Crew of Chinese ‘grave robber’ vessel suspected of looting British WW2 shipwrecks quizzed by police

Malaysia’s Coast Guard said on Tuesday that authorities were questioning the crew of a Chinese ship detained on suspicion of plundering two British World War II shipwrecks.

Officers discovered unexploded shells while boarding the China-registered Chuan 68 vessel, which was detained over the weekend for illegal anchoring, said Nurul Hizam Zakaria, head of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency in Johor state.

The shipwrecks of the battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser HMS Repulse are designated official war graves under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 and the Protection of Maritime Relations Act 1986, and must not be disturbed.

‘Our research is now focusing on the origin of these cannonballs. At the moment we have officers from multiple agencies searching the large ship,” he told AFP.

Nurul Hizam said the ship from Fuzhou city had a crew of 32, including 21 Chinese nationals, 10 Bangladeshis and a Malaysian, some of whom were detained by the Coast Guard for questioning.

1939: HMS Repulse, a 26,500-ton British Renown-class battlecruiser at Portsmouth

“This case also concerns the discovery of explosives,” he said.

China’s foreign ministry said the Chinese embassy in Malaysia was in close contact with local authorities “to understand the situation.”

It asked Malaysia to handle the case “fairly and in accordance with the law.” Beijing also asked Malaysia to protect the rights and safety of Chinese citizens.

A senior Malaysian maritime official told AFP on condition of anonymity that the pieces of metal and shells could have come from the two sunken British warships.

More than 800 British sailors were killed when HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse were torpedoed by Japanese aircraft in the South China Sea.

The attack on December 10, 1941, took place three days after Japan attacked the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Photos and a video shared by the Malaysian Coast Guard showed large pieces of corroded metal and shells, as well as a large crane and gas torches used to cut metal on board the ship.

The shells may also be linked to the finding of World War II unexploded ordnance on a jetty in Johor on May 19, the maritime service said in a statement Monday.

Nurul Hizam said the maritime service would not tolerate any form of illegal salvage activity in Malaysian waters.

“Our national treasure must be protected and preserved,” he said, describing looting as “an uncivilized act.”

Britain’s Ministry of Defense condemned the ‘desecration’ of maritime military graves after reports that scavengers targeted the two WWII wrecks, the BBC said on Saturday.

News of the ship’s looting has outraged Admiral Lord Alan West, the former head of the Royal Navy – who lost 22 men when his frigate HMS Ardent was sunk during the Falklands War in 1982.

Destroying the scrap ‘grave robbers’, the former military chief told MailOnline: ‘This is an absolute disgrace.

“These are cemeteries where all the bodies are still. These Chinese wreckers or scrap men don’t give a damn about this.

“It’s a disgusting thing to do. It is very distressing for the families and relatives of the sailors who died on HMS Repulse and HMS Prince of Wales.

“When I think of my ship that sank in the Falklands, I wouldn’t want people diving on it and taking things from it. This is disgusting to happen.’

And another former First Sea Lord of the Royal Navy, Admiral Sir Jonathon Band, told MailOnline: ‘These people are scavengers of the worst kind.’

The crew of the Chuan 68 are known as illegal scavengers.

They were temporarily detained in 2017 over allegations that they snatched parts of three World War II Japanese shipwrecks off Usukan, Malaysia before the Indonesian Navy intercepted the ship as it attempted to retrieve parts of a shipwreck off the Anambas Islands. flights to international waters.

The ship is also notorious for illegally salvaging World War II shipwrecks in Singaporean, Cambodian and Vietnamese waters.

Chaun 68 remains wanted by Indonesian authorities for looting the remains of sunken Dutch warships Hr.Ms. De Ruyter, Hr.Ms. Java and Hr.Ms. Kortenaer in the Java Sea.

A source told it New Straits Times the Chinese ship is known to the shipping community for its looting activity, which has been going on for about 10 years.

The crew scrambles over the side of HMS Prince of Wales before she sinks. Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Repulse were sunk on 10 December 1941 by land-based bombers and torpedo bombers of the Imperial Japanese Navy

British Royal Navy battleship HMS Prince of Wales, H 12911, at anchor in a secret naval port ca. 1941

‘Ten years ago it looked like a dilapidated ship. But it is now equipped with high-tech equipment,” the source said.

“They work mechanically and entirely from the surface of the ship, which is equipped with cranes with huge metal claws.

“The claws can dive more than 200 meters deep. It chops up the ship and pulls up a hundred tons of metal all at once.”

The source said the ship would evade detection by turning off the Global Positioning System (GPS) and Wi-Fi devices on board before submerging.

The coastline off Indonesia and Malaysia is littered with World War II shipwrecks, and Chinese-owned barges equipped with cranes have conducted illegal operations in the war cemeteries of ships belonging to several countries, including Britain, Japan, the Netherlands, India and Australia.

The scavengers are attracted to highly valuable non-irradiated steel – also called low-background steel – from the wrecks.

Steel produced before the detonation of the first atomic bombs in the 1940s – especially the high-performance steel used in the manufacture of warship hulls – is not contaminated with radiation.

It retains its quality long after being submerged under water and is highly sought after by manufacturers of surgical instruments and scientific equipment.

China’s scavengers can melt down the steel they recover and sell it for huge profits.

HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse are seen sinking in the background

In 1941 and 1942 a total of 10 British ships were sunk by Japanese torpedoes and aircraft off the coast of Malaysia and Indonesia, killing more than 1,000 sailors.

HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse, accompanied by four British destroyers, were on a mission in December 1941 to intercept Japanese invasion convoys in the South China Sea.

But the ships put to sea without air cover, and the fleet was attacked by waves of Japanese aircraft, with eight torpedoes hitting their targets.

Both ships capsized as they sank – the remains of the Repulse lie at a depth of 55 metres, with the Prince of Wales even deeper at 70 metres.

In 2018, former British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson commissioned Royal Navy research vessels to examine the wrecks of British warships that had previously been plundered by pirates.

The Ministry of Defense (MoD) said it is in contact with local authorities following the latest looting of the wrecks.