In what has become an annual event, Gideon and his staff planned a liveaboard trip the MV White Manta to visit some more of the wrecks of the South China Sea.
This was the most ambitious trip to date, with 5 full days of diving and only GUE trained technical divers on board.
Including Gideon and Leon, there were 6 Tech 2 divers and 7 Tech 1 divers, plus 2 support divers. Just about everyone had taken a course from Gideon in the past or otherwise had some association with him.
Putting the G in GUE were visiting guests – 4 from Australia oursleves included, one from Thailand and one from China. The rest of the divers were local to Singapore.
bulk carrier ship of the ‘Handymax’ class similar to the Fidelity
At about 0030 hours on 1/7/1999, there was a collision between a Panama-registered bulk carrier "Maritime Fidelity" (GT 14,921) and a Liberia-registered Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) "New Venture" (GT 156,307) at Latitude 01 32.1'N Longitude 104 35.1'E about 30 kilometres north east of Horsburgh Lighthouse, outside of Singapore's port limits.
The "Maritime Fidelity", carrying a full load of fertilizer, was eastbound for Vietnam and the "New Venture", empty of cargo, was westbound for Singapore.
Built in 1984 with a crew of 28, the "Maritime Fidelity" had 4 cargo holds, 3 deck mounted lifting cranes was 156.7m long with a beam of 25.2m and a draught of 10.2m she displaced 40,900 tones.
The master of "Maritime Fidelity" reported that his vessel was holed at the portside and taking in water. The master of "New Venture" reported that his vessel sustained a small hole on the bulbous bow above the waterline, and was not in any danger of sinking. The vessel will make its way to Singapore.
The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) immediately informed the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN), the Police Coast Guard and salvors of the collision. An RSN ship arrived at the scene to render assistance to the vessels. The Maritime Rescue and Co-ordination Centre at Port Klang, Malaysia, was also informed of the incident.
At 0338 hours, the master of "Maritime Fidelity" reported that his vessel was still taking in water and was in danger of sinking. He decided to abandon ship. All 28 officers and crew members from the "Maritime Fidelity" were rescued by the RSN ship and brought back to Singapore. No injury to any of the crew members was reported.
At about 0740 hours the salvors at scene reported that the "Maritime Fidelity" was still taking in water and sinking.
The Wreck Due to the wreck being a hazard to other ships the bridge was removed by Salvors in early November 1999, as well as removal of 450 tons of fuel and the cutting of the Derrick and 3 deck cranes.
Sketch of the wreck
The main hull (marked by buoys) now sits approximaely 50m from the Bridge; which is resting on a sandy bottom at about 44m. The bridge superstructure is relatively undamaged (accept for salvage works), the roof of the bridge section is approximately 37m.
HMS Repulse was one of two very fast battlecruisers ordered by the Admiralty in 1915 the other was HMS Renown.
In World War I, Repulse's combat service with the Battle Cruiser Squadron was limited to a skirmish with German light cruisers in the Helgoland Bight on November 17, 1917. Following the war, her belt armor was increased to nine inches.
During the interwar period she made several long cruises, including one around the world, and she served with the Home and Mediterranean fleets.
When World War II began, Repulse served on convoy duty in the Atlantic, and in April 1940 she took part in various actions during the German invasion of Norway.
In October 1941, she was sent to the Far East with HMS Prince of Wales as the nucleus of the Eastern Fleet under Admiral Sir Tom Phillips. They arrived at Singapore on December 2. Six days later, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and began their drive into Southeast Asia.
On December 8, Force "Z"—the two capital ships and destroyers HMS Electra, Express, and Tenedos, and HMAS Vampire—sortied to attack Japanese forces in southern Thailand. Force "Z" was sighted by submarine I-68 the next afternoon, but avoided further detection until 02:20 on December 10.
December 10, 1941
Shortly before dawn, the Japanese launched thirty-four land-based bombers and fifty-one torpedo-bombers, which attacked the two capital ships at 11:15. The planes made three separate attacks, and Repulse sank at 12:35, an hour before Prince of Wales.
The Dives
Dive 1
Dive 2
Dive 3
Dive 4
Date:
16/10/2008
16/10/2008
17/10/2008
17/10/2008
Max:
54m
53m
52m
53m
Avg:
25m
23m
23m
26m
BT:
21mins
20mins
20mins
22mins
RT:
50mins
54mins
53mins
47mins
BG:
21/35
21/35
21/35
21/35
Deco:
EAN 50
EAN50
EAN50
EAN50
Stern Torpedo Damage
Bow Rails
Midships Torpedo Damage
Port-side Propeller
Center Propeller Shaft
Midships Torpedo Damage
Midships looking Aft
Midships looking Foreward
Midships Torpedo Damage Foreward Main Guns Foreward Main Guns
Foreward Main GunsMidships SuperstructureMagestic Bow (Photo courtesy AG)
The wreck lies 38nm south of Tioman, one hour east of Pulau Aur, in a completely upright position in 64m of water. The identity of this wreck is a mystery. She is believed to be a post war British (ESSO?) oil tanker sunk sometime after 1957 but has never been positively identified despite being dived since the 1980's.
Vessels very similar to the Aur Tanker
The wreck's interior is completely stripped and she appears to have been deliberately scuttled. The anchor is out on the sand and there are numerous outward facing blast holes with the metal blown outwards. These blast holes are circular and about a meter in diameter. Possibly suggesting that she was a victim of piracy. Pulau Aur has a history of piracy which continues to this day:
01.04.2009 Posn: 02:30.10N - 104:24.20E, 6 nm NW of Pulau Aur, Malaysia. Five pirates with masks and armed with knives boarded a tug towing a barge underway. They stole crew cash and personal belongings and escaped.
29.01.1998 Pirates stole over 1 mm litres of gasoil from a tanker in Malaysian waters this month, after a gang of between 7 and 10 men boarded the 3,077 dwt Tioman near Pulau Aur. The assailants attacked, beat, bound and blindfolded the crew, and removed all the communication equipment from the ship, owned by SEA Resources of Singapore. An unidentified tanker than pulled up and offloaded around one-third of Tioman's cargo of gasoil.
The Wreck The stern house has much to see and good penetration. You can swim from the stern steering room through the aft house to the front of the house. There are two hallways that run the length of the accommodation section and each hall way has rooms leading off to port and starboard.
The hall ways also connects to the engine room and turbine rooms in board. The cold room still has cork on the wall and this can be entered at the front of the aft house. The engine room can be accessed via a sky light in the center of the stern house or via hallways that run the length of the aft house. The engine has a round blast hole that is at about 63m and the sand is at 65m.
The engine room is full of equipment. You will find a machine shop on the port side and a storage area on the starboard side with metal in racks. There are plastic names plates for the electrical controls in English but nothing that has provided a name. An RCA Radar set was once recovered with a stamped date of 1957 so it seems this wreck made it through the war. The portholes were made in Rainhill UK.
The midships house has nothing in it and the bow is quite buckled and blasted, worth a dive but not much to see. Once again plenty of rooms but all empty. Here is a Google Sketchup model of our dives through the midships house.
In what has become an annual event, Gideon and his staff planned a liveaboard trip the MV White Manta to visit some more of the wrecks of the South China Sea.
