Tug 2

A roughly 250-metre surface swim, or an early descent, from the concrete steps at Exiles beach puts a diver over Tug 2. The wreck sits upright on sand with its bow driven into the neighbouring limestone reef, the result of a 2016 storm that rotated the whole hull 90 degrees. At 22 to 25 metres it reads as compact rather than sprawling: a 30-metre hull with an open wheelhouse divers can swim straight through, and an engine room reserved for those with wreck training and a torch. Nudibranchs cluster across the superstructure in real numbers, and the sand nearby has been reported to hide torpedo rays, their paired spiracles the giveaway for anyone who knows to look. Most dives extend onto the adjacent reef and seagrass before turning back for the steps.

Tug 2 is Malta's youngest scuttled wreck and, alongside HMS Maori and X127 in Marsamxett, one of only a handful of shore-accessible wrecks on the island rather than a boat-only hull. A local dive centre runs it as its house reef, which keeps the site visited and the moorings maintained even though it draws mixed reactions. Some divers rate it among the easiest, most rewarding shallow wrecks in Malta. Others call it thin compared with the island's bigger, more storied hulls. Both readings turn up in the same review thread, and that split, not universal acclaim, is closer to the truth of what this wreck offers: an accessible, unpretentious shore dive rather than a marquee attraction.

Malta Drydocks built the tug in 1975 for the Chinese government, one of a pair named Tuo Lun Er Hao and Tuo Lun Yi Hao. Both worked Grand Harbour's French Creek during construction of the "China Dock." Maltese owners later renamed her Tug Boat 2. After roughly a decade of service she was decommissioned, bought by a Maltese marine-services company in 2000, and laid up at a shipyard for thirteen years. She was deliberately sunk off Exiles on the morning of 20 June 2013, a scuttling delayed a month by weather, with her sister ship in attendance. The wreck sat parallel to the reef for three years. A tropical storm on the night of 29-30 October 2016 shifted her roughly 30 metres and spun her 90 degrees. The bow ended up driven into the rock, the position divers find today.

Nudibranchs are a recurring find on this wreck's superstructure, reported independently by more than one Sliema-area operator. A slow pass over the encrusted hull turns up more of them than a fast circuit does, concentrated on the growth rather than the open sand nearby. The wreck's modest size works in a photographer's favour too: there's time to linger on one section rather than covering all 30 metres on a single tank. Wide shots work best early in the dive, before fin kicks near the hull stir up whatever silt has settled on the deck.

Boat traffic is the wreck's most consistent hazard. Yellow marker buoys mark the site, but not every vessel gives them room, and the buoys themselves may be pulled for winter. Carry a DSMB for the whole dive, not just the ascent. The surface swim runs about 250 metres each way, worth factoring into gas planning and fitness before committing to the full circuit. Concrete entry steps at Exiles can turn slippery in winter. For the wheelhouse and engine room, treat them as a genuine overhead environment: a torch and Wreck Diver training are the sensible baseline, and staying outside the structure is always the safer default without either.