Dreaming to dive a submarine!

Dreaming to dive a submarine!

Text and photos Hubert Borg

HMS Stubborn was a 66-metre-long S-Class submarine which was launched on 11 November 1942. She was involved in many successful attacks on German ships and submarines in the Bay of Biscay and Norway before being deployed to the Far East in 1945, where she was successful in sinking three Japanese vessels.

Unfortunately, she hit a depth charge and sank, hitting the bottom at 166 m (design limit of 90 m!) damaging the stern section. She returnedto Malta where excessive damage was noted and she was scuttled off Qawra Point to be used as an ASDIC target (sonar practice).

Dreaming to dive a submarine!

This story is dedicated to an old dream of mine, that came true almost 18 years ago and now I wish to share it with you…

Submarines have always attracted my attention. I was curious to learn how they operate, what keeps the submarine buoyant and how the submariners live beneath the waves. I used to dive deeper into history and technical specifications and discover the answers to my questions one by one. But a visit to a real Royal Submarine had always remained on my bucket list. The reader must understand, that one doesn’t often get a chance to see or visit a submarine in Malta. We can only read about them and admire their images.

The wreck looked very different from this angle – even more beautiful. My dream seemed to have come true!

The wreck looked very different from this angle – even more beautiful; My dream seemed to have come true!

In the late 90’s I used to hear a lot of stories about the 4 wreck submarines, sunk or scuttled around the Maltese Islands. One of them, HMS Stubborn, was scuttled in 1946 at a depth of 58 m, which was a great deal for me at that time. Another, HMS Olympus, got lost during the WWII.

At 30 m we could see the seabed 25 m below us and at 45 m I looked down and saw a beautifully intact submarine lying on a barren white sand and shale seabed.

The other two legendary submarines lost in Maltese waters did not leave much traces after the explosions, so I knew I had to dive the wreck of HMS Stubborn.

Preparing for the wreck dive

Due to the depths in which the wreck lies, helium is a requirement both to reduce narcosis and to reduce the decompression obligations. I had to undertake the normoxic trimix course, which allowed me to take these depths safely – and with a clear head to remember the dive. To spice things up, the course qualifying dives were usually conducted on the wrecks. Undertaking the courses in Malta also meant that fine weather and superb visibility were almost guaranteed – something you could not guarantee in other places. As I remember, the way from St. Paul’s Bay to the dive site 18 years ago took us around 1,5 h! Today we have the luxury of diving with our own hard boat, starting the trip, which maximum takes about 20 minutes, from Mellieha Bay.

Shot line descent to the wreck of HMS Stubborn

Submarine

Upon the arrival to the dive site we kitted up, clipped the decompression stages on and set off. Swimming towards the shot line, before descending, we did a quick bubble check at a shallow depth. At 30 m we could see the seabed 25 m below us and at 45 m I looked down and saw a beautifully intact submarine lying on a barren white sand and shale seabed. I let out a whoop of joy at the sight! It had taken us only two minutes to descend the shot line, and after a quick check to make sure everything was where it was supposed to be, we swam off towards the wreck to get some shots of the two stern torpedo tubes.

The wreck looked very different from this angle – even more beautiful! The decompression was uneventful other than huge smiles of my buddies and I. My dream seemed to have come true!

The intact conning tower with the open hatches, the venting hatches, the sleek hydrodynamic bow section and finally, the large torpedo tubes set back from the knife-edge bow. The top of the wreck was at 45 metres, there were 2 hatches open. The widest hatch was only 60 cms in diameter, with heavy sedimentation inside. The hatches were only wide enough to get a normally dressed man through, but no diver in a twinset, so no penetration was advisable. We found another hatch at the stern. However, we were nearing our planned bottom time. We looked back at Stubborn as we began to ascend after spending 25 minutes at the average of 55 m.

The wreck looked very different from this angle – even more beautiful! The decompression was uneventful other than huge smiles of my buddies and I. My dream seemed to have come true!