ThaiWreckDiver.com

Dear Divers, 

We’re off to the USS Lagarto and then hopefully Kinrei Maru in a few days. 

This trip is nearly full but we have a trip in august visiting Seacrest, Tottori and some very promising new marks . there’s lot of spaces available for this one. 

Leaves Koh Tao on August 1^st , six full days of diving, returning late on the 7^th 

We’ve been diving with Bruce Konefe lately, a cave nutter who’s been finding and exploring Thai caves for years. We’re happy to offer a joint operation to visit the caves in the south. We can provide all the logistical support, Bruce the training and expertise. If you’re interested especially in our down time in Nov/Dec let us know.

Yours,  Jamie Macleod ,

MV Trident Shipwreck Research Vessel , Koh Tao, Thailand

          (Picture Credit:- Hisashi Noma, ‘Japanese Merchant Ships at War’, publ.2004)

Dear Divers,

We‘ve just returned from an exploratory trip to the east of Samui.

Now we’ve definitely found the Tottori Maru along with the Sakura and Nanmei Marus.

These three were sunk in 1945 by USS Hammerhead, so we’ll be naming this trip the Hammerhead trip.

We can leave from Koh Tao or Samui, it’s an easy over-night steam to the first maru.

They’re all close together in 70m of very clear water.Confirmed dates for the next few months;

April 19- 23^rd – Vlado and Pornsri

May 3 -6^th – HTMS Pangan and Tanker Maru

May 15 – 21 st – Lagarto, Seacrest and Kinrei Maru – John Chatterton’s on this one

August 20^th -25^th , either Vlado / Pornsri , or Seacrest/Lagarto , to be decided.

The weather’s good until November so any other dates, say the word and we’ll put a trip together

Yours, Jamie

MV Trident, Koh Tao     www.techthailand.com

Hello guys,

We finally located and dived the Seacrest last week. 

She lies about 40nm east of Songkla in on her port side in approx 50m. the derrick and wheelhouse are missing  but  otherwise she’s intact, just a little battered.

Because she’s shallow, marine life has settled on the wreck  in a big way, some reef sharks and a big leopard shark as well as  lots of snapper etc

Obviously this is a well known fishing spot as there are dozens of snagged fishing boat anchors scattered about.  

We took some great Hi Def video but I’m told we can’t take stills from that format

We’ll visit again soon and try and find the missing derrick and wheelhouse and get some still photos, rest assured we  are fully aware that although this wreck isn’t a grave, she needs to be treated with respect.

Yours, Jamie

MV Trident, Koh Tao     www.techthailand.com 

Dear Divers,

Our last exploratory trip was very successful.

The first wreck lies on her port side in 68m , 52m to the top.  By markings on the life raft, we know she is called the ‘Pornsri’ and sank between 1983-93. Not much growth and silt and lots to explore. She’s quite an old ship, well appointed with brass telegraphs and helm, a big one , 6000 tons plus.  The second wreck , a few miles away, is even larger, this time on her starboard side in slightly shallower water. She’s a very old wreck, a twin super-structured  pre- war freighter but sunk post –war, probably about 40 years ago.  She’s a twin super – structured freighter, the  bell tells us she’s called ‘Vlado’. MV Trident’s first bell! 

Both these wrecks are in an area of clear water and easily reached on a four day live-aboard, we’ll be organizing regular trips all through the summer months, If you’re interested , keep an eye out for dates on the ‘trips’ page of www.techthailand.com  or give us a date and we’ll build a trip around you.  Next month we are finally filming the USS Lagarto with john Chatterton and Richie Kohler, after that we have a 3D/3N trip planned for March 14^th  - 18^th , spaces available  

Yours, Jamie

Subject: news from MV Trident

Dear Divers,

Our last trip was to the wreck we call the Bigboy to try and identify her
and check out a few nearby marks.

We’ve only dived this wreck for two days previously so only knew that she
was an old 4000 ton + twin superstructure freighter upright in 68m, damage
to the starboard amid-ships.

The first two dives we noticed that the damage was right across the hull,
the back of the ship is completely broken. We found a lot of Dutch ceramics
and Singaporean and Korean bottles. The ship is definitely WW2 vintage, lots
of brass fittings and no plastic wiring, but the bottles looked newer.

We left a buoy on the wreck and traveled only a mile to another mark. This
wreck turned out to be a ship’s bow and a few metres of deck.

When we returned to the Bigboy my first dive was to the bow for the first
time where I was sure it looked too short, it’s hard to tell as it’s draped
in many layers of nets. Even with video footage it was difficult to be sure.

My theory was that the bow belonged to the Bigboy which some of our divers
thought was hilarious and they royally took the piss for the next few days.

We agreed that the only way to prove or bust this myth was to find another
stern half or cut the nets off the Bigboy’s bow to show it’s there or not.
This could wait until next time as we had other marks to explore.

On the way home we checked a few more marks, nothing very interesting, some
wooden wrecks of fishing boats, no porcelain unfortunately, and then a very
big wooden wreck close to Koh Tao, full of cargo, bottles, plates, a 150k
brass propeller. Non of the bottles were recognizable or modern and there’s
no plastics again.

When we returned to Koh Tao I asked some of the locals if they remembered a
wooden cargo boat sinking about 40years ago only 8 miles out, but no-one
did. One fishermen asked what else we found and when I told him about the
Bigboy he told me he knew all about it.

It turns out in the 1950’s a freighter hit another one sixty miles off Koh
Tao. The freighter lost it’s bow and sunk very quickly, the bow floated
away while the first freighter, damaged but not fatally, picked up the
crew.

The fisherman told me she was a Singaporean freighter carrying a cargo of
Dutch china plates, which the fisherman told me they nicknamed the ‘
Sangolok Wreck’.

I reckon that’s it so there’s a few divers that need to report for a hat
eating session very soon.

Our next trip to another area where we have two known wrecks, the HTMS
Pangan and a post war tanker and six undived marks will be leaving on Friday
evening 20th October.

If you’re interested let me know.

Jamie Macleod, MV Trident

http://www.techthailand.com/ 

If you haven’t seen our video, try the link below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbbtzCrTJU0

Mv Trident shipwreck finds made In order of date of discovery.

1/ Tottori Maru, 5,900 ton sunk USS Hammerhead 1944, lies on starboard side max 55m, Japanese Hellship

2/ HTMS Pangan, RTN vessel, 2,500 tom lies on port side in 60m, sunk in storm 1961

3/ ‘Tanker Maru’, unidentified post 1966 Japanese tanker, 3,000 ton , upright in 60m

4/ ‘Brick maru’ , 1500 ton freighter upright in 55m., carrying bricks and tiles, looks to have been sunk by surface fire

5/ Bitumen Maru’ 500 ton freighter , upright in 55m, carrying bitumen (still!) , as above

6/ ‘Big Boy” Maru ,unidentified Japanese 4000 ton freighter upright in 68m, torpedo damage to starboard side

7/ Possible Akita Maru,, sunk by Dutch sub 019, huge Japanese freighter upright in 80m

8/ Singha barge, ( possibly known as Davy Jones Wreck) . Small engineless barge carrying 1965 Singha bottles, that according to one dive shop was sunk by rogue US Balao sub that somehow didn’t know that the war was over 20years after the Japanese surrender…

More wreck info after the next MV trident rip on the 7th October 2006

Jamie Macleod, MV Tridenthttp://www.techthailand.com/