Shipwreck Deja Vu barbados

This drone footage offers something quite different from our usual tropical tours. It was taken by the Barbados Defence Force’s Drone Unit as part of an inter-agency task force working to remove the shipwrecked MV Christina Debora from Cobblers Reef off Barbados’ south-east coast in January 2026.

The vessel had drifted unmanned across the Atlantic Ocean after its crew was safely rescued in mid-2025… a ghost ship carried by currents until it met its fate on these unforgiving reefs.

There’s a fascinating historical parallel here worth noting. Back in the early 1800s, Samuel Lord owned the estate in this very area. Legend has it that much of his considerable wealth came from plundering ships that wrecked on these same reefs… after allegedly luring them to their doom by hanging lanterns in coconut trees along the coast, mimicking the lights of a safe harbor!

Lord used his plundered treasures to furnish an extravagant castle he built on his estate. That castle was later transformed into a hotel and today stands as a preserved ruin on the grounds of the Wyndham Grand Barbados Sam Lord’s Castle All-Inclusive Resort.

The aerial perspective provided by this drone technology gave the task force important insights: how the vessel is positioned on the reef, potential chemical leakage from the ship, and possible damage to the delicate reef ecosystem.

It’s a striking contrast - Samuel Lord’s primitive and nefarious means of wrecking ships centuries ago, now juxtaposed with sophisticated drone technology being used to remove a modern wreck from the very same waters.