Singapore days: working as an inspection and salvage diver

Breaking into Singapore's ship industry as an inspection and salvage diver changed my life.

Before moving to Singapore, I worked as an underwater ship husbandry diver. The job demands physical strength and the use of hydraulic tools, brush karts, propeller polishing machines, etc. It taught the art of being precise, thorough and fast.

But.

It can get monotonous. Different ship. Same job. Day in. Day out. And there’s very little room for promotion and career progression.

So I turned my attention towards inspection and salvage diving. And it’s funny because most people who know me in the dive circle call me a Goliath Grouper. I earned the nickname because it’s a fish that hides inside shipwrecks. And just like the fish, I like to inspect and survey wrecks and debris. Every time I descend in search of a wreck or other lost objects, I never know what to expect – and I love it.

Knowing that Singapore is a global leader in subsea salvage operations, I sent my CV to several companies and – to my great joy – I was hired by one of the oldest salvage companies in Singapore, which had been around since the 1960s. That was before the country’s iconic skyscrapers and buildings popped up everywhere.

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Take off

I packed my bags and tools and got a flight to Changi. As we approached the runway under the tropical rain, I saw the candle-lit sea. Wherever I looked, there was a convoy of ships waiting to enter Singaporean waters. Waiting to offload their cargo, waiting to refuel, waiting to be inspected, and even waiting to be saved.

I took it as a good omen for my career as an underwater salvage diver.

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My first day on the job

After the job orientation, I was overwhelmed by the number of tools. Cutting tools, safety tools, inspection tools, rigging tools, etc., etc.

To my surprise, on my second day there, they told me to get ready to dive. The task was pretty straightforward and – I knew – a way to gauge if I was up to the job.

I had to recover a lost anchor in deep waters (40 metres).

The good news was that they had done search and recovery operations before. The bad news was that Singapore has muddy waters, low visibility and strong currents.

A lot of thoughts were running through my mind. The task at hand, but also how this opportunity could change my life professionally and, thus, financially.  I couldn’t mess this up.

So I jumped in the water with my Kirby hat and communicated with the sup throughout my time underwater.

Unfortunately, due to the water/seabed conditions, I didn’t find the anchor, but I must have done something right because I got to stay and work in Singapore as an inspection and salvage diver.

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Becoming an inspection and salvage diver

In the weeks and months that followed, I learnt about rigging and salvaging techniques from the senior divers, riggers and engineers.

I still live by the golden rule of my seniors:

Never approach a wreck or any sunken structure thinking it's ready to leave its place and come up. It’s either going to fight back and not leave the place, or it's going to panic and collapse.

I quickly understood exactly what they meant after working on a few salvage operations.

Every boat (or any other sunken object) is either:

• stubbornly buried into the mud that she won’t budge

• or kind enough to give enough leeway to be hoisted and taken out of the water

  
  

By the way, there are more wrecks that you realise underwater. Every day, there are new danger zones added to nautical maps. And once a boat goes down, more are likely to follow. Considering Singapore’s busy, busy waters, it’s amazing how few accidents there are.

Anyway. I won’t go into detail about every salvage & recovery project I’ve completed during my 1+ year in Singapore, but I’ll share the two projects I’m most proud of.

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1. The recovery of loaded commercial shipping containers thrown overboard in Jurong Port during a bad storm

   
   

   

   
   

   We were woken up in the middle of the night and rushed to Jurong Port, where a strong storm had thrown 45 containers into the sea from the port's storage area.

   The containers were loaded with valuables (don’t know what) and were located along the ship’s berth, closing off the port to all other ships. Time is money, especially in a busy shipping route like Singapore.

   
   

   This was an emergency operation. We had to locate and retrieve all containers quickly to revive the shipping route.

   
   

   We worked around the clock for two days. It was beyond tiring, and the constant rain didn’t help. Not to mention the zero visibility and the 30+ metres depth, which limited our bottom time.

   My team recovered 32 containers on the first day. On the second day, other salvage companies joined our salvage operations and recovered the remaining containers. After a thorough survey of the seabed, the area was declared clear of any debris that could pose a hazard to other passing ships and vessels.

   
   

   In my diary that I kept at the time, I wrote:

I remember having just a rope, a decent line as a reference, and my hat’s light. I kept myself neutrally buoyant so as not to stir up the mud. I used my arms to find the containers. It took me 2 hours and then BAAMMM I saw the red metal paint glowing under my light about a foot away. It was the first of many containers.

TOPSIDE WE GOT ONE. I FOUND IT. VISIBLE AND CRUSHED. My voice went from tired to excited as if I had heard the ice cream van driving past my house.”

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2. Recovery of a luxury brand-new sailing yacht from 33+ metres deep

   
   

The call from the Marine police alerted us to a sinking sailing yacht that had been accidentally hit by another boat.

We were at the site within 30 minutes, and by then, the yacht had completely gone underwater.

I was the underwater survey diver and reported the first findings and followed the line the police had dropped to mark her last sighting. I did not expect to find her so soon.

Boats usually drift depending on their hull, load, structural damage, water current, etc. Yet, she was right there, just 4 metres from where she had last been seen.

I still remember seeing the sail mast broken into two pieces and that scary and awful crunching sound.

Typical of Singapore, the water conditions were terrible. Low visibility and currents combined with the hard and soft muddy bottom made the underwater inspection challenging and risky.

It was a tedious operation because of the many wire ropes floating around the yacht. Entanglement was a real danger.

The operation went on for 4 days, and we finally brought her back to the surface for further investigation.

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Final thoughts

My words might make it look like salvage diving is relatively EASY, but let’s be clear, commercial diving is a dangerous job. But as long as every operation is planned safely, and everyone works in a team and follows the rules, we can be as safe as we can possibly be.

There’s a lot more I can share about my experience working as an inspection and salvage diver in Singapore. If you want to know more, visit my gallery to see some photos of the projects I’ve worked on.

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What’s next?

Since writing this blog post, I have moved on from Singapore and salvage diving to continue my career growth. Nowadays, you can find me in QCC waters working as an offshore construction and inspection diver! I've also qualified as a Dive Medical Technician (DMT), so there's that too. But that’s another story for another blog post. Meanwhile, follow me on social media to see what I’m up to.