Diving on the wreck of Liberty. Tulamben, Bali, Indonesia. July 2015.
Photo by Corinne Bourbeillon / PBdA

Liberty forever

#Bali # Indonesia

  Indonesia: Lombok + Bali + Bangka - July 2015

Dear English-speaking readers, this page is an automatic translation of an article originally written in French. I apologise for any strange sentences and funny mistakes that may have resulted. If you read French, click on the French flag below to access the original, correct text: 


Ah, how I love the wreck of the Libertyin Bali. I go back to dive there regularly, without ever getting tired of it. She's so beautiful...

Back to the Libertythirteen years later

How time flies... I just checked in my old diving logs: my very first immersion on the wreck of the LibertyThe first documented case of a new project in Tulamben, northeast Bali, Indonesia, dates back to... June 28, 2002 ! Depth reached at that time: 27,8 m. At that time, I was a young Open Water diver (first level in the American Padi certification system) and I had only 16 dives on my log!

July 2015. Thirteen years later, I am Rescue Diver (3e Padi level, passed in March 2009), I have nearly 650 dives noted in my logbooks and a bulky underwater photographic case in my hands. This is my fourth or fifth stay in the beautiful Balinese region of Tulamben / Amed and I am back on the Liberty.

Diving on the wreck of Liberty. Tulamben, Bali, Indonesia. July 2015.
Light effects on the sunken and gorgonian-covered remains of the Liberty wreck, in front of Tulamben beach in Bali (Indonesia, July 2015)

Wonderment intact, sensations not blunted. Throughout the week, I made a series of dives on the wreck, without getting tired of it. As in 2002, then in 2008 and again in 2011 and 2012...

Years go by, but every time I visit, the Liberty does not betray the previous memories. The site is still beautiful. A sure value. I would cry with happiness.

More to read → All my articles on the Liberty in Bali

Because the wreck of the Liberty is a very (over)frequented tourist attraction. And it wouldn't be the first site to fall victim to its success in Bali. But so far, so good...

Every day, however, hundreds of divers turn the wreck into a jacuzzi with their bubbles. To avoid the crowd, the trick is to come and dive very early, at daybreak.

Diving on the wreck of Liberty. Tulamben, Bali, Indonesia. July 2015.
The Liberty wreck (Bali, Indonesia, July 2015)
Diving on the wreck of Liberty. Tulamben, Bali, Indonesia. July 2015.
Impressive pink and orange gorgonians have developed on the Liberty wreck, which over the years has become a splendid artificial reef well colonized by attached coral fauna. (Bali, Indonesia, July 2015)

Libertythe magic wreck

So here I am underwater again. After a few strokes of the fins, the shadow of the wreck becomes clear. Huge! 

I shot the exuberant soft corals that colored the scrap metal. I come face to face with the humpback parrots - they are still there, oh joy! I go down to the 30 meters zone, to inspect the gorgonian that serves as home to the shy pygmy seahorses. I play with a school of glass fishes taking refuge behind a piece of metal sheet. I transformed my guide Wayan into a Chinese shadow on the way back, in the frame of the huge rudder... This wreck is magical.

The site is gigantic, it is a fabulous playground, with inexhaustible charms. Impossible to be blasé!

Diving on the wreck of Liberty. Tulamben, Bali, Indonesia. July 2015.
My guide Wayan seems very small next to the gigantic sunken ship. (Liberty Wreck, Tulamben, Bali, Indonesia, July 2015)
Diving on the wreck of Liberty. Tulamben, Bali, Indonesia. July 2015.
The Liberty wreck is huge! (Bali, Indonesia, July 2015)
Diving on the wreck of Liberty. Tulamben, Bali, Indonesia. July 2015.
Large coloured sponges have covered some of the structures. (Wreck of the Liberty, Tulamben, Bali, Indonesia, July 2015)
Diving on the wreck of Liberty. Tulamben, Bali, Indonesia. July 2015.
Here, gorgonians and alcyonians compete for the remains of the Liberty. (Tulamben, Bali, Indonesia, July 2015)
Diving on the wreck of Liberty. Tulamben, Bali, Indonesia. July 2015.
A simple torch is enough to explore the Liberty wreck (Bali, Indonesia, July 2015).
The humpback parrots of the Liberty. Tulamben, Bali, Indonesia. July 2015.
Humpback parrots are regulars at the Liberty wreck. You usually have a good chance of seeing them early in the morning, just after sunrise (Bali, Indonesia, July 2015).
Diving on the wreck of Liberty. Tulamben, Bali, Indonesia. July 2015.
The dance of the glass fish... (Wreck of the Liberty, Bali, Indonesia, July 2015)
Diving on the wreck of Liberty. Tulamben, Bali, Indonesia. July 2015.
My guide Wayan poses in the frame formed by the ship's gigantic rudder (Liberty Wreck, Bali, Indonesia, July 2015)

