the very interesting origin of the phobia itself. Pubocyno told Bored Panda that they're actually a very active wreck diver in their free time! What's more, they create detailed shipwreck maps.
"I like to spend much time underwater. There is this sense of awe when you discover underwater wrecks for the first time, a little bit of excitement and a little bit of terror—not to forget the sense of history, especially in those wrecks you know have had casualties," Pubocyno said that even though they don't have submechanophobia themselves, they nonetheless have a "great respect" for all things underwater. You'll find the moderator's other insights deeper into the article, dear Readers.
Bored Panda also reached out to Alastair Bailey, a DSD Divemaster who has done a whopping 500 dives while working at the Byron Bay Dive Centre in Australia. Check out what he had to say below as well.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Underwater Shark Statue At Lake Neuchâtel
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#2
Serpent D'océan In Saint-Brevin-Les-Pins, France
Pascal Oudot 5 years ago
Open-air work of art, the Ocean Serpent with 135 vertebrae 130 meters long, produced in 2012 by Chinese artist Huang Yong Ping, appears to the rhythm of the tides north of Saint-Brevin on the foreshore, at the tip of Nez-de-Chien.
#3
This Used To Be A Boat, Now It’s A Island
#4
After 2300 Years Underwater, A Cache Of Ancient Relics Have Been Rediscovered Off The Coast Of Thonis-Heraclion In Egypt. They’ve Been Waiting, Watching
#5
Venice Canal Giant Hands
#6
This Statue Of Poseidon In Spain
#7
Hurricane Harvey. French Street In Lumberton, Tx. 9/3/2017
#8
Maryland National Harbor Statue 'The Awakening'
#9
Retired NYC Subway Car Dumped Off The Coast As An Artificial Reef
#10
A “Ghost Village” Resurfacing In Italy
#11
Interior Of Shipwreck In Lake Superior
#12
Dragon Sculpture In The Lake Of Neuchâtel, Switzerland
#13
The Front Of The Titanic
#14
The Baltimore Harbor Tunnel Today. Ignore The Fact That You Are Already Driving Underwater. Drive Into The Underwater Water
#15
Silver Islet Mine Shafts Near Thunder Bay On
#16
Diving In A Sunken Plane
#17
Many People Requested More Photos On My Original Post About The Last House Of Holland Island. So Here Are A Few More That I Find Unsettling...
#18
Jet Star, A Rollercoaster In New Jersey That Was Literally Blown Into The Ocean During Hurricane Sandy
Steve Barnett 5 years ago
Safety check: Cease operations immediately, multiple injuries expected.
#19
German U-Boat Spotted From The Air
Sascha Dix 5 years ago
The paper with the diagram is a reflection on the plane's window, were the photo has been made.
#20
What A Submarine Escape Training Tower Looks Like
#21
Swimming Off The Side Of A Container Ship Seems Like A Big Nope. Found This On Instagram A Few Days Ago
#22
It Seems People Enjoyed My Last Post- Here Is Another One I Took Of The Coast Of O’ahu, Hawaii, Where A Tourist Submarine Came Upon As Out Of The Void While We Were Diving...
#23
131 Ft Deep Swimming Pool In Padua, Italy. That “Landing Pad” At The Bottom Especially Freaks Me Out
#24
In 2016 Riot Games Commissioned An Artificial Reef Of Their Character Nautilus And Placed It In The Ocean Of Brisbane, Australia. He Now Looks Like This
#25
Church Of Potosi, Drowned Then Reappeared
#26
Carnival Cruise Ships Being Scrapped
#27
A Sunken Ship Called "World Discoverer" Before And After It Sunk
#28
An Offshore Oil Rig Which Drifted To The Coast Of The Isle Of Lewis Due To Extreme Weather In 2016
#29
Water Reservoir In Emmendingen, Bw, Germany
#30
Swimming Pool Aboard A Decommissioned Soviet Typhoon Class Submarine
#31
Cancun Underwater Museum
#32
Awesome (Terrifying) Bronze Statue Of The Christ Of The Abyss In San Fruttuoso, Italy
#33
This Picture From A Forbes Article On Nuclear Power
N G 5 years ago
The guy behind xkcd (Randall Something?), posted a What If article about swimming in the cooling pool at a nuclear power station. It basically came down to, yes, you COULD swim in the pool without any danger from the nuclear waste, but in reality, you'd be shot by security guards before you could dive in.
#34
Adrenaline Rush Near Uss Midway
#35
The Submerged Romanian Village Of Geamana, Flooded In 1978 To Make Way For A Large Copper Mine. The Relics Now Sit In A Colorful Toxic Stew
#36
“Hey Let’s Swim Out To Those Buoys!”
#37
Volvo 850 Trapped Under Ice
#38
A Full Tokyo Flood Shaft. The Shaft Is Around 230 Feet Or 70 Meters Deep
#39
I'm Usually Ok With Submarines But This Photo Got Me
heather daugherty 5 years ago
i believe it's a russian submarine. it's a sonar buoy attached to the stern...
#40
Naval Mines Always Spook Me Deep Down My Guts
#41
Nuclear Reactor Pools
#42
Sinking The Speigel Grove. Notice How Tiny The People On The Boats Are
Elli Rahim 5 years ago
She's the former USS Spiegel Grove (LSD-32), a Thomaston-class dock landing ship of the United States Navy. Wow! What a career she had! Even today she's still serving the ocean as an artificial reef off Florida.
#43
Aft Ballast Tank On My Ship. Had To Dewater And Inspect It
#44
Carved Head Of A Sea Monster Rises From The Depths; A Figure Salvaged From The Gribshunden, A Warship That Sank In 1495
#45
I Live In The Swamp And Our Cemeteries Are Half Underwater. Have Seen Bones Floating Around
#46
In 2013, A Statue Of Jason Vorhees Of Friday The 13th Was Built And Installed Underwater In Crosby, Minnesota. It's Inspired By The Events That Transpired In Friday The 13th Part Vi: Jason Lives, When Jason Is Defeated By Being Chained To The Bottom Of The Crystal Lake
#47
This Boat Looks Like It Is Sinking 24/7 Who Does This
#48
The Bregenz Festspielhaus In Vorarlberg, Austria. Photo By Me
#49
Huge Diving Tank In Duisburg, Germany. Contains A Plane Wreck, A Car And Several Other Debris
#50
Abandoned Set Of Canadian Game Show Splatalot
#51
Italian Wwii Cargo Ship Ss Probitas, Sunken In The Bay Of Sarandë, Albania
#52
The Old Universal Studios Jaws Ride...
#53
My Buddy Took This Inside An Abandoned Dredge In Michigan
Bacony Cakes 5 years ago
I think i saw a place like this in my dreams, but a weird inflatable theme park.
#54
Titanic's Starboard Propeller
#55
More Photos Of The Recent Egyptian Wreck Discovery
#56
Monstro Tunnel. Part Of The Disneyland Storybook Canal Boats
#57
“My Place Under The Boat” From 2019 Underwater Photographer Of The Year Competition
#58
Wreck Of The Brittanic. One Of My Nightmares Is Swimming Down And Seeing This Hulk Suddenly Loom Out At You Through The Murk
Brandi VanSteenwyk 5 years ago
Mine would be swimming down and suddenly seeing a face staring at me from one of her windows,
#59
Remains Of Clothes In The Titanic
#60
The Last Structure Standing Of What Used To Be Holland Island In The Chesapeake Bay. The Island Eroded Away And This House Was The Only Thing Left Standing. It Was Floating In The Chesapeake Alone For Years Until It Finally Sunk In 2010
Brandi VanSteenwyk 5 years ago
Can you imagine being one of the former tenants and observing this part of your life drift off into the depths?
#61
The Sunken, Abandoned "Dome House" In Cape Romano Florida. Many Of These Houses Built In The 80's Have Been Swallowed By The Ocean Over Time
#62
Always Hated The Wave Chambers In Pools Since I Was A Kid, Had To Get Over That Fear When I Started Lifeguarding Here!
