Malaysia detains Chinese boat suspected of looting

Malaysia’s maritime agency said on Monday it found on a Chinese-registered vessel a cannon shell believed to be from World War 2 and was investigating if the barge carrier was involved in the looting of two British warship wrecks in the South China Sea.

Malaysian media reported that illegal salvage operators were believed to have targeted the HMS Repulse and the HMS Prince of Wales, which were sunk in December 1941 by Japanese torpedoes, days after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

A total of 842 sailors perished, and the shipwrecks are designated war graves. Fishermen and divers alerted authorities after spotting a foreign vessel near the area last month.

The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) said it detained the vessel registered in the city of Fuzhou, southeastern China, on Sunday for anchoring without a permit off Malaysia’s southern Johor state. There were 32 crew members aboard, including 21 Chinese, 10 Bangladeshi and a Malaysian, it added.

The agency said officials from the National Heritage Department and others would work together to identify the cannon shell.

The United Kingdom’s National Museum of the Royal Navy said last week it was “distressed and concerned at the apparent vandalism for personal profit.”

The MMEA said it believed the rusty cannon shell was linked to the police seizure of dozens of unexploded artillery and other relics at a private scrapyard in Johor. The New Straits Times newspaper reported that the ammunitions were believed to be from the warships and that police conducted an on-site controlled explosion of the weapons.

Pictures and a video released by the agency showed a barge carrier with a large crane and heaps of rusty metal on board. Known as prewar steel, the material from the two warships is valuable and could be smelted for use in manufacturing of some scientific and medical equipment.