USAT Liberty Shipwreck

The USAT Liberty is Indonesia's most accessible and celebrated wreck dive — a 120-meter WWII-era American cargo ship torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in January 1942, beached at Tulamben on Bali's northeast coast, and pushed into the ocean by the 1963 eruption of Mount Agung. Today she rests on a sandy slope 30 meters offshore, with her superstructure reaching within 5 meters of the surface — a shore-entry wreck dive that ranks among the world's finest. The wreck stretches parallel to the shore, lying on her port side in 5-30 meters of water. Divers enter from the black-sand beach, swim a short distance over a gentle slope of rubble and coral, and arrive at the stern — typically the starting point for a full tour that runs along the hull to the bow. The structure is heavily colonized: hard corals, gorgonians, sponges, and anemones cover every surface, and the wreck has become a living reef. Marine life is extraordinary for a single site. Enormous schools of bumphead parrotfish arrive at dawn to graze the wreck, and resident hawksbill turtles, Napoleon wrasse, and giant moray eels are guaranteed sightings. The wreck is also one of the world's best macro sites — frogfish, ghost pipefish, pygmy seahorses, Shaun the sheep nudibranchs, and dozens of other critters inhabit the coral-covered hull. Whitetip reef sharks rest under the wreckage during the day, and mola mola occasionally appear in the July-October cold upwelling season. The Liberty is accessible to Open Water divers thanks to the shallow profile and sheltered shore entry. It dives beautifully at any time of day but is especially magical at dawn (for the bumphead parrotfish schools) and night (for hunting frogfish and octopus). Reached by a 3-hour drive from southern Bali or 45 minutes from Amed/Candidasa. Visibility 10-25 meters, water temperatures 24-28°C. Dives year-round with the best conditions April through November.