Malta
Unknown Schnellboot
An unidentified German fast attack boat lying at around 90 m off the east coast of Malta. A technical dive with very little published about it, which is most of the reason people want to see it.
Sea conditions
Good right now
Some chop (0.5 m E)
Forecast for the site, updated 01:45 AM
- Waves
- 0.5 m
- from E
- Wind
- n/a
- Swell
- 0.5 m
- 5 s period
- Sea temp
- 29 °C
Next 7 days
Exposed to wind and swell from: N (0°), NE (45°), E (90°), SE (135°), S (180°). Fully exposed open water off the east coast with land only to the west. It needs a genuinely settled forecast, because a long deco hang in a building sea is where technical dives go wrong. Operators will cancel on swell alone, regardless of wind strength. Best season: June to October, on the flattest days of the technical season.
The dive
Schnellboote, the boats the Allies called E-boats, were fast wooden-hulled torpedo craft that worked out of Sicilian bases against the Malta convoys. Several were lost around the islands to mines, aircraft and surface action, and the seabed east of Malta holds wrecks from that campaign that have never been firmly matched to a name. This is one of them.
At around ninety metres this sits squarely in trimix territory: a hypoxic bottom mix, staged deco gases, a proper team and a boat with someone capable on the surface. Bottom time will be short, twenty minutes or so, which on a small craft is enough to swim its length and take in the hull form, any surviving armament mounts and the torpedo tube positions if they are still recognisable.
Temper your expectations on detail. Published descriptions are essentially non-existent, the identity is unconfirmed, and even the position circulates second hand. If you want this dive, it comes through a Maltese technical operator who has actually been on it, not from a website.
- A rarely seen German fast attack boat from the Malta convoy war
- Deep, dark and almost undocumented, which is the appeal
- Small enough to cover end to end in one short bottom time
- Strictly a trimix dive with an operator who knows the mark
Typical plan
Shot line descent to around ninety metres on a hypoxic trimix, twenty minutes of bottom time to swim the hull from bow to stern and back, then a staged ascent with two or three deco gases and a drifting hang under a DSMB. Total run time will be well over ninety minutes. Twinset or rebreather, redundant lights, a competent team of two or three, and surface cover that can recover divers who come up displaced. Not a dive to improvise.
What the bottom looks like
- 1Bow section of the S-boat89 m deep · 40 m out
- 2Midships, gun and torpedo tube positions90 m deep · 60 m out
- 3Stern and engine space90 m deep · 80 m out
- 4Sand and mud around the hull90 m deep · 95 m out
Flat sand and mud at around ninety metres, with the hull remains settled into it.
Who you might meet
Getting in and staying safe
Boat only, and only with an operator running technical charters. Departures are from the harbours on the east coast around Valletta, Sliema and Marsaskala. The site needs a shot line, surface cover that stays put, and a plan for drifting deco. There is no shallow option and no bail-out to shore.
- Depth of around 90 m, hypoxic trimix and mandatory staged decompression
- Cold and reduced light at depth
- Long deco obligation with no overhead shelter
- Current in open water east of Malta, sometimes different at depth than at the surface
- Shipping traffic on the approaches to Grand Harbour
- Fragile wooden hull remains and snagged fishing nets on deep wrecks
- Remote and unconfirmed position, so the shot may not land on the wreck
- No published survey, so nothing to brief from except the skipper's own experience
A bit of history
German S-boats of the flotillas based in Sicily raided Malta-bound convoys from 1941 to 1943, including the attacks on the Operation Pedestal convoy in August 1942. Losses to mines and air attack were common and wreckage from that period is still being located in deep water around the islands. The identity of this particular boat has not been established in any public source, so linking it to a specific vessel or date would be guesswork.
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Further reading: Malta Dive Sites: Unknown Schnellboot · Atlantis Gozo: wreck diving in Malta · Scuba Diving: Malta's wartime shipwreck graveyard