Aruba · Aruba · Wreck
SS Antilla
A wartime German freighter lying on its side in Malmok Bay
The Antilla is a German cargo ship 121 m long, scuttled in Malmok Bay in 1940 and now Aruba's biggest and best-known wreck. It ranks among the largest shipwrecks in the Caribbean, and with the seabed at no more than 18 m (60 ft) the whole hull lies within Open Water limits.
Also known as Antilla.
Where it is and how deep
12.6020° N, 70.0580° WApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
The hull lies on its port side in Malmok Bay, on a seabed no deeper than 18 m (60 ft). A light current pushes through the breaks in the hull and around the bow, and big schools of fish hang in those openings, so the broken sections and the bow are where the fish life gathers. Masts project almost parallel to the seabed with coral and sponge growth on them, and at the stern the rudder and keel touch the bottom, with one bronze propeller blade still in place beneath the keel.
The wreck
- Vessel
- Antilla
- Type
- Cargo ship (Hamburg America Line)
- Length
- 121 m (397 ft)
- Built
- 1939
- Sunk
- 1940
- Cause
- Scuttled by her German crew on 10 May 1940, when Germany invaded the Netherlands
- Lies
- On its port side in Malmok Bay, in up to 18 m (60 ft) of water
The Antilla, or ES Antilla for Elektroschiff (electric ship), was a Hamburg America Line cargo ship built in Hamburg and launched in 1939. When Germany invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940, Dutch marines came to seize her; her crew used the delay to open the seacocks and set fires, and the marines boarded at dawn and assembled the German crew on the poop deck while she burned and sank in Malmok Bay. By 1953 storm damage had broken the wreck in two amidships.
Marine life and season
- Reef fish swarms
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good |
Season follows Aruba: Diving runs year-round, and the island sits south of the hurricane belt, so no month stands out as a peak.
Photos from SS Antilla
Serge Melki from Indianapolis, USA · CC BY 2.0
Dive videos
Aruba Scuba Diving, Antilla Shipwreck 4K · Oleg Kaplun on YouTube
Aruba Scuba Diving - Night Dive Antilla Wreck 4K · Oleg Kaplun on YouTube
Sources
- Aruba – Isle of wrecks — Divernet
- SS Antilla (1939) — Wikipedia
- Dive Sites - Red Sail Aruba — Red Sail Aruba
Photo credits
- A hawksbill-patterned sea turtle swims over the dim, blue-green outline of a sunken ship's hull. by Serge Melki from Indianapolis, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Dozens of thin dark garden eels rise from a pale sandy seabed in hazy blue-green water. by Serge Melki from Indianapolis, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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