Diving Bali

Post by Booking Villas in Bali.

 

Bali's famous dive wreck the good ship Liberty

It has to be said that the good ship Liberty is by far the most popular diving wreck around Bali.  It is situated just off shore in Tulamben.  

The Liberty was a cargo ship built by the US  Federal Shipbuilding Company in Kearny, New Jersey at the request of the US navy.  She was delivered 19 June 1918 and the US navy took control of her on the 7th October 1918.  She was immediately put to service under the command of  Lieutenant Commander Charles Longbottom.. 

Her first sailing was to deliver horses and rails to France setting sail from New York 24th October arriving in Brest France on the 8th of November..  At the behest of the US navy she made several more trips delivering supplies to the US forces.  Sometime during the late months of 1919 she was relieved of her naval duties and placed into the merchant fleet plying her trade throughout the world.  

During the early part of WWII she was again requisitioned as a naval supply vessel.  It was during a supply route from Australia heading to the Philippines loaded with a cargo of railway parts and rubber passing through the straits of Lombok that she met her end.  A Japanese submarine I-166 class fired a fatal torpedo causing the ship to rupture and take on water.  The ship was being chaperoned by several US naval warships but it was unable to be saved.  The US naval ships attempted to tow her to the northern part of Bali and dock her in Singa Raja.  This was not to be as the Liberty was heavily listing and had and continued to take on to much water.  A decision was made to ram her onto the beach at Talamben, where the crew disembarked. 

The Liberty design is a 1037 cargo ship and should not to be confused by the Liberty class cargo ships that were built during the 2nd world war.

The ship is 120 Meters long and remained on the beach at Tulamben until 1963..  Up until then she provided a great source of materials, iron etc to the local villagers, she also provided a deep water fishing platform as the waters towards her stern are very deep indeed.

In 1963 the Mount Agung Volcano erupted sending lava streams down its slopes towards Tulamben.  At the same time a large earthquake was felt as a result of the eruption causing the Liberty break her back and to slip into the sea where she remains today.

The Liberty is now a world famous dive site accommodating vast number of divers with ease due to its size.  The Liberty also provides an ecological benefit to marine life in this area.  However, much of this benefit has been eroded by the tourism attraction that she has become.  Often divers are careless with how they treat the coral that has built up around the hull, it's also fair to say that the bubbles emitted from their tanks and regulators from inside the hull is causing further corrosion.  

A perfect way to dive the Liberty is to book a Villa through the pages of Booking Villas in Bali.  Our staff will be on hand to facilitate such excursion or to provide advice and guidance on how to make the best of your holiday here on the paradise Isle of Bali.