Battered and bruised HMS Exeter was making best speed toward the Sunda Strait and the relative safety of the Indian Ocean. Two days earlier on 27th February 1942 she had been part of an Allied naval force soundly defeated by the Japanese at the Battle of the Java Sea. The Allies had been attempting to disrupt the Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies, now modern day Indonesia, but were decisively outgunned and Exeter herself significantly damaged. 

HMS Exeter, an 8,500 ton York class heavy cruiser, had already survived one famous naval engagement of the war. She played a key role in Battle of the River Plate, taking a battering in the process, but still managed to land the crucial hit on the Admiral Graf Spee that eventually led to her scuttling. However, Exeter’s time was up and she would not make it out the Java Sea. 

While attempting to make her escape she was cornered by four Japanese heavy cruisers. After taking an immobilising hit to the engine room her Captain made the decision to abandon ship in the hope this would prevent her capture by the enemy. The Japanese accelerated her sinking with two torpedo hits. Fortunately, the majority of her crew were able to survive the sinking. 

HMS Exeter is part of a long list of Allied ships that did not survive the Japanese advance through South East Asia with the Dutch, Australian and Americans losing a number of ships in the Java Sea.      

The wreck lay undisturbed for over six-decades until her rediscovery by a team of technical divers in 2007. Sitting on the seabed on her starboard side at around 60m she was remarkably intact displaying only the violence of her sinking. The discovery made the news and a year later the Royal Navy conducted a remembrance service over the site with survivors on-board HMS Kent. 

The World’s Biggest Grave Robbery

A 2016 follow-up expedition returned to the area to mark the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of the Java Sea and found – nothing. The wreck of HMS Exeter, along with Dutch, American and Australian wrecks had disappeared. Suspicion quickly turned to illegal salvagers. This was certainly not divers taking the odd bell or porthole. It was, and continues to be, an industrial operation. Barges, cranes and explosives are used to smash the wrecks to pieces before hauling the valuable metals and any human remains to the surface. 

The scrap is then taken to shore to be processed and in the case of wrecks of the Java Sea the human remains are purportedly dumped in mass graves.   

I’ve covered the current illegal salvage of HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse previously in 2023. The wrecks and the remains of almost 1000 sailors continue to be in serious jeopardy of disappearing forever. The most recent detailed survey in 2019, conducted by the UK’s Ministry of Defence, shows the depressing vandalism of the wrecks.

Though impressive, the wrecks of capital ships do not normally lend themselves to being great dive sites. On sinking the ships usually turn turtle, due to the weight of their deck armour and large calibre guns, ending with the hull facing the surface and the superstructure hidden beneath. This position also helps would be salvagers. The un-armoured hull allows relatively easy access, either by cutting or explosives, into the ship. It would be far more challenging to get through the armoured belt and deck if the wrecks were sitting upright on the seabed.     

The wrecks in the Java and eastern South China Sea are particularly vulnerable to illegal salvage. The seas are shallow, the average depth of the Java Sea for example is only 46m, meaning the wrecks are easily in reach of technical divers and therefore accessible to salvage. The complex shadow of colonialism extends to the overall indifference that is often shown to the wrecks by the locals involved in their salvage. 

Low Background Steel Myth?

Low background steel is the usual motivation given for the illegal salvage of shipwrecks. Low background steel refers to steel produced prior to the atmospheric testing and use of nuclear weapons. It’s prized in scientific instruments like Geiger counters and spacecraft due to the lack of contamination from the additional radioactive material released during this period. Rumour has it the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecrafts’ instruments were sourced from (legally) salvaged steel from the German High Seas fleet at Scapa Flow. 

This mystical low background steel makes for an interesting story but I find it difficult to believe. My bet is the less exciting allure of simple scrap metal. 

Shipwrecks are potentially a good source of low background steel but the key is when the steel was made over the fact it has been kept underwater. As it’s the production method of the steel that introduces the radioactive contamination rather than exposure to the atmosphere once produced. So any steel produced before 1945 is potentially just as useful.

Today background radiation has now reduced to near pre-atomic era levels having peaked in the mid-1960s. As a result the demand for low background steel has greatly reduced with most historic applications now able to use regular steel. There are also contemporary methods of making steel that do not use air from the atmosphere, removing the source of any potential radioactive contamination. 

HMS Prince of Wales, at over 40,000 tons, has enough high quality steel, copper and phosphor-bronze to make them attractive targets.

Closer to Home – Jutland

This is not a regional problem confined to the shallow seas of South East Asia – it has also been happening, less excusably for the UK government, closer to home. The Battle of Jutland, the largest score draw in naval history, took place off the coast of Denmark and has been the target of both legal and illegal salvage. The British and German wrecks stretch over 100 miles and at least 65% of them show signs of salvage.      

Any finger pointing by the UK government at foreign nation’s unwillingness or inability to protect its war graves is somewhat hypocritical when it has failed abjectly to protect the wrecks far closer to home. The battle site is the final resting place of nearly 10,000 sailors and marines from both sides and is certainly one of the most historically significant naval battles of the 20th Century

Final Thoughts

The question is: can this illegal salvage be stopped? In short, not easily. The British government’s primary legal means for protecting wrecks is by the Protection of Military Remains Act. It provides two levels of protection: controlled sites and protected places.  Controlled sites forbid all diving and include wrecks that have involved a significant loss of life such as HMS Royal Oak in Scapa Flow. Protected places allow diving but the removal of items and penetration into the wreck is forbidden – this type of legal protection has been given to HMS Repulse and HMS Prince of Wales.

This legislation has been successful in protecting wrecks within British waters but the fundamental flaw is that is not enforceable overseas. This leaves little to no protection in international or the territorial waters of countries that are not willing or able to be effective custodians.

The UN has equally attempted unsuccessful measures to protect shipwrecks and underwater history. The Convention of the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage had limited adoption, with only 76 countries becoming signatories, and only protects sites over 100 years old. 

Sadly, to end on a bleak note, I think the future doesn’t look good for the remaining wrecks.