Subic Bay (3 hours drive north of Manila) was the site of a US Navy base (and prior to that a Spanish Navy base). Having been off-limits to fishermen and divers during this time the large natural harbour contains a wide variety of wrecks in good condition and a wide range of fish and marine life.
Dive conditions are excellent, no currents, waves, surge, and water temp from 27-30’C.Vis ranges from 25+m to 5-8m on the closer inshore wrecks at certain times.
There are currently 8 wreck dive sites and various reef sites around Grande Island.
The prize dive is the USS New York (renamed USS Saratoga in 1911 and USS Rochester in 1917), a Battlecruiser built in 1891 and served in the Spanish-American war and WWI. She was scuttled in Dec 1941 to prevent the Japanese capturing her
2x8 inch fore and aft turret main guns, which are visible on the dive. The 4-inch secondary guns have been removed but this gun deck makes a good swim through, exiting from one of the gun ports by the ascent line.
There are two landing craft, some of the few diveable examples outside of the Normandy beaches. A US LCU (Landing Craft Utility) which at 5-20m makes a pleasant dive and a US LST (Landing Ship Tank) at 28-35m. The main tank deck makes a good swimthrough and then the swim back along the top deck, where there are 20mm AA gun platforms, ammunition lockers, air vents, hatches, winches, cables and other equipment, together with schools of Barracuda and reef rays. This is the deepest dive.
Around Grande Island at the entrance to the bay and harbour, we dived the “San Quentin” a Spanish warship sunk as a blockship in 1898 during the Spanish American War. The wreck is broken up with the bow and stern part intact and 2 large boilers in the centre. This 14m shallow dive has a lot of coral growth (soft and hard) and plenty of marine life, including friendly batfish, trumpet fish, lionfish, spotted sweetlips etc. A great photographers dive. Grande Island had a US Coastal Defence Fort with 6-inch guns and was also used as an R&R resort for officers and their families; today it is a holiday resort island. There are around 20 barges scuttled that were used to transport cargo between the island and the naval base and several reefs. These make good shallow photo dives, with abundant marine life.
The other wrecks we dived were the “Sean Maru”, the “El Capitan” and a Japanese Patrol Boat. All are at reasonable depths (15-28m) and have good swim throughs, coral and marine life. The Japanese Patrol Boat sits upright and intact and has good sot and hard corals and plenty of marine life, including schools of jacks, trevallies, spotted sweetlips, lapu-lapu etc. We saw 4 rare orange and blue pipefish.
The wreck of the “Oryoko Maru” or “Hell Ship” lies close to Alava pier and is off limits to divers as it is a designated war grave and also in the main shipping channel from the port (it has been dynamited to reduce hazards). On 13 December 1944 the ship was bombed and sunk by aircraft from the USS Hornet. Tragically, and unknown to the pilots, there were 1619 Allied POW’s below decks in the holds. Only few hundred survived.
We dived with SBAS (Subic Bay Aqua Sports) located on the waterfront and stayed at the Boardwalk Inn opposite (booked via SBAS). SBAS are PADI certified instructors and Stuart Gibbs completed his Junior Advanced Open Water
There are direct flights from Singapore to Manila by Singapore and Philippine Airlines and budget carrier Tiger Airways flies direct to Clark Field.
More info on the wrecks can be found on:
www.liddiard.demon.co.uk/photoix/subic_bay/subic.htm
www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Rapids/2637/Wrecks.html?200530
SBAS can be contacted via Bhing & Anne at: sbas_inc@hotmail.com
Nigel Gibbs
February 2006
