of a small, poor urban area surrounded by an
unbelievably rich natural world of jungle and
ocean. Visitors don’t come here for the amazing
vistas on land though, or the sky that seemingly
goes on forever; they come for what lies beneath
the warm, calm waters.
These wrecks represent a
violent time in our shared
history that has remained
frozen for over 70 years
Truk Lagoon is the final resting place of over
30 major Japanese shipwrecks. Most were sunk
in a violent battle during two days of massive
American air attacks in 1944 and none has been
salvaged or sanitised as easy dives. These wrecks
represent a violent time in our shared history that
has remained frozen for over 70 years. Any single
one would be a major attraction in its own right
with amazing artefacts, deep, dark holds still full
of cargo and loaded guns still pointing at the long
departed enemy. However, in Truk Lagoon one
can dive twice a day every day for two weeks
and still have many world-class wrecks left to
explore. I believe it could take a lifetime to fully
explore and appreciate this cornucopia of wreckdiving awesomeness.
There is a misconception that diving in Truk
Lagoon is only for the most hard core, technical
divers. This is simply not true. The wrecks
generally fall into two categories: deep and
dramatic requiring technical training, or shallower,
exploding with colour and life with the surface
clearly visible. If deep, technical dives inside the
furthest, darkest recesses of ghostly ships is your
thing, then Truk Lagoon will definitely deliver.
Perhaps the most intriguing of these is the huge
Aikoku Maru. She was a passenger liner/cargo ship
converted into a heavily-armed merchant raider
early in the war. Aikoku Maru
was crammed full of soldiers
02 An explosion of
when she was sunk in a single, colour and life on the
superstructure of
cataclysmic explosion that
Kensho Maru
completely demolished the
03 The softly lit
engine room of the
front half of the ship. Over
Kensho Maru
600 men were killed instantly
04 An air compressor
and taken to a deep, watery
deep inside the
grave. Diving the Aikoku
Kiyosumi Maru
03
04