It looks like from this point on we are going to be doing deep dives. Our morning dive consisted of the Aikoku Maru. The Aikoku Maru functioned as a submarine tender, cargo and troop transport ship. On the day of the attack, she was carrying high explosives in her forward holds including ammunition, aerial bombs, mines and her own shells. The boat exploded into a huge mushroom cloud similar to a nuclear blast. Captain Lance of the SS Thorfinn had the only two survivors on board and they retold their story of how they were launched into the air from the explosions and body parts and debris went flying right past them. They looked above them and the bow of the ship was sailing through the sky in front of them. That’s how big this explosion was.
Cpt. Lance also has the letter from the pilot who was responsible for the explosion. He wrote a letter to his parents the night before explaining how no one was up to the task and he tried explaining to the crew that their lives are not more important than this mission. He and another pilot went up, the second pilot was shot down. His plane eventually got shot and started to catch fire. At this point the pilot was probably dead and whether it was luck or planned, the plane crashed right into the main cargo hold. The ship was cut clean in half from the explosion and only the stern side of the ship remains.
This ship was twice as big as the San Francisco Maru. She was 492ft in length and equip with multiple anti-aircraft guns. Unfortunately another live aboard called the Odyssey had destroyed parts of the wreck by anchoring to the ship. They ripped off the top deck area, which apparently was quite something to see. We descended onto the large anti-aircraft gun at the back of the deck. It was located at about 160ft. We swam through past the cargo holds and into the area that used to be the large lounge. We came across urinals and plenty of sinks. We swam through and exited out. As we swam through we saw the destruction that split the ship in half. The bow is completely missing and nowhere to be seen. We made our way back towards the stern where we came across the memorial plaque. There were skulls and bones lying around the memorial and a little statue as well. It was really chilling to see and set in the reality of how any lives were lost. We headed back up the line and did about 20 minutes of decompression on the way up. My max depth I hit was 179ft; bottom time was about 15mins and a total run time of 50mins. I am really enjoying the deep dives and getting more comfortable doing them as I notice my gas consumption is a lot less.
For our 2 o’clock dive we headed back to the Nippo Maru. We descended down the line toward the impact spot of the torpedo. As we traveled through we came across the engine room where you could see all the gauges, dials and pipes. It was really cool to swim through all the parts of the engine room. This trip has made me realize that I want to get more into wreck penetration because of the challenge it presents with the tight spots and fun obstacles. We swam around the deck of the ship exploring and observing all the artifacts. I made a quick stop at the tank again because it’s not every day you get to see a tank sitting on the side of a ship underwater. The tank was in such good condition and you could tell it had never seen any action. The barrel of the tank was missing and apparently it is inside the tank as it was on its way to be assembled since it was so new.
As we were getting ready to head back to the SS Thorfinn a pod of dolphins broke the surface. Matt immediately grabbed his mask and, with his wet suit half on and bright blinding white skin exposed, dived into the water. I was right behind him and we looked down to see 4 bottlenose dolphins hanging out below the boat. It was the most amazing experience. They were so peaceful and moved through the water so effortlessly. Unfortunately I didn’t have a chance to grab my GoPro to grab a picture or video.
After arriving back to the ship we took a tour of the engine room. It was all too familiar as the SS Thorfinn was built with some of the same equipment as the ships we have been diving. It was a lot larger than I thought. It went down at least three stories. You could smell all the diesel fumes inside the engine room so I didn’t stay too long as I was already exhausted from the deep dives earlier.
I skipped out on doing any more dives for today as the deep dives really wipe you out. I decided to rest up for tomorrow’s big day of diving. So far we are thinking of going back to the San Francisco Maru, Rio De Janeiro Maru, and the Submarine I-169.
Hope all is well back home for all you who are reading.
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Justin Steele
The Green Ranger