Dive Report : HMS Maori

About the wreck (from Wikipedia):

HMS Maori (L24/F24/G24) was a Tribal-class destroyer laid down by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Limited, at Govan in Scotland on 6 June 1936, launched on 2 September 1937[1] by Mrs W. J. Jordan and commissioned on 2 January 1939. She was named after the indigenous Māori people of New Zealand, and Mrs Jordan was the wife of the New Zealand High Commissioner William Jordan.

Maori served with the Mediterranean Fleet, was involved in the pursuit and destruction of the enemy Bismarck in May 1941,[2] and served with the 14th Destroyer Flotilla during the Battle of Cape Bon in December 1941.[3] Maori, commanded by Commander R. E. Courage, RN, was attacked by enemy German aircraft and sank at her moorings in the Malta Grand Harbour on 12 February 1942 with the loss of one of her crew. She was raised and scuttled off Malta on 15 July 1945.

Location

Dive Team:

Ann (Guide & A), TBD (A), TBD (A), Svenke Wall (B) and Chris Armstrong (B).

Dive Log:

We entered the sea after scaling down a mossy ladder after crossing some rocks. You are in a semi-sheltered pool. I’d argue it as quarter-sheltered, you do not bear the full brunt of the swells, but only by a fraction. Its good to get your fins on in and get comfy. You then drop down to the seabed (1m) and swim through the gap and follow the reef along to the wreck.

I found this excellent little sketch of the wreck (from Hajoroncsok)

Swimming from the reef it takes about 5-7 minutes to reach the wreck. You firstly arrive on the bow. The bow is very broken up with some of the key ribs standing proud of the sea bed by approximately 2m. There were some beautiful schools of fish around here.

Swimming aft you then come across the wheel house. At first I was looking down and I could see some gaps between the metal work. I dropped down and could wriggle may way down. Looking at the picture above, I was roughly where the port holes started towards the bow of the ship (but on the starboard side), once I had dropped through I was in the wreck, there was a lovely long swim-through along the length of the wreck (along the length where you can see the port holes). It would have been a lovely atmospheric shot, it was very dark, but you had blue columns of light coming in from the sides from the port holes and lovely light blue exit.

But I hadn’t told my buddy, Svenke, where I had gone, so I thought that before I go swim the length of the wreck, I would pop out and go see him. So I came out, at the front of the cabin area on the port side and met up with the group. The viz was getting “bad” at this point, there were about 3 groups on the wreck so viz was about 5m (!!).

Svenke and I then carried on around the starboard side of the wheel house. There is another swim through that a small bus could go through going straight through the wreck. 

Coming around the stern we came up and over the wheel house, you can get in there and have a look about. Svenke was photographing and filming some lovely fish and crabs as we went.

Swimming back to the bow we then left the wreck and headed to the reef. We did a 5 minute stop at about 5m on the reef. At this depth we found a massive amount of foil, to pass the time we were all collecting up the foil. On the surface we found the empty box of a 50m kitchen foil! Well, we had the contents!

The final ascent involved passing through the gap into the entry “pool”. The swell had realy picked up, it felt quite significant, perhaps 1m? I was last in the group but coming through, I just floated up and let the current push me through. 

All in all, an excellent dive, visibility was “poor” for Malta, but as a UK diver more than happy with it!

YouTube Video

My dear friend Svenke shot some video and has kindly allowed me to share it: