HMS Prince of Wales 1941
Marker: recorded wreck position (Second World War).
Key facts
| Name | HMS Prince of Wales | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Year lost | 1941 | English Wikipedia lead text (year following a loss verb, parsed) |
| Era | Second World War | derived from year |
| Ship type | battleship | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Cause of loss | War action | Keyword match in English Wikipedia lead sentence |
| Nationality / flag | United Kingdom | Wikidata P137 operator → P17 country |
| Operator | Royal Navy | Wikidata P137 operator |
| Conflict | World War II, Sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse, Battle of the Denmark Strait | Wikidata P607 conflict |
| Sea / ocean | South China Sea | Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon |
| Nearest coast | Malaysia | Natural Earth (public domain); approx. 85 km from land |
| Position | 3.5600, 104.4783 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
HMS Prince of Wales was a King George V-class battleship of the Royal Navy that was built at the Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead. Despite being sunk less than a year after she was commissioned, Prince of Wales had an extensive battle history, first seeing action in August 1940 while still being outfitted in her drydock, when she was attacked and damaged by German aircraft. In her brief career, she was involved in several key actions of the Second World War, including the May 1941 Battle of the Denmark Strait, where she scored three hits on the German battleship Bismarck, forcing Bismarck to abandon her raiding mission and head to port for repairs. Prince of Wales later escorted one of the Malta convoys in the Mediterranean, during which she was attacked by Italian aircraft. In her final action, she attempted to intercept Japanese troop convoys off the coast of Malaya as part of Force Z when she was sunk by Japanese aircraft on 10 December 1941, three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
She was sunk alongside her consort, the battlecruiser HMS Repulse, in an attack by 85 Mitsubishi G3M and G4M bombers of the Japanese navy air service.
Diving & visiting
The wreck lies upside down in 223 feet (68 m) of water at 3°33′36″N 104°28′42″E.
A Royal Navy White Ensign attached to a line on a buoy tied to a propeller shaft is periodically renewed. The wreck site was designated a 'Protected Place' in 2001 under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986, just prior to the 60th anniversary of her sinking. The ship's bell was manually raised in 2002 by British technical divers with the permission of the Ministry of Defence and blessing of the Force Z Survivors Association. It was restored, then presented for display by First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Sir Alan West, to the Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool.
Location
- Recorded position: 3.5600, 104.4783 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Sea / ocean: South China Sea
- Nearest coast: Malaysia
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article HMS Prince of Wales (53) (revision 1374723910), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “The wreck”; condensed by selecting paragraphs and trimming at sentence boundaries; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Other wrecks of the World War II
- SS Gracechurch 1940
- SS Rio de Janeiro 1940
- U-13 1940
- U-25 1940
- U-54 1940
- Armando Diaz 1941
- Bismarck 1941
- Fiume 1941
- HMAS Sydney 1941
- HMAS Waterhen 1941
All 599 wrecks of the World War II →
Browse more: Asia wrecks · wrecks off Malaysia · South China Sea · Second World War