Author of iconic shipwreck diving books such as Dive Scapa Flow and Dive Truk Lagoon – inspiring motivational speaker
Author: Rod Macdonald
Author of many books about naval history and diving shipwrecks. Public and motivational speaker, shipwreck explorer, Fellow of The Explorers Club of New York, Patron of the Britain & Ireland Chapter of the Explorers Club. Advanced Powerboat Instructor and Search & Rescue Instructor
I’ve just published (on YouTube) Part 2 of my trilogy about the sinking of HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse, almost 200nm north of Singapore on 10 December 1941 – just days after the Pearl Harbor strike.
This video covers the battle from POW’s perspective, the complicated mechanics of why this modern battleship sunk – and the wreck today, before the illegal salvors starting having a go at this sensitive war grave. The next video will concentrate on HMS Repulse.
The link is below – many thanks to Dr Andrew Fock for his assistance with imagery, and his wise words.
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. ,
The full Explorers Club report of our 2022 expedition to survey the two K-boats HMS K4 & HMS K17 in the Firth of Forth is now available in the Downloads section of this website
In 2001, I was invited on a Tri-Services exped to film the wrecks of the British battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser HMS Repulse, both sunk in a mass attack by 85 Japanese high-level and torpedo NELL and BETTY bombers on 10 December 1941 in the South China Sea, just shy of 200 miles north of Singapore.
The loss in action of the virtually brand new battleship Prince of Wales (fresh from taking on the Bismarck in the Battle of the Denmark Strait), was the first time a modern battleship had been sunk by air attack in the open sea in action – and her loss is seen as defining the end of the era of the battleship.
We had a film crew aboard – and the resulting 1-hr Timewatch documentary, The Death of the Battleship, aired on BBC in 2002, and featured many survivors. In 2013I published my book Force Z Shipwrecks of the South China Sea: HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse.
I managed to return a few times in the coming years – before sadly, despite being war graves, these wrecks, along with Dutch, Japanese, U.S. and other British naval vessels in the area, became the focus of intensive illegal salvage work. It is an awful tragedy – and all for the precious pre-Hiroshima steel and valuable non-ferrous metals.
To make my contribution to posterity, to preserve the memory of what happened and the sacrifice made, I am now putting out a 3-part series of videos about the wrecks as they were before the salvage work started – in the hope that it might be useful to naval historians in the future.
I have just published Part 1, which deals with the build up to the deployment of Force Z, the fateful sortie from Singapore and the final battle that saw both ships end up on the bottom of the South China Sea. A further video will b published in time on each of the two wrecks. Here’s the link to Pt 1:
Just posted a new video tour of one of the most famous Japanese WW2 wrecks in the Truk lagoon – the Nippo Maru. Lying in 45-50msw, the top of her bridge rises to just 24msw, a lovely depth for today’s scuba divers. She has perhaps the most photogenic bridge in the lagoon, complete with helm and engine order telegraph. On the deck forward is a Type 95 Ha-Go light tank – whilst on the deck aft are a number of field howitzers. Here’s the link:
The new print run of Shipwrecks of Scapa Flow prints are here – and they look beautiful! Size is A1, big(!), with a white border suitable for framing. If anyone wants one, signed if you like, then please get in touch – cost is £50 + P&P to your location.
Here’s a link to a short video I’ve just posted of a recent dive on a Japanese WW2 Nakajima C6N naval reconnaissance plane – Allied reporting codename MYRT. The MYRT was the fastest Japanese naval plane of WW2 with a top speed of 380-400mph, comparable to the 380mph F6F Hellcat fighter, but slower than the Vought F4U Corsair when it was finally introduced to operations.
This MYRT lies in about 20msw not far from the Blue Lagoon Dive Resort at the southern tip of Weno Island, Chuuk
Rod Macdonald 