The Falkland Islands have a rich maritime heritage due to their location close to one of the world’s great trading routes. Their waters were notoriously treacherous to navigate before the Royal Navy completed soundings, paid testimony to by the 120+ wrecks that are known to lie off the rocky coasts. Stanley Harbour itself was something of a ship graveyard – until the 1980s more than a dozen vessels of various sizes lay hulked or abandoned along the shoreline.