Corveta Camaquã (C6)

The Camaquã was a minesweeper, the sixth in a series of six built at the former Navy Arsenal on Ilha das Cobras. Her keel was laid on 22 October 1938, she was launched on 16 September 1939 and commissioned on 6 June 1940, with the pennant number C-6. In 1944, the ships of the class were reclassified as corvettes. She was the third Navy ship named Camaquã, a Tupi-Guarani word meaning "sharp chest" that also names a river in Rio Grande do Sul flowing into the Lagoa dos Patos. In war operations she sailed 58,700 miles over 130.5 days at sea and escorted 52 convoys, and during the Second World War she escorted about 700 ships.

On 21 July 1944, while returning to the port of Recife, the corvette capsized after a violent blow from the sea, about 12 miles northeast of the Barra do Recife. A series of three large swells struck the ship, and the third caught her on the beam and rolled her completely over to starboard in a matter of seconds. The corvette was reportedly in the same trim as on other voyages, with her double-bottom oil tanks practically full, and the accident was treated as unforeseeable and unavoidable, ruling out technical error. The survivors were rescued by the submarine chasers Jutaí and Graúna, part of the same escort of convoy JT-18 to which the corvette belonged.

The intact hull side disproves the myth, spread by part of the population, that the ship was sunk by a submarine's torpedo. On the seabed around her lie human bones of the victims, such as a jaw, a tibia and a fibula, and the corvette can be considered a sanctuary site of Second World War heroes in Brazilian waters. Beside the corvette there are depth charges on the bottom, one of them with its TNT exposed, which are a potential hazard and must not be handled. Large numbers of fish shelter in the corvette, and hammerhead sharks have been seen passing by.