Mystery Deep Wreck Found in Malta

DSAT Instructors Stuart Jones and Jonathan Thomas of TecDeepBlue in Malta are doing further dives on the unknown wreck that was discovered at 115m off the coast of Malta. In May of last year, dives were made looking for the wreck of the HMS Olympus, a submarine sunk in 1942. The wreck was not as hoped the Olympus but it turned out to be an wreck which is as yet unidentified, but is possibly a fleet sloop from WW1. The dive was made on open circuit with an 18 min bottom time. The dives were made successfully with the aid of other DSAT Trimix divers, Uwe Vogel, Mark Shillings, and Simon Ross Deveaux. Other dives were made on the wreck with renowned TDI Instructor Mark Powell, and Paul Duckworth diving support, in order to try to identify the wreck. Now that the season is upon us again we will be trying to make more dives to the wreck to get a positive ID. We extend an open invitation to suitably qualified DSAT Tec divers to join us in identifying this enigmatic wreck.

UPDATE – One Year later!

Stuart Jones and Jonathan Thomas, of TecDeepBlue a DSAT facility in Malta, both DSAT Tec Trimix Instructors and deep wreck enthusiasts have once again been involved in diving an unknown wreck which is on the seabed 4 miles off the coast of Malta in 115m of water.

The first visits to the wreck were two years ago, when Stuart Jones, Jonathan Thomas and Mark Powell did the initial dives on the wreck. However identification has proved difficult and the wreck’s identity remains a mystery.  On the 4^th June TecDeepBlue in conjunction with Divers from ANDI Europe, led by Helmuth Biechl (noted for his involvement with the  famous Carpathia expedition, diving in the North Sea at depths up to 156M), visited the wreck with video cameras and got some excellent footage of the wreck.  The divers Helmuth Biechl, Jordi Mateo, Thomas Heinemeyer (camera man) and Dirk Berben , using Inspiration/Megalodon rebreathers and utilising bonex scooters, spent 25 mins on the bottom at 110-115m and concluded the dives after 3-4 hour runtimes, with the first deco stops at 80m. The diluent , during the bottom phase of the dive, was a 8/68 trimix and a variety of diluent switches and bail out strategies were employed by the various divers in order to safely ascend from depth.

The dives were set up and supported by TecDeepBlue and involved over 20 deco cylinders, multiple support divers, and a team of 8, including, Bernhard Leicher and Bernard Jungwird. The dives were completed without any negative incidents and managed to provide exactly the kind of footage that is necessary to be able to identify such an old wreck. The video of the wreck is being studied intensely for clues as to the identity of the wreck, at the moment the evidence is pointing towards the wreck being from the First World War.  At the depth that she lies at, the visibility drops dramatically, she is covered in deep water corals and seems to be in a couple of pieces. All these factor’s add to the challenge of identifying which of Malta’s many wartime wrecks, this is.

TecDeepBlue is still active in searching for and diving targets that will be of interest to technical divers from all over the world. It is hoped that the search for the identity of this ship will lead us to be able to reveal her full story in due course. We will keep you all posted.