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January, 1944. The ship took three direct
hits from a US aircraft and sank within
five minutes.
The holds are reportedly still loadedwith resupply goods, now just artefacts,
such as seaplane wings and pontoons, and
beer and sake bottles. I missed these, but
the pastel sponge colonies amidships kept
me occupied for much of the dive.
Arguably the best wrecks are found at
the lagoon’s northern boundary, including
the 104m Eiko Maru. The ship is thought
to have been attacked near Kwajalein
Island, but made it to the north end of the
lagoon before sinking upright on the
sandy bottom in 40m.
With its two kingposts amidships and
3in bow gun, we decided before the dive to
split into two groups, allowing everyone
shots of the gun without photo-bombing
each other.
From the gun I moved amidships to an
open hold with what appeared to be a
large hole blown into the side hull. It
looked like the product of a dive-bomber
torpedo. I was pondering how the Eiko’s
sailors felt while under attack when one of
my buddies circled outside the hull and
framed nicely for an image, breaking me
from my sombre thoughts.
The shipwrecks were cool but the
aircraft graveyard, just off the island of
Roi Namur, also at the atoll’s northern
end, was great! Over nearly 2sq miles
120-150 US aircraft were scuttled after
the war, too costly to ship back Stateside.
Stripped of engines and critical parts,
they were pushed off barges into the
lagoon. At 35m the graveyard includes
Mitchell B-25 bombers, Douglas
Dauntless dive-bombers, F4U Corsairs
and Hellcats.Above, from top: The Eiko
Marubow section; the 3in
bow gun.Left: View of the shallow
Prinz Eugenwreck.Below: Wheel on the
Palawanfreighter.testing prop.
Ironically, the 207m ship survived two
detonations without sinking. Escaping
death Rasputin-like, she was towed to
Kwajalein for further study.
But the hull, weakened by nuclear
blasts, developed a leak. By now too
contaminated to be boarded, the ship
eventually capsized and sank on a sandy
slope in 36m, bow resting on the bottom.
An easy dive and a great place to check
our kit, the wreck is not particularly
photogenic beneath the surface. However,
at low tide, two of three propellers break
the surface, creating an opportunity for
cool split-level work with wide-angle
lenses behind super-wide dome-ports.O
UR NEXT DIVEwas on the Palawan,
a Philippines engine freighter
captured by the Japanese and used by the
Imperial Navy.
It sits upright in 45m just north of Bigei
Island and, while little of the structure
remains, the large wheel covered with
colourful marine growth amidships makes
for great wide-angle images.
Continuing north, the 115m Akibasan
Marusits upright in 49m. It’s believed that
it had just arrived with supplies from
Chuuk Lagoon when it was attacked on 31PACIFIC DIVER
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