A large Chinese-registered barge was detained by Malaysian authorities after it was found carrying massive piles of steel ship parts and old artillery shells believed to have been looted from a pair of British battleships wrecked during World War II.
The Malaysian coast guard initially detained the vessel — a large bulk carrier ship — for illegally anchoring in Malaysian territory in the South China Sea, but opened an investigation with police and heritage departments after the artifacts and materials were found onboard.
It is suspected the metal was stripped from the nearby wrecks of the HMS Repulse and the HMS Prince of Wales, two ships sunk by Japanese torpedoes in 1941 just days after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The attacks killed 842 sailors and the shipwrecks have since been designated as war graves.
Looters have been known to target WWII shipwrecks for their raw materials. Known as “prewar steel,” the metal the ships were built from was untainted by radioactive elements created and spread across the world by the detonation of the first atomic explosion in 1945, making it extremely valuable for use in sensitive medical and scientific measuring devices.
Photos from the barge showed towers of rusted metal, cables, and maritime refuse piled high on the deck, with an excavator and large crane stationed nearby. There were 32 crew members onboard the vessel, including 21 Chinese individuals, 10 Bangladeshi, and one Malaysian.
The same ship had previously been fined for operating without permission in Malaysian territory in 2017, and before that was chased into international waters by the Indonesian Navy after it was caught looting, according to Al Jazeera.
Malaysia’s maritime agency said the most recent suspected looting is likely linked to a recent case in which police found numerous rusted artillery pieces and maritime artifacts at a scrapyard in the country. Those shells were detonated after being discovered.
The National Museum of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom said it was “distressed and concerned at the apparent vandalism for personal profit.”
