This new shipwreck located by a team of divers from the SEA explorers club, was found in the Straights of Mallacca. The wreck is of an as yet unknown cargo vessel of approx 2500 GRT. It was accidentally discovered by a team of tech divers from the club. They were using a local fishing boat to search for another wreck from WW2.
The wreck, a British submarine had been lost after being attacked by a Japanese aeroplane. The team had been able to identify the local area in which it had been working at the time of the attack. Then after studying the marks with the help of local fishermen, they chartered a local boat and headed out.
Straights of Mallaca
The team on the same trip was also able to identify another Japanese submarine and a large boiler believed to have come from a steamship sunk by British mines.
The cargo ship itself sits in 60m of water in the area of Penang, Malaysia. She has an extremely large crane lying next to the main hold. The cargo of the vessel has spilled into the sand in and around the crane. This is probably as a result of the sinking. The bridge however sits upright, and as a result the masts are now covered with nets, so caution is needed.
The team, comprising of Fri, Tim, and Jeremy was led by Tim Lawrence. This team are all planning further trips in the near future to discover more about this wreck and its history.
How deep is the Brittish submarine? The submarine my father was on in WW2 was also sunk in the Straights of Malacca near Phuket. The USS Grenadier SS210 was fatally damaged by a Japanesse aeroplane. They were captured by the Japanese and taken to Penang (Light Street Convent) then to Singapore and finally to Japan where he was liberated at the end of the war. I have heard that one of the ships they sank is a dive site. I have been hoping that one day the Grenadier will be found. I started diving in 1965 in hopes of diving on it, but my age has now limited what kind of dives I can do.