Trincomalee & Kalpitiya · Sri Lanka · Wreck
British Sergeant
A tanker sunk by six bombs the day the Hermes went down
Area photo: Kondephy · CC BY-SA 4.0
A Merchant Navy tanker of 5,868 gross registered tons, on the register from 1922, sunk off Batticaloa on 9 April 1942 in the same Japanese carrier raid that took HMS Hermes. Six bombs hit her, three from aircraft off the Akagi and three off the Hiryu, and nobody died: the record notes zero fatalities and 59 survivors. She lies today at 24 m.
Also known as SS British Sergeant.
Where it is and how deep
8.0167° N, 81.6333° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
The British Sergeant was a tanker of 5,868 gross registered tons, on the Merchant Navy register from 1922, and she was caught in the open on 9 April 1942 when Japanese carrier aircraft swept the Ceylon coast. Six bombs hit her, three from Vals flown off the Akagi and three off the Hiryu, and she went down at 08°01′N, 81°38′E.
She lies today at 24 m off Batticaloa, which puts the whole wreck inside recreational depth, though it is far enough down the coast from Trincomalee to need a trip staged from that end. Unlike the Hermes, lost the same day with 307 of her crew, the tanker cost no lives at all: the record notes zero fatalities and 59 survivors. How she sits on the bottom is not published, so settle the profile with the operator.
The wreck
- Vessel
- British Sergeant
- Type
- Tanker, 5,868 GRT
- Sunk
- 1942
- Cause
- Six bomb hits from Japanese Aichi D3A dive-bombers off the Akagi and Hiryu
- Lies
- At 24 m off Batticaloa; how she sits on the bottom is not published.
Registered in 1922 and operating under the Merchant Navy flag at 5,868 gross registered tons, the British Sergeant was one of the merchant losses of the 9 April 1942 air raid on Ceylon, the same operation that sank HMS Hermes. Six bomb hits from Aichi D3A dive-bombers, three from the Akagi's aircraft and three from the Hiryu's, sank her off Batticaloa. The record notes zero fatalities and 59 survivors, and she lies at 24 m today.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Fair | Good | Good |
Season follows Trincomalee & Kalpitiya: Trincomalee dives Apr–Sep; Kalpitiya's whale season runs Nov–Apr on the opposite monsoon, so one coast is always workable.
Dive videos
Diving the British Sergeant wreck, Passikudah, Sri Lanka | Island Scuba 🪸 · IslandScubaSL on YouTube
Scuba Diving in Sri Lanka | Batticaloa |Exploring SS British Sergeant Shipwreck|24 m Deep · We Go Deep on YouTube
Questions divers ask
How deep is the British Sergeant?+
The wreck lies at 24 m off Batticaloa on Sri Lanka's east coast, which keeps it inside recreational limits but at Advanced Open Water depth. She was a 5,868-ton tanker sunk by six Japanese bombs on 9 April 1942, the same day HMS Hermes was lost.
Sources
- Air raid on Ceylon (9 April 1942) — Wikipedia
- SS British Sergeant — Wikipedia
In The Logbook
- WWII wrecks you can dive, by theatreWrecks · 7 min read
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