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The cargo ship the MV Dania is one of Kenya's largest shipwrecks, artificial scuttled in 2002.
| Name Dive Site: | MV Dania |
| Depth: | 12-32m (39-104ft) |
| Inserted/Added by: | buccaneerdiving |
| Rated: | Rated 4.0, 4 votes |
| Specifications: |   |
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The MV Dania is undoubtedly the best wreck dive available in Kenya with depths ranging from 12 to 32 metres. Shallower diveable structures include the bridge, the hull and the massive upper deck, which will be ideal for less qualified divers. Dania is well colonized and is home to large groupers, bat fish, barracuda, moray eels as well as many other fish.
Formerly known as the M.V. Rodriguez, she was built as a general cargo vessel in Hatlow, Norway in 1965 and was registered in San Lorenzo, Honduras, Central America. In 1985, some twenty years later, her African adventure began plying the Gulf / East African Trade Routes. In 1993 her name was changed and she was converted into a livestock carrier, used to convey cattle between Mozambique, South Africa and Mauritius. Due to a decline in the cattle trading industry, the M.V. Dania was decommissioned in 2001 and on her way to India for retirement when Buccaneer Diving intervened and put forward their proposal of her watery Indian Ocean grave. She was prepared to be scuttled in Mombasa, Kenya starting on June 15th 2002. The vessel required many weeks of intensive stripping, cutting, sealing and cleaning to ensure that she was free of all contaminants and diver-friendly. The Kenya Wildlife Service biologists inspected the vessel upon completion of the preparations and when satisfied authorized the sinking to proceed.
The Dania was towed to a designated site outside the natural reef, 1.5 kilometer offshore Bamburi Beach, where she was scuppered and settled upright on a sandy bottom in 30 metres of water on Sunday the 27th October 2002 at 5 past one. It was hoped that M.V. Dania would lie in an East - West line. Once in positioned on the seabed the dive site was marked with buoys to clearly identify the reef and to facilitate tie-up moorings. An "isolate danger buoy" was positioned over the centre of the vessel and cautionary buoys mark the fore and aft of the reef. A great dive not to be missed.
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