HMS Hermes

The HMS Hermes is the largest diveable aircraft carrier wreck in the world — a 182-metre, 10,850-tonne Royal Navy vessel sunk on 9 April 1942 by Japanese dive bombers in just 10 minutes, taking 307 crew members with her. She lies on her starboard side in 27 to 55 metres of water roughly 16 kilometres southeast of Batticaloa, her flight deck, island superstructure, and cavernous aircraft hangars all penetrable by suitably equipped and experienced divers. Decades of submersion have transformed the wreck into an artificial reef of extraordinary richness, with enormous schools of glassfish packing the hangar bays, hunting jacks circling in the blue, and soft corals in every colour colonising every horizontal surface.