Pattaya Technical & Cave Divers recently hit the road again and headed back to Koh Chang in Trat Province, Thailand. It is located on the Gulf of Thailand’s eastern seaboard, 310 km from Bangkok and near the border with Cambodia. Koh Chang is Thailand’s third largest island and the centre of the Mu Ko Chang National Park.
We stayed in the excellent Cliff Cottage Resort, near the fishing village of Bang Bao , which consists of houses on stilts built into the sea together with the islands main pier.
Diving with one of the main dive operators, Scubadawgs, our main aim was to dive again on the wreck of the HTMS Chang on our close circuit rebreathers.
The HTMS Chang, formally USS Lincoln County (LST-898), was an LST-542-class tank landing ship built for the United States Navy during World War II. Named after counties in 23 U.S. states, she was the only U.S. Naval vessel to bear the name.
Originally laid down as LST-898 by the Dravo Corporation of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on 15 October 1944.
She had a rich service history, in World War II she saw action in Okinawa invasion. Later she saw action the invasion of Inchon in the Korean War.
In 1962 she was turned over to the government of for service in the Royal Thai Navy as Chang (LST-2). This ship’s hull number was changed to 712 HTMS Chang, and was still active in the Royal Thai Navy as of 2006.
On November 22, 2012, HTMS Chang was scuttled to make an artificial reef for scuba diving. It is one of Thailand’s biggest wrecks with her bottom sitting on the sand at 32m and the crow’s nest just 3m below the surface; it is accessible to all levels of divers, with 3 main decks and 7 sub decks decks from Bridge to bottom with troop cabins, briefing rooms, captain’s cabin, corridors, engine room and hold to explore.
Both rebreathers, a JJ-CCR and Hammerhead CCR, performed perfectly, allowing us to do some lengthy dives with the wreck to ourselves.
Watch the video from the trip and join us for your next wreck diving trip on either open or closed circuit.
Негізгі бет Diving The Wreck of the HTMS Chang - November 2015
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