The history of the Liberty

Vessel USAT Liberty, before becoming the most famous dive site in Bali, has a long history. She is a 125-meter long U.S. Army freighter, built at the Kearny, New Jersey shipyards in 1918, at the end of World War I, and assigned to transatlantic cargo missions.

He made his first crossing, from New York to Brest, with a cargo of horses, and made several other trips before disarming in May 1919.

In November 1940, the ship returned to military command. When the United States entered the Second World War in December 1941, the Liberty is in the Pacific.

Hooked: the Liberty when it left the shipyard in 1918. On the right, the Liberty in 1941. (Photos: navsource.org)
On the left: the Liberty as she left the shipyard in 1918. On the right, the Liberty in 1941. (Photos: navsource.org)

On January 11, 1942, during a crossing between Australia and the Philippines, with a load of railroad sleepers and rubber, it was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine, about ten nautical miles (19 km) southwest of the strait between Bali and Lombok.

Two destroyers, one American, the other Dutch, tried to tow it to the port of Singaraja, on the north coast of Bali. But the cargo ship, too damaged, took on water. The decision was made to beach it on the east coast of Bali, in Tulamben, in order to recover parts of the ship and its cargo. It remained there, in the bay, until the 1960s.

Tulamben is right at the foot of the impressive volcano Agung...who wakes up in early 1963.

Violent eruptions, accompanied by seismic tremors, explosions, lava flows and fiery clouds, left some 2,000 dead and a hundred thousand homeless in Bali. They also make sink for good the Liberty, which lies on its side and slides to the bottom of Tulamben Bay.

Photos and illustration of the Gunung Agung eruption in 1963. (Sources: volcano.si.edu / dgi-indonesia.com)
Photos and illustration of the eruption of Gunung Agung in 1963 (Sources: volcano.si.edu / dgi-indonesia.com)

Since then, the wreck, broken, still lies there, between 6 and 35 meters deep, very close to the shore. The sunken ship has become an artificial reef, colonized for more than half a century by countless multicolored corals.

It shelters a very rich fauna, where you can find everything, from the smallest (pygmy seahorses, nudibranchs, scorpion-fish, leaf-fish, ghost-fish, shrimps, moray eels...) to the most imposing (bumphead parrot-fish, schools of jacks, napoleons, some sharks and turtles).

Plan of Liberty.
Diving on the wreck of Liberty. Tulamben, Bali, Indonesia. July 2015.
The huge wreck and its structures remain very impressive, almost sixty years after the Liberty sank (Bali, Indonesia, July 2015)
Diving on the wreck of Liberty. Tulamben, Bali, Indonesia. July 2015.
The wreck has been extensively colonized by attached underwater fauna. (Liberty wreck, Bali, Indonesia, July 2015)
Diving on the wreck of Liberty. Tulamben, Bali, Indonesia. July 2015.
Can't get enough of the Liberty wreck! (Bali, Indonesia, July 2015)

See also my previous articles of 2008 on the Liberty :

Dive without getting wet
Liberty, the most famous wreck in Bali
The Liberty wreck in video
I like Amed

