From East Germany to Malta - The P29 Wreck - Kiss Sidewinder and Sidemount - Dark Horizon Diving

It's easy to think of deliberately sunk wrecks as being devoid of history, but look a little closer, and you'll notice that they, too, have a story.

The P29 wreck in Cirkewwa on the western tip of Malta is one of those wrecks. Now an attraction for trainee divers and fun/tech divers, the P29 started life on a more serious note.

The wreck was built in East Germany in the late 1960s and launched in 1970 as a patrol boat and mine sweeper named Boltenhagen after a small town on the Baltic Sea coast.The ship went on to patrol rivers between the two German states and searched for mines. Incidentally, I'm sitting at that very coast just a few kilometres east of Boltenhagen as I write this.

After the wall between East and West Germany fell and East Germany's navy was disbanded and/or integrated into the newly unified German forces, the former patrol boat was sold to Malta and Boltenhagen became P29 in 1997.

A decade later, P29 was scuttled for wreck divers. Today, this wreck still shows quite a bit of its German heritage with countless electrical fittings still maintaining their original labels. It's also a great wreck to practice moving through restricted spaces without becoming too caught up.

This video is a compilation of two dives - one on Sidemount and one on the Kiss Sidewinder CCR. Do you need a rebreather to dive this wreck? Perhaps not, but it does give you time to explore more and discover more.

Want to know more about wreck diving in Malta? Check darkhorizondiving. com.

To find out more about Kiss Sidewinder rebreather courses, visit kisssidewinder.pro.