Malta
Schnellboot S-34
The sister boat to the S-31, shelled by Maltese coastal batteries in May 1942 and finished off by a German fighter the next day. She lies somewhere well offshore of Zonqor Point and, as far as public records go, nobody dives her.
Sea conditions
Good right now
Some chop (0.5 m E)
Forecast for the site, updated 01:48 AM
- Waves
- 0.5 m
- from E
- Wind
- n/a
- Swell
- 0.5 m
- 5 s period
- Sea temp
- 28 °C
Next 7 days
Exposed to wind and swell from: N (0°), NE (45°), E (90°), SE (135°), S (180°). Fully offshore on the eastern side of Malta, with nothing between the site and the open sea. Any work out here would need a long settled weather window and a properly equipped vessel.
The dive
S-34 is a record rather than a dive site, and it is worth being straight about that. She was a Schnellboot of the same 3rd Flotilla as the S-31, roughly 33 m long, 5 m in the beam and around 100 tons, and she was lost eight days after her sister during the same campaign of minelaying runs at the mouth of the Grand Harbour.
Her position is not published. Wrecksite restricts the coordinates, no depth is listed in any public source, and there are no dive reports, photographs or operator listings for her. The distance from shore given in the accounts, around twelve kilometres off Zonqor Point, puts her in water that is almost certainly well beyond normal technical range and out on the open eastern shelf.
So: interesting history, real wreck, no dive. If the site ever does get located and surveyed it would be a serious expedition target with a story attached, but as of now there is nothing here to plan a day around. We have kept the entry so the history is not lost, and flagged the confidence accordingly.
- Sister boat to the S-31 and lost in the same 1942 minelaying campaign
- Hit by Malta's 9.2 inch coastal guns at a range of nine kilometres
- Finished off by a German fighter the day after she was abandoned
- Position withheld and, so far as public records show, never dived
Typical plan
There is no established dive plan for this wreck because the position and depth are not public. Do not treat the map marker as a dive site.
What the bottom looks like
Unknown. The eastern offshore shelf in this area is generally sand and mud, but nothing has been published for this wreck.
Who you might meet
Nobody has logged the locals here yet. Be the first to add a sighting.
Getting in and staying safe
No known access. There is no established mark, no charter running the site and no published depth. Anyone seriously interested would be looking at a survey expedition with a sounder and a magnetometer rather than a dive booking, and would need to talk to Heritage Malta first given how the island's other war wrecks are managed.
- Position unknown, so any attempt is an offshore search rather than a dive
- Likely depth well beyond recreational and possibly beyond open circuit technical range
- Twelve kilometres offshore with no shelter and long boat cover times
- Unexploded ordnance is a reasonable assumption on any Schnellboot wreck
- War grave: three men died aboard her
A bit of history
S-34 was a German Schnellboot of the 3rd Flotilla, operating against Malta from Sicily in 1942. She was one of the three boats, with S-31 and S-61, sent to lay mines in the approaches to the Grand Harbour on the night of 9 to 10 May 1942, the operation on which S-31 was lost to a drifting mine. On 17 May 1942 S-34 was caught by Malta's coastal defences and took a direct hit amidships from the BL 9.2 inch guns of the St Rocco and Garden batteries, firing at a range of about nine kilometres. She began flooding, S-59 came alongside to take off the crew under a smoke screen, and three men were killed in the process. Scuttling charges were set but failed to sink her, so the following day a Luftwaffe Bf 109 was sent out to bomb the drifting hull, which went down roughly twelve kilometres off Zonqor Point.
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Further reading: Wrecksite.eu: S-34 Schnellboot · Battlefront Malta: Schnellboot operations around Malta and their losses