The World's Best Purpose-Sunk Diving Wrecks

For wreck divers, ships that sank due to weather, accident or in combat are sometimes a disappointment. The very incident that sent the vessel to the bottom often ensures severe damage to the superstructure and/or hull, and "natural" shipwrecks rarely settle on their keels or even on their sides. Most real shipwrecks are little more than piles of wreckage, and while wreck sites often teem with sea life, they offer little of the ghostly allure so many divers spend their time and money traveling around the world looking for.

Purpose-sunk shipwrecks are a different story, however. Because they were sent down by design rather than happenstance, they often rest on the bottom intact and upright. These wrecks have also been meticulously prepared for penetration by divers, posing none of the same life-threatening hazards as a normal shipwreck. What a purpose-built wreck lacks in terms of a tragic or action-packed story, it more than makes up for in appearance, and some of the best purpose-sunk shipwrecks in the world are found in foreign waters.

USS Kittiwake (Grand Cayman)
The Kittwake was a 250-foot submarine rescue ship, deliberately sunk in the gin-clear waters of Grand Cayman, already one of the world's top dive travel destinations. The location is just off the island's Seven Mile Beach, making it one of the few large shipwrecks in the world open to shore diving and even snorkeling. The mast reaches up to about five feet beneath the waves, while the keel rests at 60 feet, making the Kittiwake suitable for even novice divers.

HMAS Swan (Western Australia)
For divers exploring the often ignored western shores of Australia, there is the wreck of this former Australian Navy destroyer in the sheltered waters of Geographe Bay. The Swan rests in about 100 feet of water, so while the entire vessel is open to advanced recreational divers, newbies are limited to the upper superstructure. Even so, the ship is visually striking with its guns, railings and masts all intact.

Hermes (Bermuda)
Shipwrecks in Bermuda hold a special place in the hearts of divers, since a Bermuda wreck was the setting for the 1977 scuba diving classic The Deep. The vessel started life as a US Navy buoy tender in the Second World War, and the 165-foot long ship became a freighter after the decommissioning. After breaking down in Bermuda, the vessel languished in the port until it was finally towed out and sunk as a diving wreck. The Hermes has been on the bottom for over a quarter-century now, but remains intact and upright. While covered with corals and other marine growths, the ship is still easily identifiable as a ship

Sources
http://www.kittiwakecayman.com/
http://www.diveadventures.com.au/
http://www.skin-diver.com/