On June 11th, 2024, we dove the wreck of the Nippo Maru. The Nippo Maru was a medium sized freighter, some three hundred and fifty feet long with a fifty-foot beam. She was built by the Kawasaki Dockyard and launched in September 1936. At first she was used as a fruit transporter, shipping bananas from Taiwan to Japan. Then she was converted into a water transport ship and munitions carrier. She would frequently stop at Truk to take on water and then distribute it and any munitions around the garrisons on the smaller coral islands that did not have enough of their own supply.
She was bombed and torpedoed early during Operation Hailstone (Feb 17th-18th, 1944) and sank in 160 feet of water. She lies upright with a heavy list to port, and her stern almost buried in a sloping reef. Her five holds are packed full of ammunition and armaments of all kinds. Hemispherical mines, cannon barrels, gun mounts for shore batteries, machine guns, gas masks, bronze rangefinders and small arms ammunition of all kinds lie scattered all around this wreck. Bottles of sake and beer are strewn about. The bridge is almost intact with its ships compass and engine telegraphs. And there is even a Japanese battle tank on her deck.
Негізгі бет Nippo Maru - June 11th, 2024 Truk Lagoon
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