Near the coast of Malaysia, a Chinese salvage ship was busted plundering British warships from World War II.
Journalists in Malaysia were the first to uncover Chuan Hong 68’s actions last week. Those aboard the Chuan Hong 68 are known to be criminal “scavengers.” According to a source from the Malaysian news site New Straits Times, the ship has been robbing shipwrecks for the past decade.
Malaysian authorities reportedly uncovered ship hull fragments, British anti-aircraft weapons, an anchor, and live ammo at a jetty.
A dredger named Chuan Hong 68 was spotted hanging close to the sunken remains of the Royal Navy battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the cruiser HMS Repulse.
In December 1941, Imperial Japanese troops sank both ships, killing 842 British servicemen and dealing a significant blow to the Royal Navy’s presence in the Far East.
According to a statement released by the Royal Navy National Museum, the locations of the ships have been recognized as war cemeteries.
Local sources said the U.S. Naval Institute, a private, nonprofit military group, that Chuan Hong 68 had deployed a massive dredging crane to salvage metal from the sunken vessels.
It has been said that the HMS Prince of Wales and the HMS Repulse were constructed with the highest-grade steel available. As a result, the wrecks provide a valuable supply of raw materials for recycling industries.
Chuan Hong 68 looked like a rusty barge ten years ago. Now the ship has been outfitted with state-of-the-art machinery.
The cranes can reach a depth of 200 meters deep. It dismantles the ship and salvages 100 tons of metal all at once.
Indonesian authorities want Chuan Hong 68 for illegally salvaging WWII wreckage off the coastlines of Cambodia, Singapore, and Vietnam.
Former chief of the Royal Navy, Adm. Lord Alan West, labeled the scavenging operation an “absolute disgrace.”
These are grave robbers.
