Les Epaves De Koh Tao

The Unicorn
a.k.a Hishidaiya Maru
a.k.a. The 'Dog Food' Wreck

(near Koh Tao, Southern Thailand)

Depth 52meters ; Technical decompression diving only

Details of Sinking:-

This Vessel sank around 1989. Local Koh Tao inhabitants said that the ship just pulled up off shore, around a mile North of Koh Tao 'Mango Bay' and over the next couple of hours slowly sank. No-one was hurt in the sinking. An Insurance Fraud was immediately suspected.

A commercial Diving company mermaid-maritime.com was hired by the vessels insurance investigators to investigate the cause of the sinking and to confirm the cargo. which was listed as expensive Tuna Fish. Under armed guard, Divers descended to examine the wreck, and discovered that the holds contained nothing but low-grade animal Feed (Dog-Food) un-fit for human consumption, NOT expensive Tuna fish as listed on the manifest!

Wrecks details

The wreck is that of a large modern 1960-70's, 60meter long steel freighter lying stern down on the bottom at a depth of 50m. The vessel leans slightly on its port side an angle of 60degrees(Not shown correctly on the sketch) with the top of the bow at 38meters, and the keel of the bow area several meters above the seabed, allowing divers to swim under this area of the hull. Lots of penetration available for technical divers highly experienced in diving in conditions where a total silt-out may occur. Needless to say a penetration line is absolutely necessary when entering the deep refrigerated holds or any crew-ways/machinery rooms. By way of warning, there have been a number of serious DCS injuries to even experienced recreational scuba divers who have attempted to dive this wreck without proper 'technical diver' training. One French couple having got completely disoriented in a narcosis enhanced 'black silty cloud of death' ran out of air and bolted to the surface...missing all their deco. One of this 'buddy pair' suffered severe DCS which did not respond to treatment  is now languishing paralyzed in a wheel chair back in France. The wreck when first discovered was covered in several large fishing nets which have all since been removed by local tech divers.

News on this Wrecks condition-March 2003

This description courtesy of Mr. Jamie Macleod, March 2003.

The wreck is completely intact, nets that obscured the wreck have now been cleared from most of the penetration points. All penetration is very tight, only room for one diver, and very silty. A diver's discarded deco tank, twice it's diameter with encrustation complete with antique J-Valve and Dacor first stage swivel reg was found on a recent dive. The owners bones were nowhere to be seen.

Visibility has been very good lately, 10- 15 m on the deck, 5m on the bottom, but that's as good as gets , average is 5-7m on the deck, 2 m at 50m.Always clear water (20m + from the deep stop up)

Two huge grouper get very shitty when you go inside, and a group of the biggest red snapper in the world buzz you all the time. Big schools of jacks and barracuda patrol the area directly above the wreck.

News of the wrecks condition-August 2004

This description courtesy of 'Andy' at Big Blue Tech Samui

I did the Unicorn for 3 days straight a few weeks ago on my Russian CCR. It was nice to have enough time to really check it out. Found a Frog fish and some Trumpet fish I have never seen in this area before.  Other wise shit visibility and tons of nets...

June 2008 Update

A skeleton has been found in the wreck by diver 'Peter' from Master Divers

GPS Location:-

Just North off Koh Tao "Mango Bay" at WGS84 N10'9.699, E099'50.929 (Thai Navy Positions...)