TDI Truk Expedition 2003

TDI Truk Expedition - September 2003
By Glen Scott



Truk Lagoon is one of the four states in the Federated States of Micronesia. It lies 7.4 Degrees north of the Equator and between 151 and 152 degrees East Longitude. Is approximately 40 miles across the lagoon and the basin is approximately 150 to 200 feet deep. Highest point of land is Mount Tumuital at 1422 feet above sea level. Truk Lagoon lies on top of a collapsed volcano that rises over 5000 feet from the ocean floor, with a barrier reef surrounding it. Water temperature is 83 Deg F, air a pleasant 80 Deg F. We had calm seas with an odd squall that quickly blew through and then was gone. It would rain like fury for ten minutes then stop. Underwater visibility ran from 20 feet to 100 feet depending on the time of day and proximity to the sea channels. The mornings usually had better viz. The Channels flushed in fresher water from the ocean.

Prior to WW2 Japan was given several areas of the south Pacific as a mandate to upgrade and bring into the Asian Economic Circle. Truk was one of these Island groups. The Trukeese people were forced to work for Japan clearing jungle, making roadways and airstrips, digging in bunkers, tunnels, and land artillery installations. It also became the protected anchorage of Japan’s Combined Fleet Headquarters. Ships damaged in the war came here for repairs. Truk was well fortified by land, air and sea.


Operation Hailstorm Feb. 17, 18 1944

Near the end of WW2 as the US forces were marching their way across the Pacific, Navel Intelligence discovered Truk as a refuge for the Japanese fleet. Just days prior to the attack on Truk a US reconnaissance aircraft over flew the island and word got out as to where the Japanese fleet was hiding. Approximately 2 days before the air strikes, Japan moved most of their battle ships over to Palau, leaving their merchant fleet, and ships that were under repair in Truk.

The US had just secured Kwajalien when US navel forces opened up on Truk. The US moved their carrier groups within striking range. The battleships New Jersey and the Iowa stood outside the Lagoon and lobbed 16” - 2000 lb. shells at the Japanese ships that came into their 20 mile range.

The surprise attack caught most of the fleet at anchor. Those that slipped anchor and got under way were picked off by the Battleships, “Iowa” or “New Jersey”, or were sunk by aerial bombs and torpedoes of the US Naval aircraft. Few ships made it out of the lagoon and only two Destroyers survived the pounding shells of the US battleships.

In these two days the US flew over 1250 sorties, dropped 400 tons of bombs, 94 tons on the airfields and land installations. Japan lost over 250 aircraft in air battles over Truk and on airfields on islands of Eton, Param, and Moen. Sixty ships were sunk, fifteen of them were converted warships, converted cruisers, one submarine, half a dozen oilers, tankers, freighters and tugs.

Even though Truk fell late in the war, it hit Japan very hard due to the loss of these support ships. These include: Repair ships with onboard machine shops, Oilers and Tankers, Munitions and Supply ships, Coal and Water Haulers, Freighters loaded with aircraft (Zeros), aircraft parts, trucks, construction equipment, battle tanks, guns and turrets, food supplies, medical gear, war equipment. Japan lost all it’s airfields and aircraft, then the fortified land installations were taken. There were few original Japanese warships. Most were Merchant Marine vessels. Hence the suffix name Maru.

TDI Canada ran this expedition as an all CCR trip. There were 9 Buddy Inspiration Closed Circuit Rebreathers on board. This is the first time that an all CCR trip has been run on the Odyssey live-aboard.

The expedition attendees:

• Rudi Asseer
• John Garvin
• Adam Parker
• Meghan Dagenias
• Paul Latham, Tom Huff
• Glen Scott
• Mike Gadd
• Mike Lennon

The crew of the Odyssey:

• Lenny & Cara
• Head DM Matt
• Madison
• Rob
• Dismis
• Emeren,
• Poorly
• Macky

The dive masters tied into the wrecks and set up the jump lines, stashed the emergency gases, and pumped gas.

We used air diluent, with banked 92 % O2, pumped by a Haskel up to 3000 psi. For emergency use we had O2 set at 20 feet coming off the manifold (240 cu-ft) bottles, 32 % EANX stashed at depth, O2 at fixed Deco Bar off the back of the Odyssey.

I carried Air bailout, and O2 in 30 Cu Ft sling bottles. Most of us had 10 or 18 watt HID canister lights, reels, lift bags or Surface Marker Buoys. There were a variety of cameras, housings, and strobes.

The head Dive Master dove OC twin 80’s with sling tanks, but he had much shorter bottom times than us.

