The Sattakut was laid down at Commercial Ironworks in Portland Oregon. She was launched on February 27th, 1944 and commissioned into the US Navy as a Landing Craft Infantry (L)arge. She saw acion during the following campaigns:
Western Caroline Operations- Capture and occupation of Southern Pulau Island from the 6th of September to the 14th of October 1944 as LCI(L).
She was reclassified as LCI(G)unboaton the 31st December 1944, and participated in the the Iwo Jima operation which involved the assualt and ocupation from 19th of February to the 3rd of March 1945.
She then participated in the Okinawa Sunto operation from the 26th of March to the 14th of June 1945. During this operation she was again reclassified to LCI (M)ortar, on the 30th of April 1945.
LCI (L)(G)(M) recieved 3 battlestars for service during World War II.
Her statistics are :
Displacement- 246 tons light, 419 tons loaded
Speed- 16 knots max
Length- 48m
beam- 7m
Endurance 4000miles@12 knots 110tons of fuel.
Manpower complement- 4 Officers, 24 enlisted Men and a troop capacity of 6 Officers and 182 Enlisted Men.
Cargo capacity – 75 tons
Armament during WWII :
5 single 20mm guns on the bow mounted one each on port and starboard aft of the wheelhoouse. On some pharmacy-no-rx.net LCI(L) two 50 cal machine guns were also added.
She was commissioned into the Thai Navy as the HTMS Sattakut in 1946, and was sunk in Koh Tao on the 18th of June 2011 at 16h00.
She lies approximately 40m south of Hin Peewee with her bow facing Northwest, Sitting upright. The top of the wreck is around 20m and and the bottom is at about 32m. When she was sank as a part of an aftificial reef project last year she landed on her starboard side in a different location to where she is now, it was only after a few months that her position was corected and she was put back upright that more and more people started to dive on her. Now it is one of the most popular dive sites on Koh Tao.
She is a great dive for levels Advanced Open Water and above, but more importantly she is a perfect training dive for technical diver training, and as she is a very open wreck with lots of entry and exit points she makes a good training wreck for courses such as PADI Wreck Diver and TDI Advanced Wreck courses.
