MV Dania- East Africa’s Number 1 Wreck Dive Site

The MV Dania is a ship wreck  located off the coast of Kenya which was sunk deliberately by Buccaneer Diving in 2002 to form an artificial reef and wreck dive site. 10 years on and it is still the best wreck dive site in the area.

Brief History

The vessel MV Dania, started its career as the MV Rodriguez and was built and launched in Hatlow, Norway in 1965 and registered to the Honduran port of San Lorenzo in Central America. She was used in Central America until the mid-1980s when she was moved to ply the Gulf and East African trade routes. She was renamed in 1993 and converted into a carrier for livestock to move cattle between the Southern African countries of Mozambique and South Africa and the island of Mauritius.

The MV Dania was decommissioned in 2001 and due to be taken to India. Buccaneer Diving proposed that the vessel be sunk as an artificial reef. The ship was then put into a private berth in Mombasa, Kenya in June 2002, where it was subjected to stripping, cutting sealing and cleaning to prepare it for sinking, free of contaminants and diver friendly. Once preparations were completed they were inspected and approved by Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) biologists so that the sinking could go ahead.

The Sinking

On Sunday 25th October 2002 the ship was towed to the designated site, which was located 1.5 km off Bamburi Beach, positioned outside the natural reef. Once in position the Dania was scuppered and slipped beneath the waves at 13:05. The ship landed in a straight-up position and was fitted with marker bouys and moorings for boats to attach to rather than anchoring. In addition an “isolate danger buoy” was positioned over the centre of the vessel and cautionary buoys mark the fore and aft of the reef.

Watch the video of the sinking below and contact us to arrange your dive on the Dania when you come to Kenya.