Diving South China Sea

by

Mike Wilson

3 days after Pearl Harbour, the 10th December 1941, was a black day for the Royal Navy. Force Z had sailed out of Singapore to the east of Malaysia in an effort to deter a Japanese invasion. The fleet consisted of the battleship HMS Prince of Wales, the heavy cruiser HMS Repulse and 4 destroyers of the British and Australian Navy’s.

Prince of Wales was launched in 1939, was 227 metres long, had a displacement of 44,000 tons, a main armament of ten 14 inch guns and was capable of 28 knots. She had a complement of 1521. Repulse was launched in 1916, was 240 metres long, had displacement of 32,000 tons, a main armament of six 15inch guns and was capable of 32 knots. She had a complement of 1181. To give an idea of size, these vessels were twice the length and 8 times the displacement of the Kyarra.

The task force was under the command of a desk jockey, Admiral Sir Tom Phillips, who had not seen any active service since 1917. Phillips and Churchill considered these vessels impervious to attack by aircraft so despatched them without an aircraft carrier. Billy Mitchell, a US brigadier general and pioneer of a separate US air force, had prophesised aircraft would eclipse the battleship back in the 1920’s. He was court marshalled for his outspoken views, resigned, and died in 1936. Shame he did not live long enough to say “Told you so”.

Unfortunately the French stitched us up once again. They had handing over their Indo-China airfields intact to the Japanese. They certainly seem to like helping the enemy, you may recall they handed their entire Mediterranean fleet over to the Germans! On the morning of 10th December 1941 about a hundred aircraft consisting of reconnaissance, torpedo and bombers flew west from Saigon.

Prince of Wales was disabled early on by a torpedo which struck the hull near a propeller shaft. This distorted the shaft which then caused major damage and flooding of the engine room. Electricity generation was interrupted and water could not be pumped out. The attackers left the disabled Prince of Wales and concentrated upon Repulse. She was brilliantly operated by her commanding officer, Captain Tennant, who in the words of survivors described him manoeuvring this huge ship as if it were a little destroyer. He evaded 19 torpedoes until the Japanese thought up a cunning plan. Two squadrons attacked simultaneous at 90 degrees to each other. Repulse sank within 20 minutes of 5 torpedo strikes and 327 of her crew died. Prince of Wales sank much slower so fewer lives were lost. Admiral Phillips went down with the ship. The Japanese were so impressed by the great ships defence, two days later a Japanese aircraft to released 2 wreathes to honour of the dead of both sides.

I often wondered why divers from Singapore were of a good standard. Apart from 30 degree water temperature currents were unpredictable and often strong, and visibility near the wrecks varied from 15 to 1.5 metres. So, apart from the temperature, it was much like UK diving really.

Most dived using twin aluminium 11 litre cylinders with air or trimix (17% O2 / 40% He), and an 11 litre side mount with 70% O2 . Several others used closed circuits and I have to say I was pretty envious of the fact that they had twice the bottom time and half the required deco time!

Our dive boat, Mata Ikan, moored up on the wrecks. Trapezes were deployed on each side with deco bars at 9, 6, and 3 metres. Transfer lines went from the 9 metre bars to the mooring line. 2 extra cylinders were placed on each of the 9 metre bars, all of which had 70% O2. Descents and ascents were via the mooring line, using the hand over hand method, not the legs. This method saved effort and gas. After the required decompression plus 30 minute safety extra, we ascended up the trapeze to a granny line which ran to a lift at the stern. Once on board the crew removed stage cylinders and fins.

For those on open circuit, bottom times (start of descent to start of ascent) was 20 to 25 minutes. To optimise bottom time, by the second week I was at 50 metres plus within 2 minutes! As we were so far from recompression facilities and helicopter rescue was not an option, once deco on computer or tables were finished, an extra 30 minutes on 70% O2 was added. I was very glad I invested in a VR3 for this trip; by the end of the week everyone using a Suunto computer went into error and had to stop diving.

To give an idea of depths and times you would encounter on such a trip the following are my logged dives:

1st week
28th April 42 meters 80 minutes 46 metres 76 minutes
29th April 52 metres 77 minutes 52 metres 75 minutes
30th April 50 metres 70 minutes 49 metres 74 minutes
1st May 58 metres 89 minutes 55 metres 83 minutes
2nd May 56 metres 86 minutes 54 metres 90 minutes

2nd week
5th May 54 metres 79 minutes 49 metres 81 minutes
6th May 56 metres 79 minutes 54 metres 90 minutes
7th May 55 metres 100 minutes 53 metres 90 minutes
8th May 66 metres 100 minutes
9th May 59 metres 91 minutes

As it was so far to travel I thought it best to do 2 weeks back to back. I was pleased to have done so as by the 2nd week I was more relaxed and actually saw far more of the wrecks. Seeing two of Repulse’s 15 inch guns pointing up to the sky from the sea bed will remain one of the most awesome moments of my diving career.

Dives were impeccably organised by Jack Ingle, a BSAC National Instructor and technical diving guru. He set everything up, filled cylinders and mixed gases, and watched over everyone like mother hen. I would highly recommend this trip, but you need to be trained to Extended Range or Normoxic Trimix and be used to carrying a twin set.

We had a poignant moment when we laid a wreath on behalf of the survivors association and spread the ashes of Able Seaman Alan McIver over the Prince of Wales so he could join his mates.