Wreck Diving has always captured the imagination of many divers around the world, the mysterious history of these sunken ships will trigger the inner explorer inside all of us. Just imagine swimming around in an ominous new world that’s hidden deep in the darkness of the ocean bottom, not knowing what you can find around the corner of these artificial reefs. If this gets you excited, then you might be ready to visit one of our many wrecks in the Maldives. In this article, we will explore our ‘best wreck dives in the Maldives’ together.
Is special training required?
Most of our wreck dives don’t require any special wreck training to visit them and, in most cases can be visited by Advanced Open Water divers or higher. Although it is recommended that you are a certified Enriched Air Diver, so the depth of the wreck will not be an issue. It is important to mention that wrecks can only be penetrated under the right conditions, and with the proper Wreck Diving specialty, just contact your favorite Euro-Divers Maldives dive center to find out if this specialty is available at their location.
Hembadhoo Wreck
Eriyadu: Plenty of wrecks to dive on
At Euro-Divers Eriyadu, we are lucky enough to house 4 different wreck sites, so there are plenty of choices to pick the perfect one. If wreck diving is your passion, then this can be the location for you.
Hembadhoo Wreck
The first wreck site is called the Hembadhoo and is found 45 minutes away from Eriyadu resort. This wreck is a former tugboat and got sunken by the dive center back in 1988. It is about 16 meters long and lies around 22 meters in depth. The top is at 15 meters, so it’s quite shallow and easy to access. Inside the wreck, you can find many wonderful creatures using this wreck as their personal reef. There is also a small wall nearby where most of the time you will finish the dive.
SS Sea Gull
The SS Sea Gull wreck is the furthest away from the resort and takes about 1 hour and 40 minutes to reach, but once you are there, it will be worth the travel. The SS Sea Gull was a 1012 tons steamboat and was wrecked with a crew of 32 and 3 passengers back in 1879. There isn’t a lot more known with certainty about the history of this wreck and there are even some confusions about the origin of the ship. Most of the wreck has been decaying over time, but there is some great historical value as it is the oldest wreck around. After visiting the wreck, you can even stop by a cave found around 30 meters in depth.
Erlangen
The Erlangen wreck is named after the German city it originated from. The wreck lies around 1-2 kilometers west of the ‘east channel’ of the Gaafaru atoll. It will take approximately 1 hour 30 minutes to reach. The Erlangen ship traveled from Colombo to Hamburg when it got wrecked back in 1894. Many of the remains can be found on the top of the reef between 5 and 15 meters of depth, but the main part is found over 40 meters of depth.
Lady Christine
The Lady Christine wreck can be found 1 hour and 15 minutes away from the resort, 1 kilometer south of the ‘west channel’ of Gaafaru. The vessel got shipwrecked while laying down communication cables and accidentally ran into the reef in 1974. The wreck itself is found at 40–45 meters of depth and can even be seen from the surface with good visibility. At 30 meters of depth, you can even find a cave that holds one of the doors from the ship.
Kagi: Diving the Gaafaru wrecks
Like Eriyadu, Euro-Divers Kagi also dives the same wrecks located at Gaafaru (SS Sea Gull, Erlangen and Lady Christine), which is about 25 minutes away from the resort. Gaafaru is a large, oval-shaped reef with only a small, inhabited island. So many wrecks are found here because the channel on the north side has long been a shipping lane and has taken many ships over the years. As a result, the wreck sites are some of Gaafaru’s biggest tourist attractions and attract many divers.
Kurumba: The famous Maldives Victory wreck
Euro-Divers Kurumba is lucky enough to be just 10 minutes away from one of the most well-known wrecks in the Maldives. The Maldives Victory wreck is one of the biggest around with a length of 83 meters and rests between 15 and 35 meters of depth. This cargo ship was shipwrecked back in February 1981 after returning from a trip carrying goods from Singapore to the Maldives. Reportedly the ship hit a reef near Hulhule Island and sank straight after. The wreck has a great variety of marine life like trevallies, lionfish, groupers, batfish, and some amazing macro life like nudibranch and pipefish.
West Rock’s Cargo Wreck
Meeru: West Rock’s Cargo Wreck
Not all wrecks will have a rich history. Some of them are just there for us to enjoy. The cargo shipwreck in West Rock is one of them. Only 15 minutes away from the resort, this wreck was found between 15 and 25 meters of depth and was sunk back in 1999. What makes this wreck dive unique is that on most occasions, this dive is done as a night dive, which add another dimension to the mystery of wreck diving especially when using FLUO lights. You can see both corals and macro life light up in the most amazing colors.