Special underwater photographers: every time I go back to dive on the wreck of the LibertyI am moving to the Liberty Dive ResortIt's just a step away from the wreck. It allows to dive early in the morning, and, above all, they provide you with a private guide, for no more money than elsewhere. We are not bothered by a group of divers, it's a great luxury! It is not anymore the small resort it was, they developed a lot, but they remained oriented on the service to photographers. On the spot, you can also take photo lessons with the excellent Jeff Mullins.
→ See all my articles on the wreck of the Liberty

To find all the articles about this trip, click on the link below :

  Indonesia: Lombok + Bali + Bangka - July 2015

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  1. Ah, the Liberty! I spent my AOWD there and made my first night dive, where giant groupers took advantage of the beams from our torches to hunt, springing up behind the hatches...
    Thank you for these great memories revived by your photos, beautiful as always ...

  2. What memories, with the Liberty! Like you, I dive there regularly (2008, 2012 and 2014), and I'm ready to go back tomorrow at dawn! or tonight! (night dives on the Liberty with a good guide, magic! last time, came across the whole group of humpback parrots sleeping in a hold!). Or in the morning at dawn, the same group of parrots posted like an army in front of the bow to welcome us. What a sight!
    Thank you for all your beautiful articles, discoveries or activators of memories from past trips. 😉
    Mark

    1. @Marc Thiercelin: having a good guidebook with you is really the key to making the most of it... Like you, I'm always ready to go back, any time! I realize that I was a bit "lazy" in 2011, not posting my photos on the blog. The dives were epic, but it was the rainy season, with big waves and conditions that weren't always easy. As a result, we were able to relax on the wreck, with very few divers and all its wonders just for me and my guide...

    2. I love your photos and articles on Bali. I love this island and have already taken 2 diving trips there. What can I say about the dives, my best I think between the Liberty, the Amed pyramids, my encounter with mantas and a whale shark at Mantas point, diving under a huge pontoon, a bit of a scare at Cristal bay after the briefing. And what can we say about the temples, villages and magnificent scenery? And the Balinese are super nice and beautiful. I was based in Sanur and dived with Atlantis all over the island, a French-speaking club (given my level of English, this helped me with the briefings) and above all a terrific organization (one of the best I've seen). A big club but individual service.

  3. It's almost an archaeologist's job! Moving and beautiful photos from the depths of the sea! Well done to the photographer 😉

  4. Justice and Liberty!
    Can you tell me again which is the other wreck in Amed, reachable from the beach and not very deep? I went snorkeling there.
    Did you go back to Amed on earth? Are there still the dredgers on the beaches? 😡 And the fishermen who leave at night and come back in the morning.

    1. @Marie: The wreck you're talking about is the "Japanese Wreck", a small, shallow Japanese wreck that's great for snorkeling and macro photography.
      I returned to Amed, on land, yes. It's always a pleasure to rent a scooter and ride along the coast, nose to the wind, from cove to cove. The beachcombers didn't bother me, and I was less impressed by them than by the concentration of French tourists per square metre... So I fled to the terrace of the Wawa Wewe II near Lipah, to admire the sea while drinking Bintang peinarde (I wasn't there early enough to see the fishermen return), without hearing French spoken all around me... 8)

    2. I'd been there in September and there were very few tourists. As a result, there wasn't much for the snorkelers and snorkeling equipment lenders to get their teeth into. Otherwise, I have fond memories of an evening in a chic restaurant, on a terrace high above the coves, where a young Australian woman to whom I had done a favor had invited me. The heat refreshed by the wind, the moon, the sea, the alcohol... 😉

  5. Superb images!!! Last May, we only saw a tiny part of the wreck while snorkeling, which already blew our minds, but now I can't wait to dive there again (and maybe take my 7D there in a few years)!

  6. Bravo bravo I've done a dozen dives there too and I hope to go back, indeed it's magical....Early morning departure of the parrots, hunting moray eels and groupers at night ... in my top 5. Kisses 8)

  7. Thank you for this article, which made me want to dive on the Liberty! We've just come back from Bali, it was our 2nd trip and we still love Amed just as you describe it: scooters with hair blowing in the wind along the coast! Thank you for these magnificent underwater photos! I'm writing an article on the subject with the video of my dive and I've put a link to your article! have a nice day!

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