I am saddened to report that despite these two famous K-boat wrecks in the Firth of Forth being designated as Protected Places under our Protection of Military Remains Act, between 2018 and our visit in 2022, there has been significant illegal salvage work carried out by unscrupulous salvors. The detached non-ferrous command bridge of K17 had for as long as I had dived it, been lying on the seabed beside the submarine. It is now gone.

The bow of K4 had been intact in 2018, but it has now had the 4 valuable non-ferrous torpedo tubes ripped out of it.

The illegal salvage of war graves is an increasing phenomenon. Locally, the Battle of Jutland wrecks in the North Sea have seen a lot of salvage work over the years, and some of our local shipwrecks around the north east of Scotland have also had attention from salvors. In the South China Sea, the wrecks of HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse have been pillaged, whilst in the Java Sea, the wrecks of British and Dutch WWII warships, along with a US submarine and Japanese vessels have also been heavily salvaged. ,