South China seas wreck trip report

[DrMike]

South China Seas Wreck Trip Report
(HMS Repulse and HMS Prince of Wales)

There were eight divers on the expedition including two English two Americans and four Australians. Two safety divers on board were on permanent standby as well as a lookout in case we needed anything. Two of the team were using inspiration rebreathers the rest on open circuit we also had four silent submersion scooters. Due to the depths of the wrecks everyone dived trimix most of the OC divers using twin 14L tanks although the Grace also has twin 17Ls available. Despite having surface supplied O2 on the deco station all divers were requested to carry all gasses needed in case of free-floating deco.

MV Grace is a big ship far bigger than any other live aboard boat I have been on and has a cavernous dive platform able to easily handle twice as many divers as they allow on tech trips. Her size makes her very stable and the engine noise does not cause you to miss any sleep. We each had our own private and comfortable clean cabins and air conditioning made it more like a floating hotel than a dive boat. The beer like the helium and oxygen is free.

Our first dive was on the intact and upright wreck of the 98,000 ton Swedish super tanker the impressive wreck 'the seven skies' Arriving around lunch time we were soon geared up and making our way down to the wreck. Differing reports had placed the bottom of the ship at anything from 55m to 70m in depth so we were all diving trimix. MV Grace offers free gas on their trips, and we had plenty of helium and oxygen on board as well as a booster pump. for rebreather divers sorb is free and they get a 20% discount on the trip price. We were tied into the upright wreck on the top of the wheelhouse and soon found ourselves dropping down in 20m visibility over the port side towards the sand and hopefully the prop. As we reached the seabed my VR3 showed a depth of 67m and it quickly became apparent that the prop had long since been salvaged. Below 30m the visibility dropped off to 10-15m - we could see that the huge rudder that towered above us and had carved a large trench in the sand as it is still swinging on its pivot during the occasional strong currents that visit this area. Lying besides the rudder on the seabed was a large marble ray some 4 feet in diameter. It didn’t move despite me being practically within touching distance, however another similar sized ray quickly appeared and swam around us in close proximity in what certainly felt like an unfriendly manner. We ascended up the rudder following an old anchor and line that someone had long ago snagged on the wreck and lost. We came up on the starboard side of the stern and fought a nasty current over the top of the stern and around the starboard side of the superstructure. Dropping down to the front of the superstructure I tied off a line at the entrance to the kitchen on the 47m-deck level and penetrated. I swam slowly along through the kitchen passing the open doors to the freezer rooms large stoves and kitchen cupboards before turning into a narrow corridor. In this corridor I turned and swam up through what used to be the food-serving hatch into the dining room. The narrow confines of the corridor and small size of the serving hatch made it very difficult not to stir up some silt. At this point my OC buddy was reaching his gas turning point so he left me to carry on solo. With the rebreather and carrying an 11L of bailout gas as well as a 5L of deco gas I had plenty of gas but it did made things a bit of a tight squeeze in places. I could see the remains of old tables and chairs lying around. Some light was coming in through the line of beautiful intact brass portholes complete with brass storm covers along the wall but the floor was covered in heaps of ceiling linning material that had dropped down along with lots of hanging cables waiting to catch the unwary diver. The portholes would make a nice memento but the large number of big bolts that hold them on would take numerous dives to remove a single porthole - which is why they are all still there. Reaching the end of the dinning room I turned into and explored the showers and storeroom before finally finding my way through a small door into the cavernous engine room. I had planned on a bottom time of 40mins and my VR3 was showing 30 so I began to retrace me tracks clearing my line as I went. Once I exited the wreck I ascended up to the top of the superstructure at 30m where the line was tied in. Arriving at 6m on the line I was glad to see the crew had installed a jump line leading across to a deco platform nicely set up under the stern of the MV GRACE. We had a rigid deco bar at 6m depth and surface supplied oxygen for those that wanted to use it. With their chase boat in the water ad standby safety divers it was obvious hat they took diver safety seriously. With 45mins on 10/50 and max depth of 67m I had a fairly large deco obligation and a long hang at 6m - but found the deco platform made a comfortable seat. I sat and watched the recreational dive boat ’ White manta’ arrive, dozens of divers jump in - do their dives to the top of the ships superstructure max depth 30m - do their safety stops - exit the water - and then watched the 'White manta' leave whilst still doing my last stop.


After completing my deco I ascended and found crew waiting for me to hand them my two stages tanks and fins before I climbed up the ladder. Crew were quick and efficient at assisting me with my gear and helping me out the water and to the bench. I was soon passed a warm fluffy towel, fruit and water. I left my tanks to be filled and sat at the table in the lounge and almost immediately the chef appeared and placed my lunch in front of me. I’m going to enjoy this trip I said to myself. Other divers explored the engine room of the wreck down to 54m and brought back some interesting video of the ships workshop complete with milling machines and lathes. After some divers did a night dive on the Seven Skies we set sail for the wreck of the historic ship the British battle cruiser HMS Prince of Wales.


I awoke early in anticipation and vaguely remembered the ships engines slowing at around 4:30am. When I finally stirred out of bed at 7am I was happy to hear the news that the crew had already hooked and tied in to the wreck of the HMS Prince of Wales.

 

[DrMike]

HMS Prince of Wales (POW) was basically brand new when she was sunk together with HMS Repulse in 1941. The POW was the flagship of Force Z and managed to survive the Japanese assault almost an hour longer than the lighter armoured HMS Repulse that we were to visit the next day.


The water surface was as flat as glass. Sat upside down in 70m of water this huge battle cruiser is not often visited due to her depth, inverted position and currents that can be experienced on the site. Greg was the first one down the line to tie into the wreck and when he surfaced he explained excitedly that we were tied into one of the huge gun barrels that still sticks out at an aggressive fighting angle from the wreck. Once I had signed myself off on the dive board indicating my entry and expected exit time I jumped in. I chose to stay on 50% helium in anticipation of strong currents but was surprised to find very little current on descent and even less at depth. Despite her depth clear waters gave plenty of light to the wreck. We swam along the seabed looking up at the deck of the upturned ship bristling with huge gun turrets. Although she lays upturned there is a 5m gap all along the port side due to her huge size there is lots to see an explore. I swam up to amidships and saw some damaged inflatable life rafts lying under the wreck and the cranes and tracks for the flying boat she carried. The huge guns and vast size of the ship gave testament to the aggressive struggle she was involved with and I could only imagine the scene on the tragic day when she was attacked from the sky by the Japanese torpedo bombers that holed and sank her and her nearby sister ship the HMS Repulse with so many lives lost. The main guns still laid buried along with much of the superstructure below the sand but her side guns can still be seen. One of these guns must have dropped from its hole as the inverted ship sank and it lies upside down ten meters away from the ship partially buried in the sand. Around her in the sand lay the signs of struggle including a large number of gun shells

I then turned and swam back to the tie off point. I took a few moments to refasten the memorial plaque that had been mounted on the wreck in memory of the brave souls who lost their lives on her. The plaque had lost one of its fittings so I used some cave line to refasten it back on. My buddy had already ascended and I continued along to the ships bow. The swim to the bow showed some damage to her bow with a large deformation perhaps when she struck bottom. A current had picked up and the swim back was harder and longer than I expected. I arrived back at the line after spending 45mins at 67m. Another long deco was awaiting me - but I was happy as the Prince of Wales is an impressive dive. This time my 6m stop was an hour long once again I was glad MV Grace had a deco station I could sit on. When ever any diver is below MV Grace has lookouts posted I could see then watching me as I sat on the deco platform all alone with my thoughts. Every so often one would dive down to and check if I needed anything. Warm fluffy towels, fruit and dinner awaited me. Some of the divers, particularly these with scooters were able to scooter along the vast length of the ship towards the stern on their dives.

After a 5-hour surface interval it was time for our 2nd dive on the Prince of Wales. Being over the wreck all day meant there was no rush or prescribed dive times. This time, to save us from a long swim some of the guys with scooters had laid a jump line from the down line to the large torpedo hole on the stern of the ship. As I came to the stern I saw the large propeller shaft and lying next to and tied to the shaft was a British Naval ensign flag and an smb that had been used to hold it upright. A similar flag had also been placed on the top of the nearby HMS Repulse in memoriam. I untangled he flag and tried to re-inflate the smb to re- ‘fly’ the flag - but it was damaged. Following the line and dropping down over the side of the hull I soon found the large torpedo hole some ten to fifteen feet square, responsible for her sinking. The hole opened up several deck levels of the ship and peaking inside I could see store rooms full of bottles, electrical switchgear and other dark spooky passageways that reminded me that this is a grave site and testament to the tragic loss of human life. In total we did three dives on the HMS Prince of Wales including one night dive. In respect of her war grave status the wreck wasn’t disturbed and nothing was taken away from the site.