Corey Smith 5 years ago
A wave pool is where my phobia of underwater machinery began. I was a kid at one and while it was off, I decided to dive down to the bottom of the pool (it was about 20 feet deep at the end). I got to the bottom and saw a chain-link fence, and it was dark inside. At that moment, the wave machine turned on. I have sweaty palms just typing this 40 years later.
#63
The Pool At The Naval Surface Warfare Center In Maryland
#64
Intricately Designed Stone Slab Resting Just Below Water Level
#65
Inspecting Underside Of A Major Port Terminal. We’re About 1500 Feet From Open Air
#66
Shooters Island, Staten Island New York Photo Taken At Dead Low Tide It Was An Old Shipyard Back In The Late 1800s And Early 1900s Many Ships Were Left Abandoned After The Yards Closure. At High Tide Most Of The Outlines Of The Ships You See Are Completely Submerged
#67
The "Lady Of The Lake", An Abandoned B-29 Superfortress In Alaska
#68
Early Diving Suits - History Of Diving Museum In Islamorada, Fl. Even As A Diver, These Are Freaky...
#69
Stairs Down To Flooded Machinery Deep Inside A Mine
#70
Village Submerged In Grey Sludge
Lauren Caswell 5 years ago
Dammit. We started with a submerged village, then there was the one in the water that looks like blood, and now this. And I said I should have stopped scrolling. I did not.
#71
Behind The Scenes Of Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea
#73
Drug Smuggling Submarine Found In The Ecuadorian Jungle
#74
Sunken Sailboat On A Foggy Day
#75
German Submarine U-118 Washed Ashore On The Beach At Hastings, 1919
#76
Japanese Submarine That Never Made It To Pearl Harbour
#77
Stonehenge Found 30ft Deep In Lake Michigan, Still A Mystery To This Day
#78
Float Trip From Hell
#79
Typhoon Class Submarine
ThatGuv 5 years ago
That's the one that has the little pool in it and apparently also a sauna, a waterfall, and even a bird aviary, as well as 20 ballistic missiles with each carrying 10 nuclear warheads of which each one of those 10 being capable of a 100 kiloton blast. (The Hiroshima bomb was 13 -18 kilotons)
#80
The Water Is Scary Dark And Deep
#81
Gus Grissom's Liberty Bell 7 Mercury Capsule, Lost In 1961 In 16,000 Feet Of Water
#82
An Abandoned Ekranoplan. An Old Amphibious Soviet Plane From The Cold War
Dave In MD 5 years ago
Not really a plane, it is what's called a surface effect craft. It does "fly" but has to be close to the water to do it.
#83
Truck Falls Through Ice On Frozen Lake, New Ice Forms Over Top Of Hole (Vermont, USA)
Niffler_13 5 years ago
Generally they cannot be retrieved until after the thaw, depending on when it went through the ice. Pretty expensive too and big EPA fines if you don't have it removed.
#84
On A Diving Trip Back In 2009 With My Dad, We Found This Air In A Wreck... Was A Blast
#85
Soundstage For The Goonies. The Area Would Be Filled In With Water
she/they and definitely gay 5 years ago
omg the goonies is so good ive watched it so may times
#86
Olympia Shipwreck, Amorgos, Greece
Maria Schneider 5 years ago (edited)
I've been there (at the wreck) many times, kinda love da place. Parts of he film "The Big Bue" have been taken there. And Amorgos is incredible.
#87
A Google Earth Pic Of A Wreck On A River In Iraq That Freaked Me Out A Bit
WhoAreYouToSayPandasAreBored 5 years ago
There goes the rest of my day, google earthing the oceans
#89
Remember Costa Concordia?
Chewie Baron 5 years ago
It was an Italian cruise ship that sank after seriously bad decision making by the Captain. It sank on its side and this is inside the ship.
