Dive Site: Carolita
Location: Manoel Island, Valletta
Description: Barge
Length: 23 metres approx (75 feet)
Depth: 6 – 22 metres (20 – 72 feet)
Visibility: 10 metres (30 feet)
The Carolita was bombed during WWII whilst moored near some submarines in Valletta harbour which were probably the bombs target. The wreck now lies on a bank at a 45 degree angle and requires a short swim from the entry point on Manoel Island. The visibility may be low, but the floor is still interesting as it is littered with bottles and cans and World War II debris, such as bullets. On the wreck there is a central section in which the engine can be seen. Other features include several sets of ladders and the obvious blast damage to the port side. It is necessary to criss-cross over the deck in order to avoid ascending too quickly and care must be taken in order not to disturb the silt. There is a surprising abundance of sea life, including octopus. Remember to look above your head as large shoals of fish may pass over.
The viz is not usually great and Manoel Island has a reputation. One dive guide once said to me “They’ll steal the skid marks off your underpants”. They’ve now put a security guard on site!
The dive itself is fairly surreal, a grey lunar hillside littered with over half a century’s detritus. You’ll find old beds, a typewriter, a car, countless bottles, a toilet, in fact a microcosm of the Maltese psyche. The wreck lies on the slope bow up and is covered with fish and numerous other residents. If a big ship passes up the creek the noise will send you scuttling for the bottom and somewhere to hide. Altogether an interesting dive.
Divers who come to Malta wreck diving are usually aware about the Um El Faroud, Xlendi ferry, HMS Maori, Imperial Eagle or Blenheim Bomber, but a lot of them don’t know this little, shallow, vertical wreck. Carolita is an easy navigation dive and is full of WW II feelings. Thanks to the Maltese Authority after the war, you can see beds, bullets and armchairs under the water by the wreck. The visibility is poor but the shore of the dive site is like an open museum, watching the old hospital building and the old harbour before diving is fascinating.
Recent extensive research shows it to be an X-lighter built around 1915 for supplying water to troops on the Dardanellas. Some 300 X-lighters were built to land troops, and this was one of 200 converted for either water or oil. It is the only wreck of its type and the only one surviving intact from 1915.
Scubster 