Thailand’s most famous shipwreck for divers is the Hardeep – but the World War Two wreck has a whole host of secrets as Peter Walker discovered
Easily the most famous shipwreck within Thailand that’s accessible to recreational divers is the Hardeep, sunk at the end of World War II by the Japanese near to the modern day Thai city of Pattaya. Despite lying on its side in around 25 metres of water that are often subject to strong currents and poor visibility, the Hardeep exerts a fascination on most divers who visit her due to her still-beautiful shape on the sea bed, especially the ship windows that now form its ceiling and send cathedral-like shards of lights into the ship’s interior.
My friend Peter Walker was one of those who fell under the Hardeep’s spell, and set out to find out as much as he could about how the ship came to sink during the skirmishes of World War II. Along the way he discovered the real name of the ship wasn’t the Hardeep at all but the Suddhadib, along with several other surprises that would have been lost to the march of time had Peter not made the effort to track down eyewitnesses of the Suddhadib’s demise and peice together how the ship met its end. This half hour documentary is a fascinating insight into one of Thailand’s forgotten histories. You can see more of Peter’s work at PeterWalker.com
UPDATE: unfortunately the documentary is currently not available on Peter’s site