John Garvin, Expedition leader, set out the rules of the diving prior to the 1st dive:

• Diligent gas analysis and calibration to those numbers
• Scrubber duration's not to exceed 3 hours
• On dives deeper than 130 ft required a minimum deco stop regardless of NDT
• Reduced set points to lower CNS clock and to reduce the daily OTU’s
• Any dive longer than 90 mins require a minimum 3 hr surface interval
• Dive buddy coordination on dives below 165 ft
• Adequate flushing at O2 deco stop

I will only list the ships we dove and highlights of the most impressive dives.



High lights


Yamagiri-Maru
Warm up dive to test gear and to shake out the bugs.

It’s a six hold freighter sunk by an aerial torpedo just behind #3 hold starboard side.
Rests port side down, 110 feet to the sand.

We got into hold # 5 lower and t’ween decks. The t’ween deck flooring was wood and is all rotted away now. The structural deck beams are still in place but you have to swim in between them. The holds contain 18-inch shells, the largest ever made. There were motorcycle parts, tires, construction equipment, steamrollers, cement mixers, and ammo. Because the ship is on its side the equipment is all jumbled up.

Head DM Matt took us up into the engine room through hole in #4 bulkhead wall. Showed us the skull fused to the engine block. Engine is sitting almost overhead due to the list of the ship. No lines are required to enter the Engine room.

You can swim out through the torpedo hole and out onto the hull. Bow gun fell off into the sand. Lots of growth along the upper deck edge.


Shinkoku-Maru
Was at the Battle of Midway. Modified Tanker Ship. Rests perfectly upright. Torpedo hole at 125 feet port side aft into engine room.

It’s 130 feet to the sand. Main deck starts in 80 feet. Stern deck sits at 95 feet. Fore and Aft guns still intact.

There is incredible growth all over. We missed the jump line on the first dive and followed the anchor chain up to the wreck. It was like swimming up to a wall of coral that reached up out of sight. Viz was poor but the sight of that bow looming up out of the gloom was fantastic. You couldn’t even see the steel on the hull for all the coral on it. It looked a bit like Browning’s Wall in Port Hardy. Every spot has life on it.

I did 3 dives on it and never made it all the way down the starboard side. It’s huge, huge, huge. We did a night dive on it too and it was the best of all the night dives. Free swimming eels, crabs and urchins. The filter feeders were all out in bloom.

This ship had a small hospital on it in the 3rd level of the pilothouse. Stainless operating tables, an autoclave, sinks, urinals, bones, Schools of bait fish in the rooms, schools of barracuda outside on the deck swirling around the King posts and masts.
Found Sake bottles, gas masks, pots, teakettles, china, shoes, medicine bottles, lot of cables strewn around on deck. I never made it to the engine room on this one. One forward hold had zero viz even before entry. It had whitish suspended silt. That might have had something to do with the fuel still in it.

Shinkoku’s anchor is the size of a small car.

The best coral growth on any of the ships in the lagoon.


Fumitzuki.
Warship. Found in 1987.

It’s a 1913 - ton Mutsuki Class Destroyer, 320 ft long. It still has its bow & stern guns, mid-ship machine gun nests, Long Lance torpedo launchers, and ammo scattered around. It was under repair at the time and is sunk at the repair anchorage off the Island of Dublon. She tried to slip anchor, but took an aerial bomb on the stern, dropped from the Bombers( Avengers ) from the carrier USS Enterprise. It sank during the night in 140 feet of water with a 20-degree port side list. There is no penetration into this wreck, as the hatchways and passages are small. Japanese warships were compact to say the least.

The guns and davits have lots of coral growth on them. Soft and hard corals, with lots of schooling fish. There was one Gray Reef Shark and a small White Tip Shark on this dive.

You can see the distortion in the hull as she hit the sand. The stack and pilothouse are crumbled down onto the deck, and off into the sand. Rail tracks for the torpedo trolley are still visible, as also the elevator that brought them to up to the main deck. Displays of china, 6-inch ammo, gas masks, and bullets.


Nippo-Maru
Freighter. It’s loaded with stuff.

It sits with a portside list, bow sits at 80 feet, stern at 140 feet. There is a Torpedo hole in port side engine room.

• Hold 1 - contains, artillery shells, water tanks, gas masks, bottles, barrels, fencing supplies.
• Hold 2 - contains 6 inch shells, still full of cordite.
• Hold 3 - electric motors, cables wiring, more bottles.
• Hold 4 - bottles, water tanks, electrical equipment.
• Hold 5 - contains gun mounts for the land installations. More barrels.

All holds had tons of baitfish in them. Every once in a while the bigger fish would come screaming in and take out a bite or two then cruise up and out of the hold.

A small 95 HA-GO battle tank sits on the deck, portside of the # 2 hold, heavily encrusted with growth. In front of that is a truck chassis hanging over the port railing. Towable minesweeping fish were stowed in the passageway behind pilothouse, level 3. On deck were spare cannons for artillery, kettles, medicine boxes, mess kits, machine guns, spare anchors, bottle, and more bottles. The pilothouse has the helm, telegraph, speaking tubes still intact. Lot’s of resident lionfish as well as good coral growth. This battle tank is the shallowest in the lagoon at 115 feet.

