world reviewer
Diving the wreck of the USAT Liberty Glo
Listed under Diving in Bali, Indonesia. Rated 25th of all Diving in the world.
Commonly mis-named the USS Liberty, the Liberty Glo lies beneath active volcano, Gunung Agung and is surrounded by stunning reefs.
The Liberty Glo is one of Bali’s most famous and accessible dives, lying just a few metres off the shore, parallel to the beach, and is one of the worlds safest wreck dives. She has also become on of Bali’s most spectacular artificial reefs. Nutrient rich currents flowing over it has promoted the growth of huge corals and sponges and divers can hope to see turtles, reef sharks, angel fish,. parrotfish and batfish.
The Liberty Glo was built in 1918, at the end of WW1, as an armed cargo ship and was torpedoed in WW2 while carrying rubber and railway parts. Rescued by a Dutch destroyer, she was towed towards Bali and beached in Tulamben where her crew were evacuated. She then sat exposed on the beach until 1963, when volcanic movement caused her to slip into the ocean. She is 120m long and has the unusual accolade of having been wrecked twice.
Bali is an established dive location with lots of diving facilities.
Written by 
World Reviewer Staff.
Comments, reviews and questions
Good wreck with lots of fish
This is one of Bali’s most famous dives, it’s also one of my favourite wreck dives. I like it because it’s got black volcanic sand instead of yellow which makes everything look so much more startling, and the coral looks almost luminous. The ship is easy to get to because it’s parallel to the beach and only about 30 metres out and on a sloping ridge in water between about 10 and 30 metres of water. Of course for me a dive is all about the fish and on the Liberty Glo I saw loads of trevally, wrasse, pipefish, parrotfish, damsels and unicorn fish and even better lots of them were friendly - this is a popular dive so the fish are probably used to people. One of the guide books says there are over 400 species of fish living around the Liberty Glo. There is also loads of coral, which looks brighter against the black sand.
Another pleasant aspect to the dive is the warm water. Some of the people there at the same time as us were snorkeling and they seemed to get a pretty good view too.
In the same bay as the Liberty Glo is a wall dive to about 60 metres with lots of sponges and fans which look stunning against the lava backdrop.
Review posted 16th June 2007 by Dan Mason. .
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