In recent news, Malaysian maritime authorities have detained a Chinese dredger suspected of plundering two World War II Royal Navy shipwrecks last year. The MV Chuan Hong 68 and its entire crew are being held on paperwork violations, including port clearances and having unregistered liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) containers aboard. However, the larger issue is how a ship with a history of bad reputation was allowed to operate in Malaysian waters again.
Investigators are looking into why and by what means Chuan Hong 68 was issued permits to carry out salvage operations on MV Armada in February and a wreck identified as “Maritime Fidelity” in September last year, both off Johor. The dredger’s suspected plundering of the two warships for their valuable metals occurred in May 2023.
During an inspection of Chuan Hong 68, rusting artillery shells and other scrap from the sunken warships were discovered on board. Malaysian authorities subsequently confiscated two cannons, more ordnance, and other objects in a junkyard that likely came from other wrecks as well.
Both “notices to mariners” regarding salvage operations had been deleted from the country’s maritime posting website, which are guides for authorities on vessels operating within their territorial waters. The local police, Malaysia’s National Heritage Department and its Maritime Enforcement Agency and Marine Department are also participating in the investigation into how the permits were granted and subsequently purged from the website.
In May last year before the second salvage operation began, Chuan Hong 68 was detained in the same waters for allegedly crushing and removing the wreckage of the Royal Navy battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Repulse. Both ships were sunk by Japanese bombers during the invasion of the Malay Peninsula in December 1941, days after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The director-general of the Museum of the Royal Navy expressed concern over the vulnerability of historic heritage sites to thieves intent on plundering war graves. The Royal Navy termed the dredging of the historic wreckage site “disgraceful.
Southeast Asian news media have also reported that Chuan Hong 68 is suspected of illegal shipwreck salvaging of Dutch warships in Indonesia’s Java Sea, as well as Singapore, Cambodia, and Vietnam. No updates on the case have been released since the suspected scavenging of the two Royal Navy ships occurred over a year ago.
