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USS Lagarto – The Lost Submarine Is Found

The World War II submarine USS Lagarto had gone missing in action until it was found by two British deep sea divers in the Gulf of Thailand. Ayesha Cantrell dived the wreck with them and described this important act of remembrance for Diver magazine

Back in October my friend Ayesha Cantrell, a technical diving instructor who lives in Thailand, shared her first impressions of diving on the USS Lagarto. UK dive magazine Diver have subsequently published Ayesha’s superbly written account of the USS Lagarto’s history, its rediscovery by TechThailand deep divers Jamie Macleod and Stewart Oehl, and one of their research dives to the Lagarto itself. You can read Ayesha’s article online in full.

Cuttlefish Mating At Palong Bay, Phi Phi Islands, Thailand

Witnessed some hot cephalopod action recently while on a liveaboard around Thailand’s Phi Phi islands – a group of three cuttlefish that were completely unphased by my camera

At the beginning of December I did a two day liveaboard from Koh Lanta around the Phi Phi Islands and out to Shark Point and Anemone Reef.

We arrived at Palong Bay, one of the Phi Phi dive sites, and my dive buddy Liam suggested we go in for a dusk dive on our own rather than waiting for a night dive proper. Liam had worked for a couple of seasons on Phi Phi and so knew the site well and was hoping we’d get to see blacktip sharks, as dusk is their feeding time.

We didn’t have any luck with the sharks, but right at the end of the dive as we were about to start our safety stop, I saw three cuttlefish wrapping themselves around each other. I’ve never seen this behaviour from cuttlefish before, and the electric blue colour of their frills in the glare of my strobe was absolutely beautiful. The cuttlefish were aware we were there, but unabashed by our presence – they barely backed away from us, so intent were they on mating. It was a truly great end to a dive and definitely makes me want to do more dusk dives.

Diving On The USS Lagarto

In 2005 the final resting place of the American WWII submarine USS Lagarto was discovered in the Gulf of Thailand. This is an account by technical diving instructor Ayesha Cantrell of diving the Lagarto on a subsequent research exploration dive

Editor’s note: Jamie Macleod and Stewart Oehl discovered the last resting place of American WWII submarine USS Lagarto in May 2005 at the request of the SubVetsWW2 Association. The submarine lies somewhere in the Gulf of Thailand and only Jamie, Stewart and the US Navy know its exact location. The US Navy formally verified the wreck as the USS Lagarto in June 2006. The Lagarto is a war grave and is therefore treated with utmost respect. Jamie and Stewart have the permission and continuing support of the families of those who died on the Lagarto to continue diving on the wreck in order to try and learn more about it. It is forbidden to penetrate or disturb the wreck’s remains in any way. Its secret location and its depth at 75 metres (around 250 feet) means that it remains offlimits to virtually all divers. Deep Sea Detectives John Chatterton and Richie Kohler have also dived with Jamie and Stewart on the wreck- you can read my interview with Richie Kohler about the USS Lagarto. Here is Ayesha’s account of diving on the Lagarto with Jamie and Stuart on a subsequent research dive.


The Lagarto’s conning tower

I have been fortunate enough to dive all over the world and see many many different sites underwater from those overrun with sharks and rays of every description to the metal graveyards of battles passed but nothing took my breath away like the sight of a conning tower teasingly poking its periscope shears through the thermo clime.

On the 3rd May 1945, the Japanese destroyer Hatsutaka reported a depth charge attack on a US submarine. US Navy records show that USS Baya and Lagarto were attacking the convoy that the Hatsutaka was vigilantly guarding. The USS Baya was not able to re-establish radio contact with the USS Lagarto and it was assumed that this was the depth charge responsible.


Torpedo Tube

The USS Lagarto has to be a once in a lifetime dive. A respected war grave, she lies in 73m of water in The Gulf of Thailand and only accessible to those with deep water training and experience. Only recently re-discovered – I can only begin to imagine the keenness and intensity of feeling when the USS Lagarto revealed herself to human eyes for the first time in 60 years.

Dive trips leave from Koh Tao and are limited, but those lucky enough will be awed by her distinctive shape, silent guns and bridge complete with target data transmitter, telegraph and target sight. Descending down a line into very deep yet clear blue water is a feeling that has to be experienced to be understood. You are immersed in deep blue aware only of your breathing and the lure of what lies beneath.


Target Sight

Surrounded by jacks schooling in translucent blue water, watching the USS Lagarto’s form appear, is something any deep diver will find exhilarating. Emerging, periscope shears and conning tower first she’ll draw you into her history – a truly unforgettable dive.

