The History of the MV Dania

M.V. Dania was formerly known as 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, 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.

M.V. Dania is now underwent preliminary preparations at a private berth in Mombasa, Kenya starting on June 15th 2002. The vessel will 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, 1.5km off the shore of Bamburi Beach, where she was scuppered and settled on a sandy bottom in 30 metres of water. It was hoped that M.V. Dania would lie in an East - West line. Once in positioned on the seabed the 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.

The Sinking

MV Dania finally slipped below to waves on Sunday the 27th October 2002 at 1305. She landed at 30M perfectly upright and was ready for diving within hours. As can be seen by the pictures, we could scarcely have made a more textbook operation.