We were staying on the S.S. Thorfinn, and diving is done from tenders. They have two large 30ft RIBs with canopies that can take 8 divers comfortably and we had 11 on it for one dive later in the week. There are also and two smaller open boats. Andreas, Andreas’s rebreather, Trevor, Rita and I were on one of those. These are slower and less comfortable, and don’t have a cover, so you need to be careful of sunburn, although not with the weather we had. Fortunately most of the trips out to the wrecks are relatively short so it was not a big problem. On each boat there is at least one dive guide and a boatman.
My first dive was a 2pm dive the day we arrived, and it was on the Yamagiri Maru. The Yamagiri Maru was built in 1938 as a passenger / cargo carrier for the Yamashita Kisen line. The Navy took her over in September 1941 and used her as a military transport. She was damaged by torpedoes in 1943, but was patched up and was in Truk Lagoon at the time of Operation Hailstone, where she was sunk by dive bombers from the USS Yorktown and Bunker Hill. She lies in 35 metres of water on her port side, and comes up to 15 metres.
Our dive started at the stern, and we went into hold 5 and saw the massive shells. Originally these were thought to have been 18 inch shells for the giant battleships, Musashi and Yamato. Recent research and measurements taken, suggest that this is unlikely, but they are still huge shells.
From there we went into the engine room, which was much larger than I remembered from my previous trip. We came out and investigated the forward holds, which were empty, before heading back along the coral-encrusted superstructure.
Yamagiri Maru
- Displacement: 6,438 tons
- Length: 439 ft.
- Beam: 58.3 ft.
- Engine: 1 MAN diesel
- Depth: 15 – 35 m.
My Dive:
Depth: 28.5 metres
Time: 48 minutes
Gas: Air
Graphic courtesy of Captain Lance Higgs of S.S. Thorfinn.