Kudhimaa Wreck
LUX* & Vilamendhoo: From shipwrecks to artificial reefs
At Euro-Divers LUX* and Euro-Divers Vilamendhoo, there are 2 different wrecks that can be dived, the Randhi Botu wreck and the Kudhimaa wreck. Both wrecks are purposely sunken to serve as artificial reefs.
Randhi Botu wreck
The first wreck was actually sunken by Euro-Divers on the 29th of April 1997 together with the Maldivian government. The former fishing vessel named Randhi No. 11 can be found 20 minutes away from the resort. The wreck is only 23 meters long and has a maximum depth of 28 meters, with the top being at 18 meters. The wreck lies on the sandy bottom resting on its starboard side.
Kudhimaa wreck
The second wreck, called the Kudhimaa wreck, is a 52m long Japanese Cargo ship about 50 minutes away from the resort. The vessel was sunk in March of 1999 by the dive center of Machafushi, especially for divers. The wreck lies upwards, tilted slightly to the side at a maximum depth of 30 meters. This wreck houses many different marine life. Numerous stonefish lionfish can be found on the top deck around 20 meters together with many batfish, glassfish and surgeonfish. Around the wreck, you can find trevallies hunting and sometimes even nurse sharks or some stingrays. For macro life enthusiasts, you can even find up to 6 different nudibranchs and pipefish hanging around the wreck.
Can’t wait to book your next wreck diving adventure with us? Click here to find more information about how to book online.
Everything started with my Open Water Course at Koh Tao, Thailand. I’m hooked with the first breath I took underwater – this magical and peaceful world with all these different colors and creatures made me forget about everything else. It felt like an addiction.
This time made me realize that I don’t want to keep diving only as a hobby. I wanted to become a Diving Instructor and make diving my profession.
I was working as an entertainer in one of the resorts in South Male atoll. The first time I tried diving I absolutely fell in love with it, so every day off I would go diving.
I was lucky enough to meet people from Euro-Divers who helped me complete my instructor course and employment later on.
That trip changed everything. Since 2014, I visited more than 50 countries in three continents.
2019, 2020, 2021 – still in Maldives, enjoying what I love the most.
Im sonnigen Süden (Ägypten) lernte ich im Urlaub die unglaubliche Unterwasserwelt bei einem Schnuppertauchgang kennen und lieben.
Anfangs arbeitete ich im Tauchcenter im Büro, mir wurde jedoch schnell klar, dass ich die Gäste nicht nur über Wasser sondern auch unter Wasser begleiten wollte. Somit machte ich die Divemaster Ausbildung.
I studied Hotel management and ended up working for several years in different Hotels/Resorts around Italians seaside where I spend my days off diving and achieving the Dive Master rating.
I choose to stay in Oman because of its unspoiled dive site, beaches and many undiscovered dive places! We do not have mass tourism here and the country itself is spectacular besides being the safest place to live in.
Bored and burnt out of the stressful life in Holland, I quit my job as Manager Back Office & Finance and I went to Curacao for holiday. On this tropical island I took my first breaths under water with Instructor Marc, who is still my buddy in life.
Diving keeps me grounded, relaxed and connected with Mother Nature (myself). It supports me to let go, to put things into perspective and it helps me to stay focused and balanced in my position as a manager.
But diving was not at all my purpose of the journey, in fact I was not even a diver yet, I became a diver after I got passionate in freediving in Egypt in 2012 while freediving with dolphin in the wild, eager to become a snorkeling guide, I did my life guard licence and then my PADI open water!
I love freediving but scuba diving is an all other story for me, learning scuba diving make you discover part of yourself you didn’t know, you learn to control things that you would have never imagined possible, I regularly see many of my students discovering how calm they can be underwater when in life they tend to be hyperactive and then in the other hand I see calm or introverted persons becoming excited and move like a torpedo underwater 🙂 so diving might not be for everyone but it is definitely to discover!
I decided after my hospitality studies to enter this fascinating new world. I have started my career in Club Med as Guest Service and had the opportunity to travel some of the famous destinations for diving or snorkeling.
I am the perfect example of someone who was scared of diving, the only advice I could give is to believe in yourself.
But since I was young, I knew I wanted to travel the world, to go on adventures, have fun and meet people from everywhere. Unfortunately, those jobs didn’t give me the opportunity to do it so after 5 years I decided to move to Thailand.
Scuba Diving is a sport of passion.
During this time, I wanted to try something new, so I started scuba diving and I will never forget my first underwater experience. I felt nervous at first but at the same time a lot of excitement.
Some people might think that diving is a difficult sport, but there are many ways to enjoy safe diving for any age or gender.