In a simple 20 minute tour you can easily acquire over an hours decompression schedule and she is best explored in sections.

A whole dive can be spent exploring her conning tower and immediate area which exhibits the bridge complete with all her gadgets plus mute guns and by dropping to port side you will see the fatal depth charge damage. Journeying to the bow for the irresistible purpose of gazing up at her immensity will reward you with sealed escape hatch, anchor, dive planes and torpedo tubes en route. Check the starboard side for proof of her tenacity to the last. The stern compensates the adventurer with colossal twin propellers, more guns and the US Navy memorial.


Gun

She has only been dived a handful of times by very few and each dive reveals something new to the team. Guns, anchors and instruments were found and noticed for the first time during my plunge into history and I feel fulfilled to have been part of this historic process. The team see themselves very much as caretakers – curators if you will – of this piece of history and fiercely protective. I left feeling confident that she would be respected and tended with the esteem she deserves.

Without doubt the most supreme dive. The satisfaction I felt can only be rivaled by the gratification taken by the families of those lost – finally understanding their loved ones last moments and final resting place.

The shot had landed close to the bow in 73m of water, shrouded in nets but in one piece the 100m long Balao class submarine’s outline was indisputable. Her submerged holes permitted a spectral light to pass through her phantom-like form, yet in the silence of their awesome discovery Jamie and Stewart would swear they heard her fight and spirit across time.


Exploring the Lagarto

USS Lagarto was officially identified by both her location and her unusual 5 inch guns mounted fore and aft of the conning tower. Damage to the port side indicates she was indeed hit by depth charge. The position of her dive planes and rudder show that the sub had made a hard dive to port in her final moments – a classic evasive maneuver and an open torpedo tube supports the suggestion that she went down fighting.

These facts gave closure to the families of the veterans and only served to increase the pride they had in their loved ones. A private family ceremony was held over the site just 2 months after her rediscovery with a formal memorial with full military honors held in Wisconsin 10 months later. Indeed the US Navy met with MV Trident over the site to formally recognize the USS Lagarto, memorializing the lives of the 86 servicemen lost. The brass plaque and flag can still be seen on the wreck today. May they rest in peace.


The memorial flag left on the Lagarto

Book Review: Lonely Planet Diving And Snorkeling Thailand

Lonely Planet’s Thailand Diving And Snorkelling Guidebook is packed with amazing underwater images but quite thin on the info you need to get the most out of the country’s incredible scuba diving

The newly updated Lonely Planet Thailand Diving And Snorkelling is one of the prettiest books LP have ever published. Written and illustrated by underwater photography pro Tim Rock, this dive guide is crammed full of his jawdroppingly good photos. Full colour pictures of whale sharks, manta rays, leopard sharks and coral reefs jump out from every page. Flicking through this book will definitely makes you want to go diving, and this photo led approach is something the non-diving LP guides could do with as well, rather than their usual walls of text. Unfortunately, when you turn to the book for practical advice on where to go diving in Thailand, it feels like there are a few pages missing.


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Diving And Snorkelling Thailand breaks the country’s dive sites into five groups – Phuket and Phi Phi, Similan and Surin Islands, Western Gulf, Eastern Gulf and Myanmar, which is a nice addition as several liveaboards run from the Similans up into Myanmar’s Mergui Archipelago. Each section is prefaced with a brief overview and then gives a description of every dive site in the vicinity. The problem with this approach is that is quickly becomes very dull to read. In my experience divers are not actually that interested in each particular dive site they are going to visit – they are interested in the overall experience of an area and a general sense of what they might encounter. While some dive sites undoubtedly deserve to be singled out – the amazing encounters with manta rays you can often have at Koh Bon, for example, makes it a must-see site – in general these just need to be highlights rather than doggedly finding something to say about each site.

Tim Rock has written hundreds of articles for scuba magazines and would have been perfect to write evocative essays about the experience of diving each of the locations described here, but instead the book’s format has constrained his writing style into basically writing fish lists – i.e. what you might see when you dive at each site. This trainspotter approach is extremely reductive, and doesn’t really capture the essence of what it’s like to go on a Similans liveaboard or to learn to dive on Koh Tao.

There’s also some peculiar omissions – the Phuket and Phi Phi section, for example, doesn’t even mention Phi Phi’s neighbouring, far less developed island Koh Lanta, which is where the majority of boats depart from to visit Koh Haa, one of South Thailand’s best sites. There is a burgeoning scuba industry on Lanta that is perfect for those who want some peace and quiet away from Phi Phi’s party scene or Phuket’s crowds. Similarly, Khao Lak, fully recovered from the tsunami and the closest place to the Similan Islands on the Thai mainland, is completely omitted, despite it being far more of a backpacker dive destination than Phuket itself. Admittedly, I’ve got a vested interest in both Koh Lanta and Khao Lak as I work with dive companies there (Phuket Diving Safaris and Amazing Lanta), but I’m baffled that they don’t even warrant a single mention.

