US Navy Catalina No.4/8 (Catalina 5)

Meet the site

DSAC's Catalina 5 is a US Navy PBY-4 Catalina whose identity has narrowed to aircraft No. 4 or No. 8 of the US Navy squadron in Darwin; the same two numbers apply to the nearby Catalina 6, and which is which has not been resolved. Darwin Harbour was a major flying-boat base during the Second World War. US Navy Patrol Wing 10 PBYs were moored in the harbour when the Japanese attacked on 19 February 1942, and from 1944 the RAAF operated Catalina squadrons from the harbour on long-range minelaying and patrol missions into the Netherlands East Indies. At least three RAAF and six US Navy Catalinas were lost in the harbour, and DSAC numbers the known wrecks Catalina 1 to 6. The PBY Catalina had a 31.7 m wingspan, a 19.4 m hull and an empty weight of about 9,500 kg, so even a broken wreck covers a surprising area of seabed. According to DSAC the aircraft was bombed and strafed by Japanese aircraft during the February raids; its fuel tanks caught fire, the wings collapsed and it eventually sank. (The club's page lists the year as 1945, which conflicts with the February raid description; 1942 is the likely date.)

The wreck lies in about 12 m on a muddy bottom. Fire destroyed much of the airframe before it sank, so the site is a collapsed wing structure, engines and scattered pieces rather than a recognisable aircraft. It is dived rarely, mostly by DSAC members documenting the harbour's aircraft, and it is a site to approach in an archaeological frame of mind: hover, look, photograph and record, and leave everything as found. For a more complete-looking Catalina, A24-69 is the better choice, but divers working through the harbour's aviation sites will want to include this one. Remember that its sister wreck, Catalina 6, is under a heritage restriction with no entry, so confirm which site you are on before descending.

What you might see

Estuary cod, snapper, batfish, small reef fish, sponges and hydroids

Location

Darwin Harbour at the 1942 US Navy flying-boat moorings; exact position held by DSAC and NT Heritage.