Scuba Dive | J5 (Intact) Wreck 33-36m (Sorrento)

The J-Class submarines, J1, J2, J3, J4, J5, J7 were built between 1915-1917.

Overall Length was 274.7ft, beam 23ft and draught 14ft giving a displacement weight of 1210 tons surfaced. Their wartime complement was 5 officers and 40 men. The six British built submarines were transferred to the Royal Australian Navy on 25 March 1919. They had served for a short time with the Royal Navy’s 11th Submarine Flotilla, and although they proved to be the fastest submarines of their time, they were unreliable. So they ended up in Australia! The six submarines departed Portsmouth on 9 April 1919, arriving in Sydney on 10 July where they underwent a very necessary refit. By May 1922 all six submarines had been decommissioned.

The J5 submarine was sold to the Melbourne Salvage Company on 26th February 1924 and she was scuttled off port Phillip Heads on the 4th June 1926.

Popularly known as the "36 meter sub", or the "Yellow Submarine" due to its covering in part by yellow zoanthids, she sits upright on a sandy bottom. Penetration is possible at several points, where, apparently, plates were removed prior to scuttling.

She lies facing north south (bow south) in 36 meters of water, her conning tower rising to 30 meters.