Other Ship Wrecks In Thailand

We have had a look at the main shipwrecks around Pattaya, Chonburi, Thailand. Let's have a brief look at another couple of ship wreck dives in other parts.

The King Cruiser - Phuket

The King Cruiser sank in the waters off of Phuket near Phi Phi island on the 4th of May 1997, giving Phuket it's first decent wreck dive. This recent wreck lies upright on the sandy bottom and comes up to within 10m of the surface of the water. It lies about 1 and a half hours offshore from Phuket and about 2hours from Krabi by the normal 'slow boat' trips, and is a popular destination for divers from both places. Though the  wreck was almost completely intact after being release from the salvors, it is of low cost construction and deteriorating quickly.

Barracudas and Whale-Sharks are often seen patrolling the wrecked boat, with the usual large grouper and lionfish lurking in the darker more 'technical' penetration areas. The Big open passage ways, car deck, and bridge area are relatively safe penetration for all but the most rusty divers, but strong currents and rough seas due to it's exposed location, generally make this site more suitable for experienced recreational divers. Tech divers will find this a simple wreck to explore. There are some tough wrecks in Thailand.

The Pak-1 - or the Vertical Wreck (vertical no more)

The 25-year-old tanker owned by the PAK Line originally sank at on Aug 25, 1996, 50 kilometers west of Koh Chang in Trat (or Trad) province, on its way to Vietnam. From an interview with one of the three survivors, there were 10 people in the ship at the time of the sinking. One survivor still works at the fish port in Bangkok.  He said that the sinking occurred at about 3.00 in the morning while the ship was in the midst of a fierce storm near the Cambodian border. Most of the crew was sleeping in the main cabins near the stern; all the survivors were sleeping in a cabin near the bow. The guy said he heard a loud noise from the stern and the ship sank swiftly. All the crew in the stern cabins died.  The ship had sunk in a most unusual vertical position, with it's stern on the seabed 60meters deep and it's bows just 5meters below the surface, in an area of sometimes outstanding 50meter plus visibility. This would indeed make a fine dive site. First dives revealed extensive damage to the bows, obviously caused by a substantial impact with a large vessel, and later rumored have been caused by the Thai Navy vessel involved in the initial search for the tanker after it sank.

As word of this outstanding dive site spread divers from around the world flocked to Pattaya to visit this unique shipwreck. There was concern that someday the gas in the tanks though to be holding the ship up would escape and the vessel would sink, Instead, the opposite happened. Sometime during February 2001. The vessel re-floated with the bows initially protruding at least 6 meters out of the water, and off she went 'sailing' again, drifting in the Ocean currents off in the general direction of Cambodia. Divers on one of the last vertical wreck live-aboard trips were treated to the outstanding treat of being able to dive under the stern of the vessel at a depth of 50meters and look up through the rudder and propeller along the entire length of the keel to the surface. - It had to be re-sunk for obvious reasons; a real delight for divers but a serious danger to shipping.

With the PAK-1 now drifting dangerously in shipping lanes, and with the vessels insurers apparently doing nothing, the Thai Navy acted quickly formulated a plan to remove this new hazard to shipping. Two large tugs and a warship or two for escort, dragged the vessel back towards Thailand to sink it in an area where it would not be a hazard to shipping. Eventually, a location for the sinking was designated a few hours sailing South from Mae Phim Beach in Rayong Province . The explosives experts moved in and planted charges. Admiral Oknit pressed the detonator button, but none of the original charges detonated. Explosives experts gingerly re-entered to re-set the now live charges. A second attempt to detonate the charges resulted in 1 of the 4 charges exploding, blowing off one of the massive 300ton LPG tanks. The net result was that instead of sinking, the vessel was now relieved of another 300 tons, reared 20m out of the water. Cables were attached work went on, and eventually, and with considerable trouble they relieved the vessel of both its tanks and got it to sink.

This is now almost exclusively a very technical dive site. Your average recreational diver will feel very unsure dropping down onto this shipwreck in bad visibility and high seas.

Depth to the top of the wreck 25m; depth to the sea bed=42m - Visibility 1-15m; Best choice of gas is Nitrox 28.

Thermocline at approx 25-35m. Very good(30m+) viz above Thermo cline.

Very low visibility (1-3m) below Thermocline. Like most thermoclines this varies in depth and severity. It might not be there when you dive it, or its effects might be much worse. Take torches of course!. Note that the main mooring line is connected to the bow. There is sod all of interest there, so look out for the crew quarters on descent.

The tip of the aft radar mast is sometimes visible at about 25m. Veer off to this bit before hitting the deck. The Aft crew area still appears painted white. The stern area of the PAK-1 has fantastic penetration possibilities, and is an immediate gear off to get to the good areas. But now, with everything at beautifully reasonable depths, a twin set plus deco should see the average techie inside for 45mins plus. Watch out for silt!

Writing by Steve Burton (Deep/Technical expert) - more at www.thaiwreckdiver.com