Exiles · Malta
Tug 2
A 30 m Grand Harbour tugboat put on the bottom off Exiles in 2013, sitting upright at 22 m with an open wheelhouse and engine room you can swim through.
Sea conditions
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
Sunrise 06:46, sunset 19:04
Exposed to wind and swell from: N (0°), NE (45°), E (90°). Southerly and southwesterly winds give the flattest water. Northeasterly swell both makes the shore entry unpleasant and stirs sand around the wreck, killing the visibility that makes the penetration worthwhile. Visibility is usually 10 to 25 m. Best season: Year round, best from late spring to late autumn. September and October typically give the clearest water over the sand..
The dive
Tug 2 is the rare Maltese wreck that does not demand a decompression plan, a deep speciality or a boat. She rests at 22 m on sand about 250 m north of the Exiles ladder, close enough that a fit pair of divers can reach her, work her over and be back at the steps inside an hour.
She went down clean. Everything that could leak, snag or poison a fish was stripped before scuttling, so the openings are wide, the light gets in and the wheelhouse is a short, honest swim rather than a commitment. The engine room still holds enough machinery to keep a curious diver busy, and the deck fittings, bollards and towing gear read clearly from above. At just under 10 m tall without her mast, she has real presence for a boat this small.
A storm in October 2016 rearranged things. She had been dropped parallel to the reef, roughly 20 m off it on open sand; the sea shoved her across and she now lies with her bow hard into the reef, which actually improves the dive, since the wreck and the natural reef have merged into one continuous structure. Nudibranch hunters do very well here, and at night the whole thing turns into an octopus convention.
- One of very few Maltese wrecks reachable from shore at recreational depth
- Safe, well lit penetration through wheelhouse and engine room
- Prime nudibranch and macro photography ground
- Excellent navigation and dive leading training run
- Superb night wreck dive
Typical plan
Enter at Exiles, drop to about 6 m and run a bearing near due north along the reef, letting the slope take you down. Arrive on the bow at roughly 20 m, work aft over the deck, take the wheelhouse swim-through, look into the engine room, then circle the stern on the sand at 22 m. Turn at half gas and return along the reef so the second half of the dive is shallow, finishing around the gullies at 6 to 10 m. Air works for 40 to 50 minutes; EAN32 keeps the no-stop clock comfortable. Torch, DSMB and a compass are not optional.
What the bottom looks like
- 1Reef gullies on the outward leg8 m deep · 60 m out
- 2Reef edge meeting the sand19 m deep · 200 m out
- 3Bow of Tug 2 driven into the reef20 m deep · 248 m out
- 4Wheelhouse, open and swimmable16 m deep · 256 m out
- 5Engine room access19 m deep · 262 m out
- 6Stern and towing deck22 m deep · 272 m out
- 7Sand plain beyond the stern23 m deep · 295 m out
Flat, pale sand at 22 to 23 m running up against the toe of the natural reef, which the wreck is now wedged into.
Who you might meet
Nudibranchs
Almost always · Spring
Mediterranean damselfish
Almost always · Kaħlija
Tube worms
Almost always
Cardinalfish
Often · Sultan iċ-ċawl
Common octopus
Often · Qarnita
Fireworm
Often · Busuf
Mediterranean moray
Sometimes · Morina
Dusky grouper
Sometimes · Ċerna
Scorpionfish
Sometimes · Ċippullazza
Wide-eyed flounder
Sometimes · Barbun tal-għajn
Cuttlefish
Sometimes · Siċċ · Spring
Getting in and staying safe
Shore dive from Exiles. Park on the Sliema seafront, walk 50 to 100 m, down the concrete steps and in off the platform, using the ladder when it is in place. From there it is a 250 m swim on a northerly heading, which most divers do underwater along the reef rather than on the surface. Dive centres, cafes, toilets and shops are all on the promenade. Boats also run here from Sliema and Ta' Xbiex if you would rather be dropped on the buoy.
- Boat traffic overhead: surface only under a DSMB unless you are on the buoy line
- Yellow marker buoys are seasonal and sometimes missing altogether
- Overhead environment inside the wheelhouse and engine room, with silt that lifts easily
- Navigation: miss the wreck on the outward leg and you burn a lot of gas looking
- Snagged fishing line on the mast and railings
- Cold and reduced visibility after winter storms
- Jellyfish in late summer
A bit of history
Tuo Lun Er Hao was built at Malta Drydocks in 1975 for the Chinese government, 30 m long with a 7.5 m beam, 141 gross tons and a height of 15.24 m with her mast. Registered in Tientsin but never leaving Malta, she and her sister Tuo Lun Yi Hao worked the China Dock project, the building of Dock No. 6 in French Creek, partly financed by China. The bow names gave way to painted numbers on the bridge, and when the pair passed to Kalaxlokk Co. Ltd they were formally renamed Tug Boat 1 and Tug Boat 2. Decommissioned after about a decade of work, Tug 2 was bought by Bezzina Marine Services in 2000 and sat in their yard for thirteen years. The Professional Diving Schools Association and the Malta Tourism Authority prepared her as an artificial reef; bad weather pushed the scuttling from May into June, and she was sunk on the morning of 20 June 2013 with her still working sister ship, by then renamed Anni, in attendance.
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Further reading: Malta Dive Sites: Tug 2 wreck · DiveWise Malta: Tug Boat 2 wreck · PADI dive site: Tug 2 · DiveBoat Malta: Tug 2 · Wrecksite: Tug 2 · Paradise Diving: Tugboat Tug 2