On 10th December 1941, just days after the Japanese struck Pearl harbour, the Royal Navy suffered its largest loss in a single engagement when it lost the capital ships HMS Prince of Wales, and HMS Repulse. Together with HMS Electra, HMS Express, HMS Tenedos and HMAS Vampire, they were known as Force Z and were sent to Singapore to disuade the Japanese from entering the war. Tragically, this was not the case, and over 840 officers and men were lost on these two ships.
The expedition to dive these two great battleships departed from Singapore on the 25th September 2005 on board MV Mata Ikan. The expedition was organised by Jack Ingle, and divers used both open circuit scuba, and closed circuit KISS rebreathers for the dives. HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse lie approximately 70nm off the East coast of Malaysia, and on the way to these sites we made a warmup dive on the supertanker Seven Skies.
HMS Repulse under attack with HMS Prince of Wales ahead.
The Wrecks
The Seven Skies was a 98,000 ton Swedish supertanker, which sits in 65m of water, with the bridge in around 35m and the top of the funnel in 20m! She was sunk in the 1969 due to a fire on board - possibly due to lightning. The superstructure area on the stern is intact with plenty of internal access and this makes a fantastic warm-up dive.
The Seven Skies
HMS Repulse was commissioned on 18 August 1916 and weighs over 37,000 ton, with a length of over 250 meters. She lies on her starboard side in 55 meters of water. The port-side hull is approximately 35 meters deep and the propellers and rudder are at about 38 meters.
HMS Repulse
HMS Prince of Wales weighs approximately 40,000 tonns with a length of 227 meters. She was commissioned in March 1941, just months before she was sunk in the South China Seas less than one hour after HMS Repulse. Out of a crew of 1612 men, 20 officers, 280 sailors and 27 marines were lost. She is 8 nm from HMS Repulse, and lies upside down in 70m of water.
HMS Prince of Wales
The Maritime Fidelity was sunk in July 1999. She was a freighter carrying liquid fertilizer, and was involved in a collision with another vessel. The wreck has been wire swept to 20m as she sits in a busy shipping lane. The top of the wreck is in 30m while the bottom is in approximately 40m.
The Dives
It should be noted that both HMS Repulse, and HMS Prince of Wales are war graves, and as such are protected under international treaties. Diving on these sites should be conducted with the utmost respect for those who gave their lives for their country, and entering these wrecks is not permitted!
Map of South China Seas showing the positions of the wrecks dived.
We carried out two dives on the Seven Skies while enroute to HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse. There is easy penetration on the wreck, and you can easily get into the engine room and the bridge area. Since the wreck is enourmous, we concentrated on the stern of the ship.
Five dives were conducted on HMS Repulse. The shotline was tied in the midships torpedo hole from where you could dive on either the forward or stern section of the ship. The ship lies on its port side with the deck at an angle of around 30 degrees off the seabed. The forward main guns are easily visible with number 1 gun pointing down into the seabed (to port) and number 2 gun pointing out of the seabed (to startboard). The bow has a magnificent sweeping shape and is a great sight with the flagstaff just touching the seabed. She has many other guns along the length of the ship - many anti aircraft guns that would have been firing at the Japanese attackers until the last minute.
Only one dive was carried out on HMS Prince of Wales due to its depth, and the fact that it is completely upside down. We dived on the stern with the anchor line tied into the outer starboard propellor. The four propellors are enormous, and there is a huge amount of life living around them. We dropped down to the port side at 70m. Rows of portholes can be seen and the visibility is quite poor at around 3 or 4 meters.
The last days diving was spent with two dives on the Maritime Fidelity on the way back to Singapore. This is a very new wreck and there are many reminders of that fact when penetrating inside the wreck. In the accomodation area, a cloakroom still has the jackets hanging on the wall. "Safety First" signs on the wall of the engine room seem a little out of place given the ship sank following a collision with another vessel, and the "No Smoking" signs are strictly adhered to by the sea life.
| Dive # | Location | Max Depth | Bottom Time | Total Time |
| Dive 1 | Seven Skies | 46 m | 33 min | 97 min |
| Dive 2 | Seven Skies | 50 m | 34 min | 96 min |
| Dive 3 | 36 min | 113 min | ||
| Dive 4 | HMS Repulse | 52 m | 30 min | 102 min |
| Dive 5 | HMS Repulse | 55 m | 36 min | 121 min |
| Dive 6 | HMS Repulse | 52 m | 34 min | 123 min |
| Dive 7 | HMS Prince of Wales | 68 m | 24 min | 111min |
| Dive 8 | HMS Repulse | 53 m | 36 min | 135 min |
| Dive 9 | Maritime Fidelity | 40 m | 50 min | 110 min |
| Dive 10 | Maritime Fidelity | 32 m | 24 min | 66 min |
All rebreather dives were conducted using a 10/50 trimix diluent and the scrubber was only changed once per day (approximately 4 hours use).
Visibility on the wrecks was generally very good, being 15m to 20m on the wrecks of the Seven Skies, and HMS Repulse. On the HMS Prince of Wales, the visibility was only a few meters on the wreck, while above it was much clearer. During the decompression on HMS Prince of Wales, we could clearly read the name on the bow of the dive boat from our first decompression stop at 39m. Visibility on the Maritime Fidelity was also only a few meters even though it was much better only just above the wreck.
