The ship BRP Sierra Madre, stagnant and slowly decaying, sits near the Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea as an unlikely last defense for the Philippines against an encroaching Chinese claim on part of the strategic waterway.
The Sierra Madre gained national attention recently when the Chinese Coast Guard prevented a re-supply boat, filled with visiting journalists and members of the Philippine Navy, from reaching its intended destination.
Attempts to essentially blockade the decades-old rusting ship sometimes involve the Chinese Coast Guard and other vessels using water cannons, high-grade lasers, and even ramming boats and can last for hours at a time.
The World War II-era ship is an LST-542-class tank landing ship that served both the US and Vietnam before it was acquired by the Philippines. The dilapidated ship has been sitting near the Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands since 1999 and has recently been the subject of tension between China and the Philippines.
The Second Thomas Shoal is a reef within the disputed South China Sea, a resource-rich waterway home to important shipping lanes. China claims vast swaths of the ocean, but Beijing's claims to areas claimed by Manila were dismissed by an international tribunal, the results of which China firmly rejected.
As the ship, used to advance the Philippines' claims to territorial sovereignty, is on its last leg, holes have appeared in the hull, and tires are used to keep it afloat, the Philippine Navy worries China will come in and press its claim of the area as its own.