An Australia-Indonesia joint expedition team conducted a dive on the wreck of HMAS Perth, which sank in 1942 following a fierce battle against the imperial Japanese navy on the north-west tip of Java, the Guardian reported on Monday.
Kevin Sumption, the director of the Australian National Maritime Museum, said: "It is with profound regret we advise that our joint maritime archaeologist diving team has discovered sections of the Perth missing. Interim reports indicate only approximately 40 per cent of the vessel remaining."
"The research team has found evidence of large-scale salvage on the site, including what appears to be recent removal of material from the wreck," he added.
The dive was the first detailed survey of the ship since 2013, when scuba divers reported damage to the wreck as well as sightings of a salvage barge with a large crane on board floating above the site.
The HMAS Perth, a light cruiser, is the latest of dozens of World War II-era ships to be confirmed as having been ripped off of their metal and parts during the past few years.
Crews seeking to sell scrap steel and other metals estimated to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars have left only a few sunken vessels intact in the South China Sea.
Starting its life as a British navy ship, the HMAS Perth was transferred to the Royal Australian Navy in 1939 and sailed to the World's Fair in New York before the war broke out, reports the Guardian.
On February 28, 1942, the Perth ran out of live ammunition. Its captain attempted to force a passage through the Sunda Strait but the ship was struck by Japanese torpedoes.
More than half of the crew, 353, did not survive the sinking. Several are believed to have been trapped inside the ship and remained there, 35 metres below the water surface.
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