San Francisco Maru (Stern section)

I will not bore you with details of the San Francisco Maru as I have already told you about her on a previous days dives. So, here are just a few pictures from the stern dive of this ship.

(All photos of this ship are courtesy of Shane Conway)

Looking up from within one of the holds.

Air intake manifold to the engine room.

More munitions.

Gosei Maru

Also known as the "Stern High Wreck" this submarine supply vessel was built as a 1,931 ton cargo ship in 1937. She was hit by 2 Avenger Torpedo Bombers from the USS Monterey. She sank very quickly

This wreck now lies on her port side on a steep incline with a range of depths between 2.5 meters at the stern to 31 meters at the bow (at N7 18.684 E151 53.235). A diver can spend an entire dive at the rudder and propellers alone. In 1976 and 1977, local residents on the nearby Uman Island heard loud explosions. The 8000 PSI high pressure flasks inside the torpedos had been exploding. In 1977, explosive charges destroyed the remaining torpedos.

A torpedo in it's casing.

Shane moving back to get more into the photograph.

Intricate hard coral

A nice view of the outside world.

Betty Bomber

A G4M2 Betty Bomber lies on the bottom in shallow water off Eten Island (at N7 21.107 E151 52.693). It is a good 15 meter dive and you can take a good look around. The body of the bomber is broken just behind the cockpit and on the starboard wing. While the wreck is still in pretty good condition, the wreck itself has been totally stripped. A yachts anchor recently destroyed what was left of the bombers cockpit, it is now unrecognisable as part of a plane. Being constructed of aluminium, not much grows on the bomber.

You can see the tail fin lying on the ground to the right of the fuselage.

Photo by Shane Conway.

Photo by Shane Conway.

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