Updated 3.45pm with video
A 60m tanker that ran aground on the Qawra coast just over three years ago, was scuttled off Gozo on Monday afternoon and will now start a new life as a diving attraction.
The Hephaestus ironically ran aground on the feast of St Paul’s shipwreck on February 10, 2018. No one was injured.
It was stranded high and dry on the rocks for six months before being patched up, pulled back into the sea and towed to Grand Harbour.
It was found to be too costly to repair, but it was then cleaned in preparation for the scuttling off Xatt L-Aħmar, with all polluting fuel and lubricants drained off and some equipment removed.
The operation to sink the 855-tonne vessel, formerly registered in Togo, was a delicate one, with the operators keen to ensure that it landed the right side up on the seabed, 30 metres below. Several people watched from boats and the nearby shore, also about 30m away.
The operation was handled by Malta Tourism Authority in collaboration with the Professional Diving School (PDSA), and the Gozo Ministry.
Air blows out of the tanker at the start of the scuttling. Photo by Jonathan BorgDiving is an important component of Malta’s tourism offer and several vessels have been scuttled over the years to serve as artificial reefs.
The new wreck is also not far off three popular diving wrecks in the southeast of Gozo, the MV Karwela, MV Xlendi and MV Cominoland. Another small tanker, the Um El Faroud, which exploded in a tragedy that killed nine at Malta Drydocks, was scuttled off the coast of Wied iz-Zurrieq in 1998.
A former AFM patrol boat, the P-31, was scuttled off Comino in 2009 and another off Zonqor Point last year. An old tugboat was scuttled off Exiles, Sliema, in 2013.
Tourism minister Clayton Bartolo meanwhile noted that Hephaestus will attract more high-quality tourists and divers.
"It has been a few years since we have seen the scuttling of a ship this size, and it will help us have a more versatile touristic product," he said.