The L.S.T. or Landing Ship Tank, was an American tank landing craft which sank in Subic Bay during the Second World War and she is of the same general design as those used on D-Day in Normandy much closer to home.

These ships were designed to carry large vehicles right up to the beach and so they had flat bottoms to allow them to get in really close. The upshot of this design feature is that the wreck now sits almost perfectly upright on the seabed. Huge bow doors allowed vehicles to drive right up onto the sand, often without their wheels even getting wet. We don't know how this wreck came to sink where it has though we suspect it was during the attacks to re-take the Philippines from the Japanese in 1944.

When we dived her we were able to enjoy quite an extensive penetration of the vehicle deck and we also swam right round under the huge bow doors. Though the wreck is damaged it is still very intact and it should have been a brilliant dive. However, due to the poor visibility in Subic Bay, it was unfortunately reduced to a gloomy, grope around and with the super abundance of such spiny nasties as Scorpion fish and their like in the Philippines that does not always make for an altogether great day at the office!
 

So all in all she's not brilliant but well worth a dive...