Wreck of P-33 patrol boat in Malta heavily damaged by storms – video

Malta’s newest artificial reef, the wreck of the patrol boat P-33, suffered severe damage as a result of winter storms.

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We have received bad news from Malta regarding one of the shipwrecks there. Strong winter storms have severely damaged the wreck of the patrol boat P-33. It has suffered to such an extent that it no longer looks anything like the great vessel it was when it was sunk in August 2021.

According to the information we have received, the wreck of the patrol boat P-33 was sunk in a fatal place. Moreover, it is said that even before the sinking, there were warnings and voices that predicted such a turn of events. Unfortunately they were ignored and the wreck ended up on the bottom in a place where it was exposed to storms.

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Probably this is only the beginning of the whole affair, as the sinking of the P-33 was a large and very expensive operation. Now more money will be needed to cover the action of “cleaning up” the wreck of the patrol boat. Therefore, it is possible that someone will have to bear responsibility for the whole situation.

As many elements of the wreck were torn off by winter storms, they will have to be brought to the surface. In turn, the fate of the wreck itself is not yet determined. However, it is very possible that the whole wreck will also have to be taken out of the water. This is all the more regrettable, as most divers have not even had time to see what it looks like underwater.

History of the P-33 patrol boat

The P-33 patrol boat is a Bremse class vessel. She was built in Germany in 1971-72, and arrived in Malta in 1992, along with her sister ship the P-32 and two Condor-class boats, the P-29 and P-31. Prior to that, all vessels served in the East German navy. When Germany was reunified in the early 1990s Malta bought them at a bargain price.

The P-33 vessel served as a patrol boat with the Malta Armed Forces Marine Squadron until it was withdrawn from service in 2005. Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo said the sinking of the wreck was part of a €250,000 investment. The whole project was expected to benefit the tourism industry and strengthen Malta’s diving sector.

Photo: Arkadiusz Srebnik/Poland Diving Photo

Malta is a great place for a diving trip. Very diverse in terms of diving sites and level of difficulty. You can read more about diving in Malta in Carollina Wells’ article, which we published in issue 17. DIVERS24 quarterly! The digital version of the magazine is available free of charge, while the printed version can be purchased from our webshop.