Labuan & Brunei Wrecks · Brunei Bay, Brunei · Wreck
Australian Wreck
SS De Klerk: an 85 m Dutch steamer on her port side at 28–34 m in Brunei Bay
The name is local: she was built in the Netherlands in 1909. The SS De Klerk was scuttled by the Dutch in 1942, raised by the Japanese as Imaji Maru and finally lost to a mine off Brunei. Her hull lies largely intact on sand at the mouth of Brunei Bay, just on the Brunei side of the sea boundary with Labuan, and visibility of under 10 m brings the open decks and holds into view one at a time. Boats from Serasa reach her in about 25 minutes.
Also known as SS De Klerk, Imaji Maru.
Where it is and how deep
5.1216° N, 115.1132° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
You arrive on a hull lying over on her port side: 85 m of ship on flat sand, with the deck at 28 m and the bottom at 34 m. Visibility of under 10 m is normal here, so the wreck comes to you in sections rather than all at once, and swimming her length is how you build the picture. She is largely intact, which makes the tilted deck an easy line to follow from one end to the other.
Divers without a wreck specialty stay on the open upper decks and dip down into the large cargo holds, both easy to move through. Along with the Cement Wreck, this is the wreck here considered the easiest and safest to enter. Qualified wreck divers go further, working along two or three of the lower decks in a hull that is three decks deep, and rich coral growth covers the plating.
Depth is what limits the dive rather than the wreck itself. The deck is already at 28 m before anyone goes inside, so a route through the lower decks eats bottom time quickly and leaves little spare for problems. Plan the penetration on the boat and take a torch, and treat the tilt as a hazard of its own: on a ship lying on her side, the way out is not where your instincts put it.
The wreck
- Vessel
- SS De Klerk, later Imaji Maru
- Type
- Dutch-built steamer
- Length
- 85 m (279 ft)
- Built
- 1909
- Sunk
- 1944
- Cause
- Struck a Japanese mine; sources give the year as 1944 or 1949
- Lies
- On her port side on sand, largely intact, deck at 28 m
She was built in the Netherlands in 1909 as the SS De Klerk, scuttled by the Dutch off Peninsular Malaysia in 1942, then refloated by the occupying Japanese and renamed Imaji Maru. She was lost to a Japanese mine off Brunei on a voyage from Java to Manila, and over 300 lives were lost during the war. Sources disagree on when she went down: her operator's account gives 1944, while other published accounts give 1949. The Australian name is local and has stuck, though nothing in the ship's history is Australian.
Marine life and season
The sources we used don't single out particular species here.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Good | Fair | Fair |
Season follows Labuan & Brunei Wrecks: Calm seas and better visibility run March to October, with April to July the best stretch; the wet season from November to February is rougher and murkier.
Know before you go
- The wreck lies over on her port side, so passages and holds are rotated: fix your orientation to the hull rather than to up before entering anything.
- Visibility is often under 10 m, which makes losing the group easy on a hull 85 m long. Agree a direction along the deck and a turn point before you descend.
- The deck starts at 28 m and the sand is at 34 m, so penetration adds an overhead to an already deep dive: lower decks are for wreck-trained divers with a planned route.
Dive videos
SS DE KLERK (AUSTRALIAN WRECK/IMBARU MARU_World War 2 Historical Ship Wreck · Dive Buddy (Malaysia) on YouTube
Questions divers ask
Why is it called the Australian Wreck?+
The name is local and inaccurate. The ship is the SS De Klerk, a Dutch steamer built in 1909 and later renamed Imaji Maru under Japanese use. Nothing in her recorded history is Australian, but the name is what divers here use.
How deep is the Australian Wreck?+
The deck lies at 28 m and the sand at 34 m, with most accounts putting the wreck in about 33 m of water. It is an Advanced-level dive, and the lower decks add an overhead to that depth.
Is the Australian Wreck in Brunei or Malaysia?+
She lies at the mouth of Brunei Bay, close to the sea boundary between Brunei and Labuan. Published positions put her just inside Brunei's territorial sea, while Malaysia counts her among the four Labuan wrecks gazetted as a protected zone in 2011. Boats from Serasa in Brunei reach her in about 25 minutes.
Sources
- Brunei — Wikivoyage
- Labuan — Wikivoyage
- Australian Wreck dive site — PADI
- Dive Sites in Brunei — Poni Divers
- Australian Wreck — Asia Dive Site
- Bruneian 12 NM (territorial sea) — Flanders Marine Institute
- Labuan Shipwrecks Offer Divers A Journey Through History And Marine Wonders — Bernama
In The Logbook
- WWII wrecks you can dive, by theatreWrecks · 7 min read
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