Truk Lagoon, Chuuk, FSM - May 2002

I finally decided to give in and post some pics from my trip to Truk last May. This was my first trip with a camera, other than a rented ReefMaster once prior.

If you like wrecks, this is your dream trip. Most of them are very much intact, and have amazing growth on them.

Any and all comments are welcome.

First, a white-tailed damselfish, sitting on the rudder of the Gosei Maru (which I'll attach in a minute).

The prop and rudder of the Gosei Maru.

There are piles of china and debris like this all over the wrecks. Some are where they landed when the ships went down, others have obviously been stacked there by divers and guides for photo ops. This is from the Gosei as well.

What I believe is a Kiyotis Clam on the Gosei, although I really don't know. These guys are all over the place on the wrecks, and fairly large, about the size of an two fists.

These are in the hold of the Yamagiri Maru. There are unrecovered munitions all over the place, including .50 caliber shells, bombs, and torpedos, not to mention all the barrels of oil.

And on the same wreck, a very small cleaner shrimp in an anemone.

I sort of liked this silhouette from the Yamagiri as well, although I wish the sun was out. We had cloudy weather the entire week I was there, so the visibility was lacking, as was available light.

And lastly, a bicycle from the Kiyosumi Maru.

This site is on my wish list. I'm a diehard wreckie at heart & can't wait to do this. It will probably be a few years yet though as my wife wants to do Galapagos first....... Still like the photos. Are the wrecks pretty much intact?

Mark H

Everything I dove on was completely intact, and most were penetrable, if you were qualified. I had the luxury of going with a group of 8 other technical divers, 2 of whom have been there 14 of the last 15 years, so we spent most of our time on wrecks that not everyone dives on.

It was amazing to me how little had been removed from the wrecks, and how much growth was on them. I remember a couple of deck mounted bow guns that you could only barely recogize as a gun. On the deck of the San Francisco, there are two tanks that are sort of stacked on each other, exactly where they fell 60 years ago.

If you like penetration wreck diving, this is the place for it. I didn't get into a lot of them as my wife was with me and she's not comfortable with it, but this year I plan to see a couple of engine rooms...

Tom

Nice job Tom,

I was especially fond of the 'Still Life' and considered how it might look on my dining room wall...

For me this single picture sums up an overall feeling one experiences when diving on these wrecks.

Chuuk - A still life...

Limited edition by Tom Shepherd FRSA

FRSA

Or something like that... B) Thanks Bob...

There definitely is a feeling of life interrupted when diving the wrecks. Gives you a little view of what any sneak attack must be like, the devastation, the suddenness of it all. And the personal items strewn about are a constant reminder that it wasn't just a big piece of metal destroyed or sunk after years of service, but peoples' lives that were taken.

Is it true that some of the wrecks have timepieces or even guages/dials completely intact thereby freezing their last moments in time?

That is completely awesome.

Some do, generally in the engine rooms, etc. That's the eery thing about them, that in some places, it looks like nothing happened, the ship just sank and nothing was displaced.

Here's a shot of the operating theater on the Shinkoku. Some of the stuff in the shot was obviously placed on the table, but it gives you idea...

I particularly like this one. Just see this on my lounge wall!

That'll work too!

Not for Debbie it wouldn't!