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HMS Greetham

A wooden hulled 1950s minesweeper that became a Libyan patrol boat, then a Maltese tour boat in Kit Kat colours, then a wreck on her own moorings in Sliema Creek. Broken up as a navigation hazard in 2011, so there is very little left to dive.

Advanced🚢 Wreck15 to 17 mShore access: hardPopularity: not divedAlso called Greetham, Lady Davina, Lady Davinia, M2632, Zuara
Plan this dive

Sea conditions

100

Excellent right now

Flat, sheltered and calm

Forecast for the site, updated 02:18 AM

Waves
n/a
Wind
3 km/h
SSW, gusts 6
Swell
n/a
Sea temp
n/a
air 25 °C

Next 7 days

Today☁️100 ? m
11 SW
Sat☁️100 ? m
11 SSW
Sun🌦️92 ? m
5 E
Mon☁️100 ? m
9 WNW
Tue☁️99 ? m
17 NW
Wed🌤️94 ? m
22 E
Thu🌤️100 ? m
10 NNE

Sunrise 06:46, sunset 19:04

Exposed to wind and swell from: NE (45°). Deep inside Marsamxett Harbour and sheltered from almost everything, with only a north easterly pushing any chop into the creek. Visibility is the limiting factor rather than sea state, and it drops sharply after rain or a busy ferry hour. Best season: Any time of year in terms of shelter, though the site is effectively of historical interest only.

The dive

This is a site with an excellent biography and, these days, almost nothing to show for it. Greetham was one of the small Ham class inshore minesweepers, built at Buckie in Moray of wood and non magnetic fittings so that mines would not notice her. She was loaned and then given to Libya, renamed Zuara and used as a patrol vessel, then sold on to a Maltese cruise operator who renamed her Lady Davinia and, for a memorable few years, painted her in red and white livery that everyone on the Sliema seafront knew on sight.

Laid up in Sliema Creek after being decommissioned in 2007, she quietly filled and went down on her moorings in 2008. For a short while she was a novelty dive: shallow, easy to reach from the Sliema shore, and quickly claimed by marine life. Divers of that era described an odd, disorientating little wreck, wooden and rotting, with a wheelhouse frozen mid voyage and a child's chair sitting on the sand beside the hull.

That is where the story stops. In 2011 she was declared a hazard to navigation and partially broken up, and what remains is scattered and unremarkable. Treat this entry as history rather than a dive plan. If you want a wreck in Marsamxett, the X127 lighter off Manoel Island is the one to book.

  • Three lives in one hull: Royal Navy sweeper, Libyan patrol boat, Maltese tour boat
  • The famous red and white Sliema cruise livery, now only a memory
  • Sank quietly on her own moorings rather than in any drama
  • Briefly one of Malta's easiest shore accessible wrecks
  • Largely removed in 2011, so the entry is a history note more than a dive

Typical plan

Not recommended as a target dive. If a local operator is still running anything at this spot, it would be a single tank, shallow, fifteen metres or so, with a surface marker up throughout because of ferry traffic, and expectations set low. Divers wanting a Marsamxett wreck are far better served by the X127 lighter off Manoel Island at 5 to 22 m.

What the bottom looks like

061217m🤿123140 m from entry
  1. 1Mooring chain leading out from the steps8 m deep · 25 m out
  2. 2Scattered remains of the hull after salvage17 m deep · 85 m out
  3. 3Silty creek floor17 m deep · 110 m out
Cartoon cross-section along the usual route. Depths are approximate.

Soft silty sand on the floor of Sliema Creek, littered with harbour debris and salvage remnants.

Who you might meet

Getting in and staying safe

Historically a shore dive: steps down from the Sliema waterfront below the Fortina, with a ladder for the exit, and a mooring chain to follow out to the hull. Parking along the Strand is metered and fiercely contested. Since the 2011 clearance there is no reason to plan a dive here, and the creek carries constant ferry, water taxi and yacht traffic, so anyone poking about should do it with a marker up and eyes on the surface.

  • Very little of the wreck remains after the 2011 clearance
  • Constant ferry, water taxi and pleasure craft traffic in Sliema Creek
  • Poor and variable visibility in enclosed harbour water
  • Sharp broken timber, jagged metal and salvage debris
  • Old mooring chains and snagged line
  • Surface current through the creek can be surprisingly strong
  • Harbour water quality after heavy rain

A bit of history

HMS Greetham, pennant M2632, was one of ninety three Ham class inshore minesweepers, built by Herd and McKenzie at Buckie in Moray and launched on 19 April 1954. She entered service in 1955, was lent to the Libyan Navy in 1962 and transferred permanently in 1966, serving as the patrol vessel Zuara until 1973. Sold to Captain Morgan Cruises in Malta, she was renamed Lady Davinia and worked the tourist trade for decades, latterly in a striking red and white paint scheme. Decommissioned in 2007 and laid up in Sliema Creek, she sank at her moorings in 2008, the exact date unrecorded. She became a brief but popular shallow dive before being named a navigational hazard and partially demolished in 2011.

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Further reading: Wikipedia, HMS Greetham (M2632) · Malta, a wonderful dive: the Lady Davinia · Wrecksite, Lady Davinia · Military Wiki, HMS Greetham