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Scuba Diving in Malta is considered the best diving in the Mediterranean. The Maltese islands are blessed with warm temperatures, even in winter, clear, unpolluted seas, with visibility underwater in excess of thirty metres. Hundreds of kilometres of coastline, many of which are still unexplored, make the Maltese archipelago a favourite with adventurous divers.

Levant II ~ Cable Ship / Cable Layer

Built 1903 by George Brown and Co., Greenock. Single screw. Compound engine.
 

Length 138.6 ft

Breadth 21.6 ft

Depth 11.3 ft

Gross tonnage 283

Levant II was purchased on the stocks while being built as a trawler, and was fitted out for cable work by the addition of twin bow sheaves and a simple cable winch mounted on the upper deck. A large hold was used for stowing cable, no cable tank being fitted.
The ship took part in the Dardanelles campaign of World War I and received a mention in dispatches. Her master was decorated for laying a cable from Imbros to Suvla within a few hours of the first troop landings.
In 1929 the ship was transferred to Imperial and International Communications Limited (later Cable & Wireless) and remained in cable service until 1935, although she was laid up in Malta from 1930-35.
 

Levant II was sold to W.J. Parnis of Valletta (Malta) in 1935 and renamed Major William. Sold again in 1938 to Mrs H.M.B. Williams and renamedOrange, and once more in 1941 to the Soc. Marseillaise de Trav. and renamed Eissero.
The ship is reported to have been broken up in 1952, but site visitor Emi Farrugia notes that while en route to be scuttled in the spoil ground some three miles off Grand Harbour, Malta, the ship started taking on water and sank further in towards the shore, about one kilometre off Grand Harbour.