Malta
MV Imperial Eagle
The old Malta to Gozo ferry, sunk deliberately off Qawra Point in 1999 and sitting dead upright on sand at forty two metres. Nearby, an arch, a seventeenth century anchor and a bronze Christ with his arms out.
Sea conditions
Excellent right now
Flat, sheltered and calm
Forecast for the site, updated 01:45 AM
- Waves
- 0.4 m
- from ESE
- Wind
- n/a
- Swell
- 0.4 m
- 5 s period
- Sea temp
- 29 °C
Next 7 days
Exposed to wind and swell from: NW (315°), N (0°), NE (45°), E (90°), SE (135°). Qawra Point sticks out into the open north east, so anything from the north west round to the south east puts swell on the site and stops the boats. Westerly and south westerly winds give flat water and very good visibility. In settled weather it is diveable most of the year. Best season: April to November. Late September and October generally give the clearest water and the most reliable calm days..
The dive
Most scuttled wrecks feel like a stage set. The Imperial Eagle does not, partly because she is small and human sized and partly because so many Maltese people actually travelled on her. Forty five metres of ferry, upright and square on the sand, deck at thirty two metres and keel at forty two. The timber has long since rotted away, so what is left is the steel skeleton: frames, bulkheads, corridors and open holds, with a single ship's wheel remaining where the bridge used to be.
She is open for penetration and the interior is simple, with short corridors and rooms that let light in from several directions. That said, thirty five metres inside a wreck is not the place to be casual, and the usual rules about training, a line and a torch each apply.
The real reason this dive has such a reputation is the neighbourhood. Qawra Reef runs alongside with its top around twenty five metres, pierced by a natural arch you can swim through. Wedged in the rocks just outside the arch is a huge anchor dating back to the sixteen hundreds. And in a dip in the sand ahead of the bow stands Kristu tal-Baħħara, a bronze Christ with outstretched arms, moved down here in 2000 from its original home near St Paul's Island. Chaining reef, arch, anchor, statue and wreck into one dive is the whole point, and it is why nobody comes here just once.
- A Malta to Gozo ferry sitting perfectly upright on sand
- Kristu tal-Baħħara, the bronze Christ statue, a short swim from the bow
- Swim-through arch in Qawra Reef at twenty five metres
- Anchor from the sixteen hundreds wedged in the rocks
- Open corridors and holds for divers trained to penetrate
Typical plan
Pick two of the four attractions rather than chasing all of them. A good route is down the line to the reef top at twenty five metres, through the arch, past the anchor, across to the statue at around thirty eight metres, then onto the wreck deck at thirty two metres for a lap before ascending back up the reef. Nitrox 28 or 32 is close to mandatory if you want more than fifteen useful minutes deep. Budget forty to forty five minutes total with a decompression or extended safety stop on the reef, and plan the wreck interior as a separate dive on another day.
What the bottom looks like
- 1Top of Qawra Reef25 m deep · 18 m out
- 2Natural arch through the reef wall26 m deep · 35 m out
- 3Seventeenth century anchor wedged in the rocks30 m deep · 52 m out
- 4Kristu tal-Baħħara, the Christ statue38 m deep · 95 m out
- 5Bow and foredeck of the Imperial Eagle32 m deep · 115 m out
- 6Open holds and corridors amidships36 m deep · 140 m out
- 7Sand at the keel line by the stern42 m deep · 160 m out
- 8Seagrass patches on the way back to the reef30 m deep · 185 m out
Flat sand at forty two metres with seagrass patches, backed by the rocky wall of Qawra Reef.
Who you might meet
Two-banded sea bream
Almost always · Sargu
Cardinalfish
Almost always · Sultan iċ-ċawl
Golden cup coral
Almost always · Qroll tad-dell
Barracuda
Often · Lizz · late summer and autumn
Amberjack
Often · Aċċola · autumn
Mediterranean moray
Often · Morina
Common octopus
Often · Qarnit
Scorpionfish
Often · Ċippullazza
Fireworms
Often · Busuf · summer
Dusky grouper
Sometimes · Ċerna
Conger eel
Sometimes · Gringu
Nudibranchs
Sometimes · spring
Getting in and staying safe
Boat only, about half a kilometre north east of Qawra Point, which means a very short run from Buġibba, Qawra or Salina and a slightly longer one from Sliema. Operators shot the wreck or run a marked line down to the reef top so you can work the reef, statue and wreck in sequence. Several dive centres sit within walking distance of the Qawra and Buġibba boat jetties, with parking, fills, toilets and a cafe within a minute of where you kit up.
- Depth of forty two metres, decompression obligation is easy to acquire
- Nitrogen narcosis at the statue and inside the wreck
- Penetration into a stripped steel hull with limited exits
- Sharp corroded metal and collapsing frames
- Boat traffic off Qawra Point in summer
- Current between the reef and the wreck on windy days
- Snagged fishing line around the reef and anchor
- Task loading: too many attractions for one bottom time
A bit of history
She was launched in 1938 by John Crown and Sons in Sunderland as New Royal Lady, a forty five metre excursion steamer. The Royal Navy requisitioned her in 1940 for transport work, and after the war she returned to civilian service, was renamed Crested Eagle in 1947 and ran trips on the Thames and along the south coast of England. In 1958 she was sold to E. Zammit and Company in Malta, renamed Imperial Eagle and put on the Malta to Gozo run carrying about seventy passengers and ten cars. She changed hands again in 1968 to the Pisani family and finished her working life hauling cargo and livestock from Gozo to Valletta, then lay rotting at Mgarr and eventually half sank at her moorings in Valletta. The local diving community bought her in 1995 with the intention of creating an underwater park, and after four years of paperwork she was finally scuttled on Monday 19 July 1999 off Qawra Point. The Christ statue joined her the following year. She sits in a marine conservation area, one of a long line of Maltese scuttlings that also includes Rozi, Um El Faroud, Karwela, P29 and P31.
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Further reading: Malta Diving, Imperial Eagle wreck guide · Atlantis Diving, Imperial Eagle wreck · Wrecksite, MV Imperial Eagle · Simplon Postcards, MV Crested Eagle history · SSI MyDiveGuide, MV Imperial Eagle