Baependy, Steamboat wreck site near Sergipe coast, Brazil.

Baependy was a steel-hulled steamship built by Blohm+Voss in Hamburg as yard number 135, launched as Tijuca on 5 July 1899 and completed on 5 August. She measured 114.5 m long and 14.1 m abeam, with 4,801 GRT, a quadruple-expansion engine and a single funnel and two masts. She carried about 450 passengers, 50 of them in first class, and some 60 crew.

The Baependy was torpedoed by a German submarine in August 1942 and sank within minutes. The attack was part of a series of strikes on Brazilian ships that led Brazil to enter World War II shortly after.

The ship was renamed after the town of Baependi in Minas Gerais, but its registered name kept the "Y" at the end, Baependy, and is always spelt that way. The sinking killed 270 people, including many women and children, and only 36 survived. Outrage after the attack and the four ships sunk by U-507 in the following 48 hours led Brazil to declare war on Germany and Italy a week later.

The wreck is only reachable by boat from the coast, and sea conditions can vary a great deal depending on the season. Going with a local dive operator who knows the currents and visibility is a good idea.

The Baependy was built in 1899 by Blohm & Voss in Hamburg as the Tijuca, the same city where U-507, the submarine that later sank her, was built in 1940. She was the last of 11 Asuncion-class ships built for Hamburg Süd.