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Scuba Diving in Malta is considered the best diving in the Mediterranean and it's easy too. 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.

HMS Stubborn P238 Submarine (S Class)

Built by Cammell Laird & Co of Birkenhead UK ~ Laid down: 10 Sep, 1941 ~ Launched: 11 Nov, 1942 ~ Commissioned: 20 Feb, 1943. This 66 meters long S-Class submarine pennant number ‘P238’ was armed with 13 x 21 inch torpedoes. She has 6 bow torpedo tubes & 1 stern tube, 1 x 3” Gun in front of the conning tower and 1 x 20mm Oerlikon machine gun at the back. She had a crew of 44/48 under the command of Lieutenant Duff and later on in 1944 under Lieutenant Davies. She served in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea and had her share of difficult times in these cold waters which instigated submariners’ fear on many occasions . In April 1945 a year before she was finally scuttled off Qawra Point, HMS Stubborn sailed into Malta for the first time en route to the Suez and eventually to the Far East where she took up patrolling duties with allied Navies in their struggle against the Japanese Navy.

(Click here to view a list of the most important manoeuvres involving HMS Stubborn)

Photo Emi Farrugia

HMS Stubborn lies at a depth of 56 meters 1.6 miles off Qawra Point. It is in a magnificent condition lying upright with a 10 degree list toward starboard side. The three escape hatches are open. It is very difficult to enter inside; the widest hatch is only 60 cms in diameter with heavy sedimentation inside. S-Class submarines were designed as a replacement for the H-Class and they proved so successful a design that production of this class was re-started on the outbreak of war and continued until end of hostilities. Continual modifications were made to the vessels during the war.

A team of divers first relocated Stubborn on 24/7/94. Although charted the wreck was found 200 meters off current charted position. Prior to 1994 nobody from the Maltese diving community knew that such a magnificent wreck existed so close to the Maltese shores.

Photo Dmitry Vinogradov

Photo Emi Farrugia

A total of 67 S-Class submarines were build, 29 of them were sold for scrap, 20 were lost during the war, 12 were sold to other navies and again were cut down for scrap iron, 4 were cancelled on construction and were never build and 2 were scuttled one of these is HMS Stubborn ~ Sunk as a target off Malta on 30 April 1946

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2 Jul 1943 ~ While on patrol in the Bay of Biscay in position 44º47'N, 02º55'W HMS Stubborn (Lt. A.A. Duff, RN) fires torpedoes at a group of 3 German submarines escorted by two destroyers. The torpedoes however missed their targets and the attack was not observed by the Germans. The submarines concerned were U-180, U-518, U-530. The two escorts were identified by Stubborn as 'Narvik-class' destroyers. The German submarines were returning from patrol and were bound for Bordeaux.

26 Jan 1944 ~ HMS Stubborn (Lt. A.A. Duff, DSC, RN) fires four torpedoes during an unsuccessful attack on a German convoy off the Follafjord, west of Namsos, Norway.

11 Feb 1944 ~ HMS Stubborn (Lt. A.A. Duff, DSC, RN) torpedoes and sinks the German merchant Makki Faulbaum (1907 GRT) and torpedoes and damages the German merchant Felix D. (2047 GRT) some 25 miles north-west of Namsos, Norway.

13 Feb 1944 ~ HMS Stubborn (Lt. A.A. Duff, DSC, RN) unsuccessfully attacks a German convoy of 5 ships off the Folda Fjord, Norway. Stubborn fired 6 torpedoes but none found their target. Stubborn is heavily damaged by the German escort ships and has to be towed home.

25 Jul 1945 ~ HMS Stubborn (Lt. A.G. Davies) torpedoes and sinks the Japanese patrol vessel Patrol Boat No.2 (1350 tons, former destroyer Nadakaze) in the Java Sea in position 07º06'S, 115º42'E. The survivors were shot in the water.

27 Jul 1945 ~ HMS Stubborn (Lt. A.G. Davies) sinks a small Japanese vessel with gunfire in the eastern part of the Java Sea.

28 Jul 1945 ~ HMS Stubborn (Lt. A.G. Davies) sinks a Japanese sailing vessel with gunfire in the eastern part of the Java Sea