USAT Liberty

The USS Liberty is one of a series of 48 ships built in the USA between 1918 and 1920 by the Emergency Fleet Corporation. This corporation was established in 1917 in order to meet the demand for commerce during World War I.

From Ship to Shipwreck

In November 1940, the Liberty was one of the ten ships taken by the US Army to join its defense fleet. As The United States entered the war in November 1941, the Liberty was already in the Pacific, fulfilling its role as a cargo vessel. In January 1942, the ship it was sailing from Australia to the Philippines with a cargo of railway parts and rubber before being torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. The vessel began to sink after being hit near the Lombok Strait, leading rescuers to attempt to tow her to a safe port in the north of Bali. Unfortunately, the severe damage necessitated the deliberate beaching of the vessel in Tulamben in order to salvage what remained of the cargo. The empty ship was resting on the beach until another historical event, the eruption of Mount Agung in 1963. This dramatic eruption killed over 1500 people and destroyed 1700 houses. The seismic activity from the eruption pushed the ship back into the ocean, settling on a black sand slope, just 25 meters from the shore. It is this volcanic event that unexpectedly created an extraordinary dive site, attracting divers from all over the world.