We sailed late that night and awoke the next morning already tied in to the historic wreck of the HMS Repulse. Another British battle cruiser she lies a few hours away from the Prince of Wales. Sunk by the same Japanese torpedo bombers that sank the POW and like the POW she went down with a huge loss of life. Like the Prince of Wales The Repulse is largely intact, she is laying on her port side in 54m of water.

After serving as part of the Home Fleet in the North Sea and Atlantic from 1939 – 40 the Repulse was sent to Singapore together with the new battleship Prince of Wales to strengthen the then colonial outpost from a potential Japanese push southwards. At the time it was believed that Force Z, of which Repulse and Prince of Wales were the major components, would act as a deterrent force to the Imperial Japanese Navy. Immediately after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour both ships rushed northwards to stem what was believed to be a major Japanese invasion force. On the return journey to Singapore on the 10 December 1941 a fleet of more than 80 Japanese bombers and torpedo planes mounted a sustained attack on both ships in the waters North of Tioman Island off the East Coast of Peninsula Malaysia.

Although only suffering moderate damage from bombs and successfully evading some nineteen torpedos launched from the Japanese ‘Betty’ bombers Repulse eventually succumbed to five torpedo hits and sank rapidly at 12:35 hours. A total of 513 men were lost in the attack and sinking. It took the Japanese 34 land-based bombers and 51 torpedo bombers to sink the Repulse and the Prince of Wales over three separate attacks.

The sinking of these two ships was notable for several reasons. First, it was the first time that Capital ships succumbed to air attacks on the open sea (as opposed to in port such as was the case at Pearl Harbour). Secondly, it was the Royal Navy’s largest loss in a single engagement


Onboard, the MV Grace she is equipped with an audio presentation system that we used at night to screen films as well as enjoy playing back any videos from the days diving. We were able to use this system to look over a full set of boat plans we had for the HMS Repulse. From this we could identify parts of the ship we had seen on our dives as well as plan our next days diving. A torpedo hole amidships crippled her and now provides a home for a turtle. We had very little current on the wreck and were able to swim from bow to stern in around 35 mins. We did three dives a day for three days on this wreck and got to know her quite well. The propellers were missing but like the POW there was no netting or fishing line on her, which was surprising. Like the Prince of Wales she still bristled with large guns and torpedo launchers. The signs of bitter struggle lay scattered around on the sand. Large shell casings, twisted wreckage, a lifeboat. There are many open hatches and holes in the ship that lead deep into her interior, as she is laying on her side half of the ship is submerged in sand on the outside, with very little light the inside is dark and foreboding, the last resting place to many a brave soul. A large grouper and a huge moray also reside on the wreck and could be seen on most dives. The visibility was a good 10m minimum and at some times we were able to see the outline of the wreck from the 6m-deco stop - making visibility around 30m. Although this site is well known for its occasional strong currents we were blessed with flat seas and mild to no current on all our dives. In total 9 dives over three days were carried out on the HMS Repulse with most divers were doing 40min on the wreck per dive.

On my rebreather none of my dives were shorter that 2 hours duration, the warm waters 26 degrees C and mild currents making such long dives a pleasure. some of the divers actually saw a marlin whilst on deco - a rare sight indeed in theses waters. As the MV Grace stays overnight on the wrecks divers are free to choose how and when they dive. Many dived solo at times of their own choosing. A lookout was posted at all times whilst divers are down to watch for smbs of divers doing free floating deco (the preferred method being deco on the line) Divers were informed that a yellow smb is to be sent up in case of emergency and a red one for normal use. Yellow bags were provided for use if divers didn’t have one. During the first day and unknown to the crew a drill was carried out where a crew member sent up a yellow smb and the crew responded as trained. It was comforting to see that they took safety so seriously. I watched as the lookout that spotted the bag raised the alarm and the chase boat was sent out. A standby diver was in the water carrying a deco tank down to the diver within 2 minutes of the yellow bag popping out the water. Very reassuring.

The Repulse was such a great dive that the majority of divers on board voted to stay on her another day longer and miss diving the two nearby Dutch submarines we were scheduled to visit.


Three large deep impressive and historical wrecks dived safely and in comfort what more can you ask for. All divers on board are looking forward to coming back on the next available trip. They have a large number of points for new wrecks many undived an unnamed to explore.


More trips planned, details on www.penetrationdivers.com