Wreck diving in Croatia is a fascinating sport that allows you to combine your passion for scuba diving with the history of the country. The combination of varied dive spots, ship and aircraft wrecks from Word War I & II turns our diving trips to an adventure.
Here are our most popular wreck diving spots:
Junkers JU 87 Štuka
Diving center Tramonto received it’s concession permit for diving on wreck plane Junker Ju 87 ‘Stuka’ from World War II which was found south of the island of Žirje.
This aircraft type Ju 87R-2 is popularly called “pike”. It is an Italian Air Force plane which was probably shot down by cannon fire by air defense from the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in April 1941. The wreck is in good condition and the front part of the fuselage, wings and tail of the aircraft are connected and complete. It has no engine, and the assumption is that it tore upon impact with the water.
The value of this finding is certainly exceptional in world terms, since there were only 5709 aircraft produced at that time. There are only two of this type preserved in the world, in museum exhibitions in London and Chicago.
It lies at a depth of 28m and its available to all advanced divers.
Length of aircraft: 11m
Wingspan: 13,8m
It was armed with bombs (500 kg), two fixed machine guns 7,9 mm MG17 in the wings and a movable machine gun MG15 7.9 millimeters in the rear cabin.
Francesca di Rimini
Francesca da Rimini is an Italian-owned cargo warship built in Rijeka in 1942. It is 42 m long, 12 m wide and has a total weight of 281 tons.
It was seized by the German Navy in 1943 and used to transport weapons for the German troops. After arriving from North Africa, on 22.3.1944, it was anchored near the island of Kaprije in the archipelago of Sibenik due to an engine failure.
It was spotted by two British “Spitfire” bombers, torpedoed on the aft right side and sank. It lies at a depth between 38 and 50 meters. Of the 3 masts, 2 lie broken in the sand, the third is upright and rises up to 28 meters. At the stern is the anti-aircraft machine gun and all over the wreck are hundreds of mines and scattered ammunition boxes.
Of the fish species that call the wreck home, there are numerous lobsters, groupers and occasional eels and amberjack. Toothed bream circle regularly and watch each new visitor.
The dive is suitable only for experienced divers.
Gladiator F98
Tug boat Gladiator F 98, trailing armed pontoon GM 216 (two guns 190/45mm , two 20/70mm machine guns, “ZIS” 76mm cannon on the bow section), on the way from Sibenik to Brindisi in Italy, in May 1941, has encountered a floating mine off the island of Tijat (near by Vodice) where it sank. One sailor was killed and 6 to 7 were wounded .
The wreck is approximately 40 m long. It is located at the depth of 40-48 m and the interior is intact. Divers may see large groupers and the occasional eel and lobster .
This wreck is in our diving offer since the summer of 2015. The dive is suitable for advanced divers only.
Tug Boat “Partiznka”
This is a newly found wreck about 25 meters long, about which little is known. We doubt that it was hit from the war bunker on the island of Murter. So we discover new details with every dive. The wreck is located at a depth of 40+ meters.
MAS 15
MAS 15 (Motoscafo armato silurente) was Italian patrol and assault boat of the WWI and WWII era. It was powered by twin diesel engines and it was renowned for its speed and agility. MAS boats were armed with a torpedo on each side and one stern mounted anti-aircraft gun.
Although lightly armed MAS boats were well known for ambushing and sinking much larger ships. One such ambush took place in May of 1918 near Premuda island when MAS under command of capt. Luigi Rizzo attacked Austro-Hungarian battleship SMS Szent István near Premuda island. Ship perished along with 89 crew.
Our MAS was discovered in 2016. It lies in perfect condition at the depth of 49-50m. Because of the depth, the boat is accessible only to technical divers.
Not much is known about the boat, and the crew, but according to some accounts, captain of this boat made it to the Murter shore, only to be captured and executed by Partizans.
Borak
The ship is built in 1952 in the shipyard 3. maj in Rijeka and it was used for transportation of cargo mainly cement.
Ship is 42m long and it was sailed on the route Koromačno – Solin.
Because of big storm there has been movement of the cargo and on October 21, 1999. the ship sank.
Its located near the island of Zlarin, at a depth of 60m, while the cabin of the ship is at a depth of 45m. The wreck is in very good condition. There you can see big stonefish, lobsters and congers…
Visibility is very good. Dive is primarily intended for technical diving.
Borko
Commercial fishing boat “Borko” made its final voyage in October of 2002. On a fateful day while passing 2 miles west of Žirje island it struck a rock “Bačvica”.
This tore a gaping hole on the starboard side, sending 60ft boat to its final destination at the bottom of the sea.
Luckily crew of 5 were rescued by fishing boats and port authority.
Borko now lays north of Bačvica at depth of 121 to 141ft., making it excellent dive for advanced divers. It is a home to numerous fish varieties, lobsters and other sea life. While Its wooden hull is slowly rotting away it is exposing beautiful frame construction and metal inner workings.
Plavi Jadran
The 30-meter cargo ship Plavi Jadran, which sank after a collision with Jadrolinija’s Tijata in 2018, lies on the bottom at a depth of 22 meters off the coast of the island of Prvić.
At the time of the collision, there were two crew members on the cargo ship, the captain and owner of the ship, J.J. and one crew member who jumped into the sea from the sinking ship. One of the castaways was pulled unharmed from the sea by an eyewitness with his sons, while the other swam to the shore, where both were cared for by the people of Prvić.