MS ''King Cruiser'' was a car ferry that sank off the West Coast of Southern

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

on 4 May 1997. The ferry was operating between

Phuket Phuket (; th, ภูเก็ต, , ms, Bukit or ''Tongkah''; Hokkien:普吉; ) is one of the southern provinces (''changwat'') of Thailand. It consists of the island of Phuket, the country's largest island, and another 32 smaller islands of ...

and the

Phi Phi Islands The Phi Phi Islands ( th, หมู่เกาะพีพี, , ) are an island group in Thailand between the large island of Phuket and the Straits of Malacca coast of Thailand. The islands are administratively part of Krabi Province. Ko Phi ...

in southern Thailand when she hit a submerged collection of rocky pinnacles at the dive site Anemone Reef, 10 miles off Phi Phi Island. The impact tore a large hole in the hull, and the vessel sank within two and a half hours. All 561 passengers – including both Thai locals and foreign tourists – were rescued. They were picked up by the two police patrol boats and four or five fishing boats which had raced to the rescue in response to an emergency call. One elderly woman sustained a broken back and several others suffered shock.

Causes of the sinking

The ferry was on a regular crossing in normal conditions, and the Anemone Reef was charted and well known by captains in the area. This has led to various unproven theories as to why the accident occurred. Theories include insurance fraud due to the owners experiencing financial difficulties on the unprofitable route, and also that local dive companies paid the captain to sink the vessel as, up until that time, there was no wreck dives around Phuket. The captain was found to be negligent.

Recreational dive site

The vessel is now a popular recreational dive site and acts as an

artificial reef An artificial reef is a human-created underwater structure, typically built to promote marine life in areas with a generally featureless bottom, to control erosion, block ship passage, block the use of trawling nets, or improve surfing. Many ...

to complement the Anemone Reef. The vessel sits upright on a sandy bottom in around 30 m of water. Originally the shallowest part of the wreck rose to about 10 m, but most of the superstructure has collapsed making the shallowest part of the wreck currently deeper than 18 m. The wreck remains largely in one piece, although all of the upper deck has collapsed. The simplest and safest point of entry is through the vessel's stern, where divers can explore the car decks. Machinery still sits on the deck. Inside the car-deck are a couple of vehicle tyres and an engine trolley. Rows of passenger seats and low coffee tables fill the inner recesses. The collapsed foredeck is at 18 metres, where there is often a shoal of snappers. The upper deck is split from front to back. Within and around the wreck there is much coral growth and an abundance of fish.

Soft coral Alcyonacea, or soft corals, are an order of corals. In addition to the fleshy soft corals, the order Alcyonacea now contains all species previously known as "gorgonian corals", that produce a more or less hard skeleton, though quite different f ...

s can be found growing along the sides and top of the wreck. Schools of

bigeye trevally The bigeye trevally (''Caranx sexfasciatus''), also known as the bigeye jack, great trevally, six-banded trevally and dusky jack, is a species of widespread large marine fish classified in the jack family Carangidae. The bigeye trevally is distr ...

are often spotted circling above the captain's cabin. Large schools of yellow snapper hang around the entrances to the car deck and along the remains of the upper deck, and many

Scorpionfish The Scorpaenidae (also known as scorpionfish) are a family of mostly marine fish that includes many of the world's most venomous species. As their name suggests, scorpionfish have a type of "sting" in the form of sharp spines coated with venomo ...

particularly

lionfish ''Pterois'' is a genus of venomous marine fish, commonly known as lionfish, native to the Indo-Pacific. Also called firefish, turkeyfish, tastyfish, or butterfly-cod, it is characterized by conspicuous warning coloration with red, white, crea ...

can be seen around the wreck. There are also occasional encounters with

zebra shark The zebra shark (''Stegostoma tigrinum'') is a species of carpet shark and the sole member of the family Stegostomatidae. It is found throughout the tropical Indo-Pacific, frequenting coral reefs and sandy flats to a depth of . Adult zebra sharks ...

s and

bamboo shark The Hemiscylliidae are a family of sharks in the order Orectolobiformes, commonly known as longtail carpet sharks and sometimes as bamboo sharks. They are found in shallow waters of the tropical Indo-Pacific. They are relatively small sharks, ...

barracuda A barracuda, or cuda for short, is a large, predatory, ray-finned fish known for its fearsome appearance and ferocious behaviour. The barracuda is a saltwater fish of the genus ''Sphyraena'', the only genus in the family Sphyraenidae, which was ...

and

turtle Turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked t ...

References

External links

Diagram of the wreck showing collapsed sections
{{DEFAULTSORT:King Cruiser 1969 ships Ships built in Japan Ferries of Japan Merchant ships of Thailand Shipwrecks in the Indian Ocean Wreck diving sites Maritime incidents in 1997 Ships sunk with no fatalities