A team of divers of Sri Lanka Navy making a landmark turning point in the field of Diving and Salvage refloated the Royal Navy ship, Her Majesty's Naval Service SS Sagaing, 75 years after it was sunk in Trincomalee harbor by the Japanese during World War II.The 138 m long Passenger cum Cargo Ship launched on 24th December 1924 was hit by Japanese carrier air craft bomber attacks whilst at anchorage in Trincomalee harbor on 09th April 1942 and subsequently abandoned due to escalating fire onboard. The task of salvaging and removing the ship wreck was assigned to Eastern Naval Command and it was undertaken by the Eastern Command Diving Unit headed by the Command Diving Officer (E), Captain (CDO) Krishantha Athukorala on 11th September 2017. A comprehensive salvage plan made by CDO (E) was launched by a team of divers supervised by CPO (DIV) ALNSS Liyanage through patching up all damages and strengthening up deteriorated ship's structural parts by erecting an artificial ship side in to the sunken wreck for dewatering ship's internal volume to recover lost buoyancy. Prior to the ship's refloat, the damaged sunken vessel was used as a pier for other naval ships in the harbour.
In order to make sea room for expanding berthing facilities in Trincomalee Harbour, the Sri Lankan navy raises the SS Sagaing, a British passenger ship sunk when it was bombed in an April 1942 Japanese air strike during World War II.