cannons but with the huge amount of aircraft attacking , were of limited use .
Each wreck has its own sinking story . Some were sunk by torpedo , the whole of the bottom of a hold blown out with a huge hole . Others had their plates buckled by bombs detonating next to them in the water , the hydraulic pressure rippling the steel . A couple of the wrecks , where the bombs landed in the munitions hold , had secondary explosions where the cargo obliterated half the ship . As you swim along past the main superstructure , the dive turns from a recognisable ship to a jumbled mass of destroyed steel and you can even see a huge crater in the seabed left by the explosion . The rest of the ship has simply gone .
You also have to remember that these wrecks are the graves of the people who were on them . Skulls , bones and hands still gripping rails are on the wrecks , and on one converted troop-carrying cruise ship where an ammunition hold exploded , piles of human bones remain deep within the ship . Many have been removed by the Japanese government for cremation , so if any remains are found by divers , they ’ re treated with the greatest of respect .
Thanks to protection , key features such as telegraphs are still in-situ . The top example has been scraped clean , while the bottom photo shows a telegraph colonised with sponges
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