Wreck Diving the HTMS Pangan

Northern Route

HTMS Pangan image from the Thai navy

Image: Thai Navy picture of the H.T.M.S. Pha-ngan

The co-ordinates for this wreck came up in quite few fisherman's records, and the wreck had a couple of different nicknames too.

After a couple of failed attempts we got a good return on the sounder and found a great wreck on her port side in 60m. Two gun placements showed her to be a military wreck, and markings on a telegraph showed her to be pre-war Japanese. We thought we'd found a mystery WW2 maru.

This wreck is about 60 nautical miles from Koh Tao, an easy 6 hour run. She lies on her port side in 60 metres of clear water, the top of the wreck is at 48m. Length is about 60m, beam 10m, weight approx 3000 tons. This wreck is very well appointed, twin screws, lots of portholes, telegraphs and deck machinery.

This was our best find to date, relatively close to Koh Tao, and great for finishing off technical diving courses and we dived her often. Subsequent dives provided us with Thai writing and Royal Thai Navy galley ware. Finally, after noticing that Thai Naval vessels have their name in brass on the stern, we found the Thai letters Pangan .

A 1961 edition of the Bangkok Post told us she was a Royal Thai Navy wreck , built in Japan before WW2. Carrying ammunition and gunpowder for disposal, she reportedly sunk in a storm . Fire damage on the superstructure indicates a fire, however. There was no loss of life.

Diving outside the wreck of the Htms Pangan