Addu Atoll · Maldives · Wreck
British Loyalty
The largest wreck in the Maldives, on her port side at 33 m
Area photo: ╚ DD╔ from Male, Maldives · CC BY-SA 2.0
The biggest wreck in the Maldives: a 134-metre oil tanker torpedoed by a German U-boat while anchored in the Addu lagoon in 1944, kept on as a fuel storage vessel, then scuttled in January 1946. She lies on her port side at 33 metres, inside the atoll, in sheltered water with no current to fight.
Also known as British Loyalty Wreck.
Where it is and how deep
0.6367° S, 73.1233° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
The wreck lies inside the atoll, so the dive starts calm: a ten-minute boat ride from the dive centre and a straightforward descent with no current to plan around. The hull comes up lying hard over on her port side, and the scale registers before any detail does — 134 metres of tanker, her deck turned vertical, sitting at 33 metres.
Depth is the only real constraint here. Published figures differ a little — 33 metres in one account, 31 in the Addu dive centre's own site list, which also gives her length as 140 metres rather than 134 — and either way the profile you actually dive depends on how far down the fallen side of the hull you follow. The local centre rates her as divable by all levels precisely because nothing else is working against you, so what ends the dive is gas and no-stop time rather than conditions.
She is not a tidy wreck. The 1944 torpedo strike spilled enough oil to need a British clean-up of the lagoon that was only partly successful, and she went on leaking for years after the war. What that hull has become since is a haven for the local marine life, which is the argument for diving her more than once rather than ticking her off in a single pass along the deck.
The wreck
- Vessel
- British Loyalty
- Type
- Oil tanker
- Length
- 134 m (440 ft)
- Sunk
- 1946
- Cause
- Torpedoed by German submarine U-183 in March 1944, scuttled January 1946
- Lies
- On her port side at 33 m, southeast of Hithadhoo in the Addu lagoon
British Loyalty had already been torpedoed and sunk at Diego Suarez in May 1942, raised, and towed to Addu to serve as a Ministry of War Transport oil fuel storage vessel. On 9 March 1944 U-183 hit her again with a long-range shot fired from outside the atoll through a gap in the anti-torpedo nets. The 6,993-ton tanker was seriously damaged but did not sink, and was listed as a total loss; the oil released took a British clean-up of the lagoon that was only partly successful. She was never fully repaired, and on 5 January 1946 she was scuttled southeast of Hithadhoo.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Good |
Season follows Addu Atoll: Addu's resident dive centre rates January to April driest and busiest and July to September best for visibility; May-June and October-December are wetter. Full and new moon run the strongest currents.
Know before you go
- She lies at 33 m, past entry-level recreational limits — agree the maximum depth before you drop and watch no-stop time on a wreck this long.
Dive videos
British Loyalty Wreck Addu Atoll - Maldives Scuba Diving · ScubaTV on YouTube
Wreck of British Loyalty · Rolf Eichinger on YouTube
Questions divers ask
How deep is the British Loyalty wreck?+
She lies at 33 metres, though the Addu dive centre that runs the site quotes 31 metres. She is on her port side, so how deep you end up depends on how far down the hull you follow — it is a dive that wants depth experience rather than a beginner profile.
Is there current on the British Loyalty?+
No. The wreck is inside the Addu atoll lagoon, and the dive centre describes it as divable by all levels and free of current. Depth, not water movement, is what sets the limits on this dive.
Sources
- Diving in the Maldives — Wikipedia
- German submarine U-183 — Wikipedia
- Addu City — Wikipedia
- Gan (Addu Atoll) — Wikipedia
- Dive sites in Addu Maldives — Aquaventure Maldives
- British Loyalty (British Motor tanker) — uboat.net
More dive sites in Addu Atoll
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A year-round manta point at 19-25 m inside the channel
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A banana-shaped reef dived from the surface to 30 m
Channel & pass
Drift the channel corner on either tide, 5 to 25 m
Channel & pass
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Hard coral gardens from 6 m to a 20 m drop-off
Wall
Easy wall from a 5-8 m reef top down past 30 m
Reef
Tigers, grey reefs and silvertips on Addu's outer reef
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