Chinese vessel accused of looting U.K. warships that sunk after Pearl Harbor

The sinking of the British Royal Navy warships, HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse, by Japanese military pilots in the Pacific during World War II caused shockwaves around the world. Taking place on December 10, 1941, just days after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, this event confirmed Japan’s naval dominance in the South China Sea and left the British Empire’s eastern fleet in Singapore without significant naval protection. Singapore was subsequently captured by the Japanese three months later.

Recently, Malaysian authorities launched an investigation into a Chinese-registered cargo ship suspected of looting the shipwrecks, which are designated as war graves for the 842 soldiers who lost their lives there. The vessel was detained after it anchored without authorization off Johor state in southern Malaysia. It had 32 crew members on board, including 21 Chinese nationals, 10 from Bangladesh, and one Malaysian. The ship was registered in Fuzhou, but its owner could not be immediately identified.

During the inspection, officials from Malaysia’s Maritime Enforcement Agency discovered scrap metal and rusty cannon shells on board, suspected to be connected to unexploded artillery and other relics that had been seized by the police at a scrapyard earlier in the month. Malaysian authorities are collaborating with the National Heritage Department to determine if the shells found on the cargo ship date back to World War II.

This incident raises concerns about the protection of historic wrecks from looters. The National Museum of the Royal Navy is calling for a national plan to safeguard its approximately 5,000 naval wrecks worldwide. Dominic Tweddle, the museum’s director general, expressed distress over the apparent vandalism for personal profit and the loss of naval heritage, which affects the understanding of Royal Navy history.

The sunken warships contain a particular type of steel, known as low-background or prewar steel, which is valued by salvagers for its use in medical and scientific devices. Unlike postwar steel, low-background steel was produced before the first nuclear bomb detonations and lacks the traces of nuclear fallout that can interfere with radiation-sensitive equipment. Experts estimate that the value of the raw materials taken from the HMS Prince of Wales wreck is at least $4 million, even if sold as local scrap metal. Relics made of copper or bronze, such as propellers and engine components, hold even higher value.

Local fishermen tipped off maritime experts after spotting the Chinese cargo ship near the wrecks earlier in the month. Using satellite and vessel tracking, the archaeologists discovered a sustained campaign of destruction at the HMS Prince of Wales wreck site, with the ship returning six times and spending a total of about 54 days there. The ship’s double cranes were used to extract materials from the wreck. It was also observed unloading scrap at a yard near Singapore, where piles of unexploded shells and bullets were later found. The alleged pillage resulted in a significant oil slick.

To conceal its activities, the Chinese cargo ship likely manipulated its location data through the Automatic Identification System (AIS), a transponder network used to prevent collisions among large tankers. By turning off the AIS transponder and hiding its signals, the ship made it challenging to track its movements, especially in offshore sites like the wrecks of HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse.

This is not the first time the Chinese-flagged cargo ship has targeted World War II wrecks in the area. It was involved in salvaging operations on numerous sunken warships belonging to Western and Japanese navies in the Java Sea between 2012 and 2017. Following a global outcry, Malaysian and Indonesian officials cracked down on such activities. Although the recently detained ship is the first known return to the area, marine archaeologists hope that its seizure will put an end to these destructive actions and prevent history from repeating itself.