The only wreck dive in the Phukett area of Thailand,  is near the Phi Phi islands.  The MS King Cruiser was a car ferry.  On May 4, 1997 it sank off the West Coast of Southern Thailand.  The ferry was operating between Phuket and the Phi Phi Islands in southern Thailand when she hit a submerged collection of rocky pinnacles at 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.  Nevertheless all of the passengers were rescued. 

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 were no wreck dives around Phuket. The captain was found to be negligent.  

The vessel sits upright on a sandy bottom in around 30 meters of water. Originally the shallowest part of the wreck rose to ~10 meters, but today most of the superstructure is collapsed making the shallowest part of the wreck currently deeper than 18 meters.  The wreck remains largely in one piece, although all of the upper deck has collapsed.   

When we dove the King Cruiser we had a calm day, with very small surface waves.  Although we were diving the wreck at slack high tide, the current around the wreck was moving.  Getting to the mooring ball with my camera was a chore.  We all descended on the mooring line which ties to the wheelhouse.  Once we got to the wreck, the wreck for the most part blocked the current.  The thing that struck me was that the first school of fish we was a school of giant porcupine fish.  Now in the past I have seen a couple of porcupine fish swimming together but I’ve never seen a school of several hundred swimming together.  Now here was the disappointing problem, besides the current moving pretty quickly where the porcupine fish were swimming, viz was maybe 20 feet.  Instead of burning my air to try to get a picture that would at best have been difficult to see the school, I opted to follow individuals around as they swam around the boat. 

As we dropped down over the leeward side of the wreck it was pretty obvious that the hull was covered in oyster shells and other mollusks.   I could see an enormous number of sea urchins. That was reason enough to be careful not to touch anything.  But there were also other reasons like lion fish and stone fish on the hull.  If you look closely beneath the lionfish in the middle of the screen you can see the tail of a stone fish who is right next to a sea urchin. 

Soon  we were in the mist of an enormous school of big eyed snappers.  The schools of fish were crazy and the were everywhere.

As we made our way around the wreck we found the ship’s propeller which is at about 93 feet. 

The current near the bottom was not nearly as strong as it was towards the top of the wreck so I stayed near the bottom, but had to watch my deco time.   I stayed over 20 minutes at 90+ feet and then had to move up once I got back to the leeward side of the ship. 

Where there were once windows in the ship there were large cutout where you could look in and see some of the schools of fish.   

When I reached the stern of the wreck again it was time to start the ascent.  No I didn’t go into deco, but I did have to do three stops to avoid doing so. This was a very good dive to be diving a shearwater dive computer since it made determining the end and stops on the way back up very easy. 

All in all the King Cruiser was an interesting dive.  I was really wanting the rebreather so I could have extended my  bottom time and not had to rush through certain parts of the dive.