A Chinese ship has been caught plundering the World War II wrecks HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse. The two wrecks, located off the coast of Malaysia, are designated war graves and the final resting place of some 840 British sailors. The salvage vessel was photographed raising guns from the water with further items, including live ammunition, later recovered by Malaysian authorities at a local jetty.
The battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Repulse were dispatched to the Far East to counter the Japanese invasion of Singapore in 1941. The Royal Navy ships sailed alongside four destroyers, forming Force Z, but crucially did not include an aircraft carrier to provide protection from air attacks. The ships were subsequently sunk by long-range Japanese bombers. The apocryphal story of their sinking is often told as one of poor planning, the rise of air power and the decline of the big gun battleship. The truth is somewhat more complex.
Unfortunately, reports of the illegal salvage of WW2 wrecks in South East Asia are not new. The two British wrecks have already been repeatedly targeted along with the wrecks of other navies in the region, including the USS Houston and HMAS Perth.
The Chinese vessel responsible, the Chuan 68, has been linked to a host of other illegal salvaging in the area. The crew were temporarily detained in 2017 while conducting similar activities in Indonesian waters.
Battleship wrecks in particular have long been prized targets for salvage, both legal and illegal, for their valuable low-background steel. This steel, produced before atomic testing, has not been contaminated with nuclear fallout and is used in scientific instruments. The huge amount of armour plating available on battleships make them an excellent source.
This illegal salvage and continued destruction of a war grave is clearly deplorable. It’s also a depressing blow to maritime archeology and the diving community. The UK has been particularly poor in preserving its rich naval history by way of museum ships. The efforts to save Royal Navy ships has been haphazard with only a few ships preserved that have real historical significance. The US, in comparison, has a huge range of museum ships from a First World War dreadnought, multiple aircraft carriers to the entire class of Iowa-battleships.
This leaves Royal Navy shipwrecks for historians and naval enthusiasts to explore. The UK is blessed with a huge quantity of wrecks within the range of divers but no battleships of this era. The Prince of Wales and Repulse are some of the most easily accessible WW2 capital ships sitting between 55-70m in warm clear water, easily within the range of technical divers. I’ve seen reports online that the Malaysian authorities had banned diving on the wrecks due to previous illegal salvaging but I haven’t managed to get a clear picture.
To be honest I can only think of a handful of similar wrecks (that can be dived) in the world:
- IJN Nagato, Japanese battleship sunk during atomic testing, Bikini Atoll
- USS Arkansas, US battleship sunk during atomic testing, Bikini Atoll
- HMS Audacious, British battleship sunk by a mine during WW1. Malin Head, Ireland
The wreck of the Prince of Wales and Repulse are rare sites and the Malaysian government needs to be doing more to protect them. Whether or not they can or will is probably another story.
