Wreck dive · West coast
HTMS Sattakut
A WWII-era warship, upright on the sand since 2011.
Wreck dive · West coast
A WWII-era warship, upright on the sand since 2011.
The HTMS Sattakut is Koh Tao's signature wreck, and it comes with a real story. She began life as USS LCI(L)-739, a US Navy landing craft commissioned in 1944 that served in the Pacific in WWII, including the battle of Iwo Jima. Transferred to the Royal Thai Navy in 1947 as HTMS Sattakut, she was finally scuttled off Koh Tao on 18 June 2011 as an artificial reef.
She sits upright on the sand at around 30 metres, almost 50 metres long, with the wheelhouse from about 18 metres and the main deck between 18 and 21. The iconic photo stop is the bow gun at around 20 metres, still pointing out into the blue; there's a second gun at the stern.
The wreck has become a proper reef: giant grouper shelter in her shadows, snappers and sweetlips school along the hull, great barracuda hang above, and lionfish, morays and whiprays work the sand. Because of the depth it's an Advanced Open Water dive at minimum, and going inside is strictly for divers with wreck training.
Off Koh Tao's west coast near the Hin Pee Wee dive site, about 15 to 20 minutes by boat from Mae Haad. Schools run it regularly for fun dives and specialty courses.