Wolfgang's photos with the keyword: Tulamben

The U.S.A.T. LIBERTY, a 120 meter long shipwreck, is the remains of a US World War II freighter, torpedoed on January 11,1942 by a Japanese submarine while crossing the Lombok Strait carrying material (rubber and railway parts) from Australia to the Philippines. Two US destroyers hitched up to the ship and tried to tow it to the port of Singaraja. The damage was immense, she was taking too much water and her crew ran the vessel up onto the beach of Tulamben 70 km away from the nearest safe harbor.

Each dive is about 45 Minutes, too short for a full UW exploring. Diving with enriched gas 36 percent oxygen makes me able to stay longer in deep waters.

The wreck is 120 meters long and the home for many species of fish, et al. some Whitetip reef sharks which aren't as shy as in Thai waters.

Jacks are swimming in shoals of thousands or millions fish, to circle the diver in open water.

In the darkness under water its difficult to shoot photos with high speed and low ASA sensibility. Rough graining and chromatic noise is an handicap.

Sometime the shoal darken the UW light. The day changes into a night dive.

Two dives aren't enough to discover the shipwreck and its UW life. Its my inspiration for more visits to Bali and its diving paradises.

The shipwreck now is the home for Millions of fish and corals. An amazing UW paradise and the mystic scenery for every diving visitor.

The US Navy Cargo: Liberty has sunk by Japanese submarine on the 11th of January 1942 during World War II. Before being wreck, she could reached to shore of Tulamben. Then the eruption of Agung volcano in 1963 made her to sleep underwater of Tulamben at 30 depth since 1963. Over 40 years this area became a very beautiful dive site and aquatic lives' heaven.

The American ship wreck USAT Liberty Glo (USS Liberty shipwreck) in Tulamben is Bali's most famous and accessible dive. This is one of the safest wreck dives in the world. This large war victim is just meters from the shore. The armed cargo ship was built in 1918 and served as a supply ship during World War II. It was torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-166 in 1942 while in the strait approx. 10 nautical miles south-west of Lombok (she was carrying railway parts and rubber for the war effort). The ship was rescued and towed towards Bali by a Dutch destroyer the HNLMS Van Ghent. The damage done to the ship was so great that the attempt to reach Singaraja failed, the crew was evacuated and the ship was beached in Tulamben.

Jacks and two Orient Sweetlips fish.

A kind of a grouper fish swims through the school of Jacks.

The intact ship sat beached on this beautiful coast until Bali' s volcano Gunung Agung erupted in 1963. The Liberty crashed beneath the water during its violent eruption. It now sits on a black sand shelf that slopes from about 6 - 30 meters.

My friend Michael has his diving station on Bali and instructs to film by video underwater which isn't so easy as it looks like.