#90
Stairs For Divers Into The „black Lake“. Garbsen, Germany
#91
The Civil War Era Confederate State Submarine "H.l. Hunley" Built In 1864 And Sank Later That Year Which Currently Rests In The Warren Lasch Conservation Center In Charleston, Sc
#92
Abandoned Water Park In My Hometown, East Tx
#93
Sinking Plane
#94
I Dunno If This Is Okay Here Since Its Not Technically In The Water But I Think Its Crazy This Is What A Supercarrier Looks Like Below The Waterline
#95
Titanic Propellers Imagine The Size Of The Ship
Bacony Cakes 5 years ago
(echoing around in head) Two hundred and sixty nine meters... Two hundred and sixty nine meters...
#96
Sub At Periscope Depth
#98
Crashed Plane Underwater At Pearl Harbor
#99
Ww2 Plane Crash Found On A Welsh Beach
#100
The Queen Mary’s Submerged Propellor Is Terrifying. I Was So Unsettled After Taking This Picture I Nearly Ran Upstairs
#101
Something About These Offshore Wind Power Plants Make Me Feel Uneasy
#102
Opening A Pool Tile
#105
The Stern Of Russian Submarine Dmitri Donskoi, The Largest Submarine In The World, In Transit
sofacushionfort 5 years ago
Soviet subs were so much bigger because they carried their own replacement parts and workshops aboard. US subs had sub tenders for that.
#106
The Gunilda Shipwreck 270 Ft. Deep In Lake Superior
#107
I Couldn’t Get A Specific Picture But At My Local Leisure Centre There’s A Wave Machine Like The One In The Pic. The Part It’s In Has Sides That Go Up About 3 Metres Above The Waterline Around You
Charlotte A. 5 years ago
Looks like they're about to release the sea monsters for an underwater colosseum spectacle.
#108
From One Of My Dives Last Week 100ft Down. Enjoy!
#109
Sunken 1920’s Barge Just Steps Off The Beach, Only Visible By Air. Ri, USA
#111
5 Of 6 World’s Largest Typhoon Class Submarines In Dock While In Service
#112
Saturation Diving. Divers Dive To Depths Of 2,000 Feet, To Work And Repair Machinery
#114
It Took Every Ounce Of Courage To Walk Out There. Madison, Wi (The Day After Tomorrow, 2004)
#115
The Jaws Ride Drained Is 10000x Worse Than Jungle Cruise Animals!
#116
This Prop From The Film «raise The Titanic» (1980) Gives Me The Creeps
#117
Wreck Of German Cruiser Prinz Eugen
#118
Submarine Nazario Sauro In Genova
Brandi VanSteenwyk 5 years ago
The view initially gives the idea that the sub is still in use. But looking further at the underwater portion decries that assumption. Hmmmmm.....
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von Funnyname 5 years ago
I thought I was just me... I didn't realize I had a constant anxiety about open water until looking through this. The whole thing gave me the w*****s.
Load More Replies...
Chucky Cheezburger 5 years ago
Just nope to all of this...nopenopenopenope...Near where I live, there are dams built to create reservoirs of water. The areas inundated by the water held back by the dam wasn't cleared, so deep down in the bottem of the lakes are trees, homes, churches... part of town. Roads that once ran down to the river now just go into a lake...All this stuff can be seen with sonar units that are used to find fish in the lake. It's just creepy.Out on a boat in the lake, looking at a road that goes into the lake, down down down... untill it can't be seen, but you know it's still there. I always think of what creatures or spirits might inhabit these buildings and use those roads...
von Funnyname 5 years ago
I thought I was just me... I didn't realize I had a constant anxiety about open water until looking through this. The whole thing gave me the w*****s.
Load More Replies... Chucky Cheezburger 5 years ago
Just nope to all of this...nopenopenopenope...Near where I live, there are dams built to create reservoirs of water. The areas inundated by the water held back by the dam wasn't cleared, so deep down in the bottem of the lakes are trees, homes, churches... part of town. Roads that once ran down to the river now just go into a lake...All this stuff can be seen with sonar units that are used to find fish in the lake. It's just creepy.Out on a boat in the lake, looking at a road that goes into the lake, down down down... untill it can't be seen, but you know it's still there. I always think of what creatures or spirits might inhabit these buildings and use those roads...
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