A fishing boat stranded and was destroyed beside a lonely beach, south east coast of Sri Lanka. About Shipwrecks:A shipwreck is what remains of a ship that has wrecked, either sunk or beached. Whatever the cause, a sunken ship or a wrecked ship is a physical example of the event: this explains why the two concepts are often overlapping in English.A shipwreck could be called a wreck if the structure is still recognizable or a wreckage if it is not recognizable anymore. The United Nations estimates that there are more than 3 million shipwrecks on the ocean floor.Beaching is when a vessel is laid ashore, or grounded deliberately in shallow water. This is more usual with small flat-bottomed boats. Larger ships may be beached deliberately, for instance in an emergency a damaged ship might be beached to prevent it from sinking in deep water. Some vessels are designed to be loaded and unloaded by beaching: these are called landing craft.Beaching was also done during the era of sailing vessels to allow the ship to be rolled over for the hull to be maintained, referred to as careening.