This is a fantastic wreck. We saw it all. Our profile was 150 ft for 90 mins. Engine room has tight access, but it’s doable. There is lot’s of ambient light in the holds. Ammunition is still considered live even after all these years. There were boxes of 50 Cal ammo, boxes of linked machine gun ammo, schools of Barracuda. There’s lot’s of life up on the king posts and crosses, baitfish in the lower holds and in the darker rooms amidships. White Tip Sharks and Gray Reef Sharks were cruising the wreck.


Fujikawa-Maru
Freighter. It has a torpedo hole at 100-ft depth in the starboard side hull.

She sits upright in 120 feet of water, 75 feet to the deck.

Another awesome wreck. I got into the engine room, and every hold. The heads on the cylinders were 36 inches across. I didn’t get into to the machine shop as it was silted out and very milky in there.

The torpedo caused massive damage. It struck between holds 4 & 5. 1 ¼ thick hull-plate caved in and upward. It tore an opening between holds 4 and 5. It blew out the t’ween decks of both holds and vaporized anything that was in those two holds. The forward guns are huge, and heavily encrusted. The anchor was the size of an Austin mini.

There were at least 5 Zeros ( fighters) in holds 2 &3, Zero wings, cowlings, spare radial engines, prop blades, stoves, ammo, stacked boxes of 6 inch shells, gas masks, shoes, china, bottles, cooking utensils, full size torpedoes t’ween decks of # 4 hold. I got into the pilothouse, boat deck and bridge. Found bath tubs, plates, light fixtures, fire extinguishers.

I penetrated 1st and 2nd levels of engine room. The wooden bulkheads and partitions between room are rotted away allowing me to swim from room to room. The propeller shaft tunnel was large enough to drive a motorcycle down each side. It is large enough for men to work on both sides of the shaft and pillow block bearings. There is ambient light down to 2nd level of engine room.

There are 5 spare anchors on the deck, plus 1 spare propeller.

I deco-ed off the king post just forward of the pilothouse, and watched a school of Jacks chase around the ship. A Napoleon Wrasse also cruised around on this wreck, with the odd turtle and shark.

This was an excellent dive!


San Francisco-Maru
Modified Freighter. There is aerial bomb damage to main deck aft.

She sits upright, 210 feet to the sand, 150 feet to the bow deck, 165 feet to main deck. It’s 185 feet in bottom of holds.

This wreck is fairly intact as it is out of range for most of the locals. It’s called the million-dollar wreck as it has the most war materials of all the wrecks in the lagoon. It has a huge forward bow gun.

• Hold 1 - at least a 100 tons of beach mines, munitions 3”& 6” shells, 800 kg aerial bombs, filled to the brim and right to the edges of the hatchways.
• Hold 2 - vehicles (trucks), tableware, glass, beakers, bottles, china, aircraft parts.
• Hold 3 - ammo , Long Lance Torpedoes, 50 Cal Ammo, wings, props, fuselages, radial engines.
• Hold 4 - loose ammo and munitions, beach mines, star aerial bombs, boxes of ammo glued to the underside of the deck. Boxes of cordite still intact.
• Hold 5 - torpedoes and depth charges. Filled to brim.

On deck beside #3 hold are three 95 Ha-go battle tanks, and truck chassis’s. Bottom of #2 hold was very milky, and bulkhead to #1 hold was gone in places. You can swim into the next hold, but only in the lower levels of the ship. It had 6 foot viz in there.

I felt narcosis on the first dive as we hammered down to bottom of hold #1 to 185 ft . It didn’t clear up till I came up to 165, then I felt rather groovy again. We got into the pilothouse portside and cruised around in the officer’s wash area. We came across tubs, sinks.

The second dive was better, at the same depth but no narcosis. Maybe that was due to a slower decent.

John Garvin ran a line in from the torpedo hole and Rudi followed it in. Visibility was quite good on this wreck maybe due to the depth. I would like to come back and do this one on mix.

There is not as much growth as on other wrecks but it’s still very nice. One Gray Reef Shark cruised over the deck till we got down there. The King posts and Crosses were too deep to deco off of, so we used the mooring line with a jump line back to the Odyssey.


Hoki-Maru
Freighter. It has bomb damage to stern main deck.

It sits upright in 175 feet to the sand, 120 to the bow.

