| Wreck Diving:
Labuan, F.T.
Labuan island is located 115 km south of Kota Kinabalu and 8km off
the mainland of Sabah at the northern mouth of Brunei. Its deep
harbour and duty free port attract shipping from all over the world
and in 1990, Labuan was declared the International Offshore Finance
Centre of Malaysia.
It’s history which has always been intimately entwined with maritime
traffic, begun over three centuries ago with the first commercial
transactions between Chinese junk ownders and the Sultan of Brunei.
Since then, Britain and other countries have used Labuan as a trading
and fuel station and then during World War II, Labuan was the scene
of bitter conflicts between the Japanese and Allied air and Naval
forces. Although three islands – Pulau Kumaran, Pulau Rusukan Kecil
and Pulau Rusukan Besar are designated as Marine Parks, the special
underwater attractions of Labuan are its shipwrecks.
Four well researched and regularly dived wrecks to the southwest
make this area “the wreck diving center of Malaysia”. Two of the
wrecks are from World War II, the US Navy minehunter, USS Salure
known as the “American Wreck” and the Dutch vessel SS De Klerk known
as the “Australian Wreck”, which was thought to been sunk by the
Royal Australian Air Force.
The other two wrecks were sunk in the 1980’s, the Philippine stern
trawler MV Mabini Padre, locally called the “Blue Water Wreck” and
the Tung Hwang, a Japanese freighter locally known as the “Cement
Wreck”. All four ships lie in 30m-35m of water, with the top portions
between 8m-12m. The water visibility varies greatly season to season
from 6m-20m.
The type of diving on these wrecks ranges from novice to experienced
wreck diving with penetrations possible into the hulls. Diving the
wrecks can be arranged through Borneo Divers & Sea Sports (SABAH)
Sdn Bhd who have a PADI 5-Star Dive Centre located at Labuan. Here
they run PADI courses from Discover Scuba to Divemaster also catering
for TDI Nitrox and Advanced Wreck Diving courses.
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