Malta & Gozo · Malta · Wreck
HMS Maori
A wartime destroyer's bow in white sand below Fort Saint Elmo
Photo: Joebob724 · CC BY-SA 4.0
The remains of a Royal Navy Tribal-class destroyer lying a few hundred metres off Valletta, below Fort Saint Elmo. The wreck is shallow enough to dive from shore, and its broken hull is riddled with openings to look into, which makes it one of the few Maltese wrecks open to newly qualified divers.
Also known as Maori.
Where it is and how deep
35.9026° N, 14.5154° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
The bow section rests in white sand at 14 m, and the seabed around the hull bottoms out at 16 m. The wreck is full of swim-throughs and holes in the plating, so the dive is spent working along the hull and looking into its openings, all within a shallow profile that suits an Open Water diver.
The wreck
- Vessel
- HMS Maori
- Type
- Tribal-class destroyer
- Length
- 115 m (377 ft)
- Built
- 1937
- Sunk
- 1942
- Cause
- Bombed and sunk by German aircraft at Malta in 1942; raised and scuttled off Fort Saint Elmo in 1945
- Lies
- Bow section in white sand at 14 m off Valletta
HMS Maori was one of the 16 Tribal-class destroyers of the British Royal Navy, launched on 2 September 1937, 115 m long with a beam of 11 m. She was bombed and sunk by German aircraft while at Malta in 1942. On 15 July 1945 she was raised and scuttled off Fort Saint Elmo, where the wreck now lies a few hundred metres from the Valletta shore.
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 | Fair | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Fair |
Season follows Malta & Gozo: Jun–Sep is the main season, with the sea averaging 21–26 °C; it never drops below 14 °C, so diving carries on through the winter.
Dive videos
MALTA - Dive on the HMS Maori · Giuseppe Moscarda (Bubbles or Bubbles) on YouTube
Questions divers ask
Can HMS Maori be dived from shore?+
Yes. The wreck lies a few hundred metres off Valletta and is a shore dive; the bow sits at 14 m and the seabed reaches 16 m, within Open Water limits.
Sources
- en.wikipedia.org HMS_Maori_(F24) — Wikipedia
- maltadives.com hmsmaori-valletta — MaltaDives.com
Photo credits
- An underwater view of a sunken ship's hull in green-blue water, with encrusted posts in the foreground and a few small fish. by Joebob724, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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