Malacca’s unique attraction – Submarine Museum
The first and only Submarine Museum in Malaysia is now opened to the public for viewing. Visitors pay an entrance fee of RM1 while children are charged 50 sen.
FEATURE
Malacca has a unique attraction – a Submarine Museum. Reputed to be the first and only Submarine Museum (Muzium Kapal Selam) in Malaysia, it is now opened to the public for viewing, not only externally but internally as well. It is quite an experience for those who has not been the inside of submarine before. It is, of course, claustrophobic but within the confined space of submarine’s innards one can see the inner workings of an actual submarine.
Costing RM12.6 million the Submarine Museum is the 25th museum under the management of Perbadanan Muzium Melaka (PERZIM). Quite naturally the submarine attracts quite a huge crowd especially on weekends. Visitors pay an entrance fee of RM1 while children are charged 50 sen. The state government is currently looking into bringing in another submarine into the museum. The Submarine Museum will also have a recreational pool and will house the replica King Ship Melaka (Raja Kapal Melaka).
The decommissioned Agosta 70 class submarine, the SMD Quessant, was transported from Brest, France, and arrived in Melaka on 13 November 2011. Launched in 1974, the French-made submarine measured 67.57 meter in length, 6.8 meter in height and 5.4 meter in width. With a crew of 54, it has a surface speed of 12 knots and 20.5 knots while submerged. The submarine is armed with four bow torpedo tubes that are equipped with rapid reloading pneumatic ramming system which can weapons with a low noise signature. SMD Ouessant was previously used for training submarine crew in Malaysia from 2005 to 2009 following the acquisition of two submarines by the Ministry of Defence, Malaysia.
The Submarine Museum is located at Dataran 1Malaysia, Klebang, Malacca. Its GPS Coordinate is N 2.213988, E 102.198461 and is open daily from 9 am to 5.30 pm.