The weather information is also perfunctory at best. Koh Tao and Pattaya are diveable all year round, while the sites in the Similan Islands and Southern Thailand are only accessible from October to April. While the book correctly states this, there’s no mention of the fact that it’s quite dangerous to try and visit these sites during May to September due to the monsoon weather. Hence most operators stop running to the Similans and Southern Thailand during this period. While Phi Phi and the dive sites around it are accessible all year round, the ocean sites like Hin Daeng/Hin Muang and Koh Haa are not. Ditto with the Similan Islands – you won’t find many liveaboards going out there during May to September because it’s simply too rough. Two Thai liveaboards sank in 2005 and a passenger ferry to Koh Phi Phi sank as recently as September 2007 due to these conditions, so it’s not simply a case of some bad weather and a choppy crossing – the monsoon makes the Andaman Sea genuinely dangerous.

While it’s a gorgeous book to look at, Diving And Snorkelling Thailand has the feel of a rigid editorial template that’s been imposed on its subject matter without thinking what’s really best for the reader. A few more pages at the beginning comparing and contrasting (and, indeed, simplifying) the main dive choices for visitors – Koh Tao, Similan Islands, South Thailand or Pattaya – would have been good. The book could really do with a lot more info on the process of learning to dive itself , given that Koh Tao is the biggest place for getting your PADI certification in all of Asia Pacific, besides Cairns in Australia. As it is, Koh Tao doesn’t even get a look in until p101. I imagine a lot of people who want to learn to dive will pick up this book and be disappointed at the lack of pointers about what to expect.

There is also the apres-dive culture to consider – most backpackers love Koh Tao and Phi Phi not only because the diving is fun, but because the islands have a great party scene. Whereas if you go on a Similans liveaboard, you better like being on board a boat for 4 days and spending all your time eating, sleeping and diving. These sorts of things are important to point out in a guidebook to help people choose the sort of dive experience they will most enjoy, because it’s not entirely about just what you see in the water.

There are many more ways Diving And Snorkelling Thailand could have sliced and diced its information to make it more accessible – e.g A round up of the best places to see manta rays or whale sharks or octopus or barracuda in Thailand. There could have been more info on exactly what each of these creatures are too, plus highlighting some of the more weird and wonderful critters you might encounter, like the spearing mantis shrimp or leaf fish. There is a basic Best Dives box at the beginning but it doesn’t really inspire that much.

More importantly, LP should have made specific budget and luxury recommendations for dive operators in each area too, and provided much more specific info on travelling to each dive centre (i.e. how to get from Bangkok to Koh Tao or the Similan Islands) – as it is, the travel section is generic stuff imported from the standard LP guide and the list of dive operators at the end is large but without any editorial comment and so fairly useless. There’s zero info on where to stay at any of the locations too like Koh Tao or Phi Phi, which indicates LP clearly see this guide as a supplement to their main Thailand guide rather than a standalone book.

If Diving and Snorkelling Thailand had this extra attention to detail which would have taken up another 30 – 40 pages or so, it would have made a useful – and still concise – guide to diving in Thailand, despite my reservations of the dive site by dive site format. As it is, the book whets your appetite with its spectacular photos, but then becomes quite frustrating to use in terms of making it clear how you can travel and stay at these different locations and how you can best experience these sites. There are plenty of places online you can get this info – the Scubaboard forums or Lonely Planet’s own Thorn Tree Diving and Snorkelling forum – which makes its omission all the more bizarre. Bottom line – buy it for the photos, but don’t expect to be able to navigate your way through Thailand’s diving using this guidebook on its own.


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Tech Diving In Thailand – The Ultimate Adventure

My good friend Ayesha Cantrell recently became a Technical Diving Instructor, one of the few women to take on the challenges of going below 60 metres and teaching others how to enter this amazing but hostile environment. Here she describes what attracted her to tech diving and why she did her tech courses in Thailand

1) What made you want to take up tech diving?
Curiosity. I had so many unanswered questions – what happens when you go into deco – how does everything change – how’s the narcosis and what the hell is really down there anyway!! And do I really need all these tanks and all this equipment (yes)???? I knew that it was going to be a challenge for me physically too but I also knew that it would improve my knowledge and experience as a dive professional. I also have a big girl chip on my shoulder and this type of diving is usually dominated by men – so therefore anything you can do …I actually started my tech courses in Mexico and although I loved it technical diving in this region revolves around fresh water cave exploration rather than open ocean diving – really not my thing.