• Hold 1, 2 and 3 - totally destroyed. She looks like a splayed fish. Rib and skin of the hull still attached but blown outward. Everything in #1& #2 hold was vaporized. This ship was carrying barrels of aviation gas.
• Hold 4 - still has some barrels in it, but penetration not is recommended as there are bags of lye in there that burn the exposed skin of the diver.
• Hold 5 - still has 10 trucks, 2 bulldozers, 1 tractor, and 1 steamroller.

The trucks are right hand drive and the dozer has a heavy winch with a warping drum attached to it.

The ship folded in half while sinking then slammed the seabed and straightened out somewhat, leaving a huge kink in the forward portion of the ship. A large piece of the hull plate on the bottom had bent up and this prevents access to the engine room from the # 3 hold. The collapse of the pilothouse onto the main deck also prevents access from the top.


Rio DeJanienro
Bomb damage port side bow.

She was a passenger liner, then converted to sub tender, then transport for weapons and troops. She rests on her starboard side, 110 feet to sand, 35 ft to port bow railing.

• Hold 2 contains 15 foot diameter turrets for bunker defenses, and many tons of coal.
• Hold 3 - also contains 15 foot diameter turrets for bunker defenses, and many tons of coal.
• Hold 4 -looks like a wine cellar with boxes of sake still fused to the wall and roof.

The forward gun fell off onto the sand, and the huge stern gun still in place pointing off into the sand.

We got into the engine room, on the first dive. It was huge and fairly easy access. Went in further into # 2 “A” level into the main ship's galley. Fair bit of up and down and around. Found some china, some Australian pickle jars, and a 4-gallon carboy of sake with the cork in it. The galley still has a full row of rice cookers up on the stoves and the tiled floor is still intact.


Sankisan
Freighter. This is a transport ship.

• Hold 1 - contains bullets by the ton. Thousands of detonators for the mines and depth charges. There are clay pots in the forecastle hold, and lot of cables and rope.
• Hold 2 - truck frames and radial engine for the Zeros, fuselages, wings, props, and a flatbed truck.
• Hold 3 - medicine chests and bottles, beer bottles, barrels of coal or explosives the size and shape of almonds. I crushed a few in my hand but couldn’t figure out what they were. Maybe they were just almonds?

There were several severely damaged truck frames sitting on the deck forward of the pilothouse. The pilothouse had collapsed onto blast area.

This is a very dark wreck, kind of spooky. I swam into every room that I could fit into. Less than 1/3 of this ship is still intact. The rest was blown to bits when a bomb hit the aft munitions hold. The prop lies in 160 ft of water in it’s own crater 100 yards from the ship. The blast pushed the Sankisan up into shallow water and smashed its bottom into the reef. As you approach from what’s left of the stern, you begin to wonder if there is a ship up in front at all.


Kensho-Maru
The sister ship to the Nippo-Maru
The last dive of the week.

It sits upright with a port list. Bomb damage to poop deck, and aft steerage room. She sits in 130 feet, 80 feet to the bow deck.

The bow gun is covered in coral. Some ammo boxes are strewn about.[list][*]Hold 3 - contains some bottles and fuel drums.

The best part of this ship is the engine room and the machine shop. The machine shop had some kind of electrical test bench that I couldn’t figure out. I spent 40 mins in the engine room swimming around and under the huge motors. Extra heads the size of dishwashers, blocks, and head cap components were bolted to shelves on the wall. An overhead trolley on a crane way, removed and raised the engine blocks, and replaced them when in need of repair. Massive wrenches hung on the wall of the machine shop. Chain falls were still in place tied back to the wall till the next time they were needed. Extra pistons were stored over behind the boilers. On the far wall hung clamshell pipe wraps for quick repairs to live steam lines. 3- inch diameter up to 10-inch diameter pipe.

Levels:

• 1st - pilothouse contains the telegraph.
• 2nd - radio room, and officers quarters.
• 3rd - mess hall, found shoes, and a sewing machine

I got into the galley and saw the triple rice cookers, and the black tiled floor, still intact, then I swam over to the officer’s wash area with the tiled tube and floor basins, next to that were the heads.

I went back to the aft steerage room and looked at the gear works needed to move the rudder. Electrical panels were still in place although there were lots of hanging wires to swim around.

I finished the dive, went up and deco-ed off of the front mast. I spent 20 mins just watching the fishes. There were tiny fish clinging to the mast and as soon as I got near them they would swim over and sit on my hand.

This was an awesome week of diving!

In conclusion, all our units performed very well with only the smallest of problems. One set of low batteries, and a change out of 3 very old cells. Diver performance was outstanding, sore muscles and the odd blister not withstanding. The crew support was all we could ask for. The food was plentiful and wholesome. The rooms were clean and fresh everyday.

We chose the wrecks, and the Captains complied. Gases were pumped well enough in advance so there was no rushing, and the dive masters were available to dive with us any time we wanted.

All in all, it was an excellent adventure.
Yours sincerely
Glen Scott


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