BOOK REVIEW
Review by GILL MCDONALD
Dive Palau:
The Shipwrecks
By ROD MACDONALD
Rod Macdonald dived the wrecks
of Palau with his research team in
2015, after an initial visit in 1990.
The new book in his wonderful wreck series,
Dive Palau, explores the incredible and,
until now, quite sparsely documented
wrecks in this small island nation on a
remote Pacific archipelago.
ROD MACDONALD FIRST
started diving in the early 1980s
and developed a keen interest in
shipwrecks after diving in Scapa Flow,
Scotland, home to the German High
Seas Fleet that was scuttled on June 21, 1919. He
published his first book in 1990, Dive Scapa Flow,
and after publishing a further eight books on
diving and shipwrecks around the world, is now
known as very much a wreck diving expert.
Divers know Palau well for its beautiful reefs,
walls and prolific wildlife, but there is also a deep,
dark history below the waves. Just six weeks
after the carriers of US Task Force 58 neutralised
Truk Lagoon as a naval and air base in February
1944, they undertook another two-day air blitz on
SDOP
110
01
the next great Japanese naval
01 The bow of Showa
and air base of Palau – 2,000
Maru No. 5 with
kilometres to the west of Truk – bow gun and
combat damage
where the remaining Japanese
02 Illustration of Showa
fleet had fled to perceived safety Maru No. 5, located
in 2014 and dived only
after the Truk catastrophe.
once previously
Some 40 Japanese ships were
sunk and hundreds of aircraft destroyed.
Technical, deep wreck diver Rod’s newly
published book Dive Palau reveals these incredible
wrecks in brilliant detail, providing the “go to”
guide book for any diver wishing to explore this
haunting area.
The book begins by setting the scene, in detail,
of the history and events leading up to and
including Operation Desecrate 1 at the end of
March 1944. There are many wonderful vintage
photographs which really bring the whole
episode, and feel of the place, to life.