Ayesha

2) What previous scuba experience do you have and how do you progress to being a tech diver?
I’m a scuba diving instructor and have dived all over the world but you don’t have to be that experienced. As a recreational diver you can be trained as a technical dive but you do need some experience and qualifications. You must have entry level, Advanced and Rescue qualifications plus your basic Nitrox qualifications. Beyond that you must be experienced in deep diving too within recreational limits – however any dive centre offering a technical course will undoubtably be able to offer you the courses and experience that you may be missing to start you technical diving adventure.

The most important thing to remember is that you are happy with your chosen school – check out their experience and qualifications and what type of diving they are doing. For me it was important that they were active and experienced technical divers with a solid group of active and experienced divers to learn from, running trips frequently in order to keep skills up to date so that I didn’t finish my course with no outlet for interesting diving. Technical diving isn’t for everyone and you must be comfortable with the risks.


Getting in the water can be tricky

3) Why did you choose Thailand as the place to do your tech course?
I always intended to complete my courses and upon arriving back to Koh Tao in Thailand to work as a underwater videographer for ACE Marine Images I started to look around for training. To complete my course I wanted experienced and active technical divers – and some real diving – not recreational sites – and knowing Koh Tao well I didn’t think this would be available.

In my 18 month absence from the island however things had changed. I was introduced to Jamie and Stuart who are the proud owners of MV Trident – Thailand’s first technical liveaboard. Fully equipped, the team are finding virgin wreck sites each time they drop mooring lines. I knew this is where I wanted to be – being among the first to dive some of these deep wrecks is absolutely amazing. I’ve always loved wrecks and these are untouched – finding each wreck as she has slept on the sea bed unseen by human eyes for decades – everything is as it fell – not like the sanitized wrecks dived by hundreds each day. Having the opportunity to venture down the shot line just to see what is at the bottom – if that large red mass picked up by the boat’s sounder is another wreck or …? Amazing – true exploration and hidden treasure. Where do you get that in the world now ???

Techthailand.com is Jamie and Stuart’s website for the MV Trident. I’ve been on 3 trips now and each time it just gets better. Descending down that line is something I can’t describe – I never knew 60m was that far. The water on top of the thermacline must top 30m viz….dipping into the thermacline and seeing the wreck appear like some lumbering ghost, shrouded by nets, groupers the size of cars hiding in wheelhouses, and everything just literally as it slipped and fell as the ship took her last gasp of sea air. A lot of the wrecks we have dived still need identification and we identified one on the last trip – even finding her bow over a mile away. Barracuda the size of me keeping a watchful eye on your deco schedule, jellyfish floating passed like mini eco systems of their own and belligerent sea snakes to avoid on the deco bar !!


MV Trident

4) Will you be doing tech diving elsewhere in Thailand e.g. Pattaya or Hin Muang
Hin Daeng and Hin Muang are definately tempting at some point in the future but for now I’m counting the days til MV Trident drops her mooring lines once again in the new year to visit a few old friends and search for new wrecks …

5) what’s the most important thing you’ve learnt while tech diving
Check everything and be prepared for anything…..

6) Do you ever get the fear when you are down at 60 metres? How do you deal with it?
I’m not sure I’ve experienced ‘the fear’ yet but certainly I’ve been given a few different slants on reality due to our old friend narcosis.


Check everything twice…

7) Do you prefer tech diving to recreational diving (above 40 m)
Im sure i will never lose the love for the relative simplicity offered through recreation diving – I do like reefs and ‘pretty’ fish (sorry boys- I’m still a girl) but recognise that in order to feed my wreck passion and sometimes in other instances too that diving deeper is required and this needs to be done safely and with the proper procedures.

8 ) You’ve worked as an Open Water instructor for the last couple of years – what do you think you’ll do next in the dive world?
My decision now is whether just to keep technical diving as a hobby or whether to teach or whether to take my photography and videography skills to a whole new depth – but all this costs ….

9) What’s your favourite colour
BLUE

NB: Ayesha became a Technical Diving Instructor after she wrote up these answers for me and has subsequently dived the USS Lagarto, the USA submarine discovered by Jamie and Stuart on the MV Trident in 2006 in the Gulf of Thailand. Thanks to Ayesha for taking time out to answer all my questions!

My Recent Dive Trips

My Less Recent Dive Trips

Back In The Day Bragging Rights Dive Trips

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