Heartbreak as Large-Scale Salvagers Loot Southeast Asia’s WWII Shipwrecks, War Graves

Channel News Asia ^ | 03 Jun 2021 | Neo Chai Chin

[nickcarraway]

It is an uphill battle to track down the culprits, the programme Undercover Asia finds out. Meanwhile, experts urge greater protection of underwater cultural heritage.

Deep-sea diver Dave Yiu has done countless dives to Asia’s World War Two shipwrecks over the past 20 years.

He imagines what life was like aboard the ships, and is awed by their historical value and the surrounding marine life.

In recent years, however, he has also witnessed their destruction first-hand.

Two wrecks that he has often visited are the British Royal Navy battlecruiser HMS (Her Majesty’s Ship) Repulse and battleship HMS Prince of Wales. They sank off the coast of Kuantan, Malaysia on Dec 10, 1941 under Japanese attack.

On a trip in 2013, he noticed a propeller missing from the stern of the 242-metre-long Repulse, which lies about 50 metres underwater at its shallowest point.

[tbw2]

Low Background Steel — So Hot Right Now
https://hackaday.com/2017/03/27/low-background-steel-so-hot-right-now/

The nuclear age changed steel, and for decades we had to pay the price for it. The first tests of the atomic bomb were a milestone in many ways, and have left a mark in history and in the surface of the Earth. The level of background radiation in the air increased, and this had an effect on the production of steel, so that steel produced since 1945 has had elevated levels of radioactivity. This can be a problem for sensitive instruments, so there was a demand for steel called low background steel, which was made before the trinity tests.

[wbarmy]

Thanks to both of you. Total blind spot to me and I had no idea about low background steel.

[jmacusa]

You’d think the Navy would be more vigilant.

Recently I was reading an article in World War Two Magazine
about the wreck of the Australian cruiser HMAS Canberra which was lost in action during The Battle Of Savo Island in 1942.

Looters and salvage hunters have made off with the whole wreck! The entire wreck is gone.

[PeterPrinciple]

Devices that require low-background steel include:

Geiger counters
Medical apparatus: whole body counting and lung counters
Scientific equipment: photonics
Aeronautical and space sensors

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I was referring to the Arizona.
She's been down since the first day of WWII and salt water is taking its toll.
There was a plan to build a “sarcophagus” around the wreck but the admiralty fears any disturbance would cause the ship to collapse.
It can't be touched, except by divers planting the cremated remains of the survivors inside with their ship mates...