The USS Liberty in Tulamben Bali

Scuba divers love looking at wrecks and some dive companies deliberately scuttle old boats on a reef for their customers pleasure. East Bali has its own wreck in Tulamben, the USS Liberty. The Liberty was built in 1915 in the US and used a cargo steamship.

The Liberty was fitted with 2 guns at the start of WWII and was carrying a cargo or rubber and rial parts when it was torpedoed, SW of Lombok, on Jan 11th 1942. The 120 meter Liberty was towed to Bali en route to Singaraja, but ended up beached in Tulamben. Towing a leaking ship across the Lombok Strait required the use of 2 US destroyers. The Lombok Strait can get a current of 11 knots. In 1963 the eruption of Gunung Agung caused tremors that moved the ship off of the beach and into the sea.

The attraction is the wreck is only 30 meters offshore.