Chuuk Lagoon · Micronesia · Wreck
Nippo Maru
A two-man tank and a light artillery piece still on deck
Photo: User: (WT-shared) Legis at wts wikivoyage · Public domain
A 108-metre navy water carrier and cargo ship, sunk with the rest of the Truk fleet in February 1944 and now sitting upright between 15 and 46 metres. Her deck cargo survived the sinking - a two-man tank and a light artillery piece still stand on deck - and the shallower superstructure keeps the profile workable for a wreck that reaches this deep.
Where it is and how deep
7.3667° N, 151.9333° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
Nippo Maru sits upright, 108 metres of freighter with the shallowest structure at about 15 metres and the sand at 46. That spread is what makes her workable rather than punishing: you can spend the deep part of the dive low on the hull and then come up onto the superstructure and off-gas without ever leaving the wreck or the mooring line.
The deck cargo is the reason she is dived so hard. A two-man tank sits on deck alongside a light artillery piece, both still where they were carried when she went down with the rest of the fleet at Truk in February 1944. The tank reads best from directly above with the deck as background, and at these depths a plan that reaches it early in the dive leaves margin for the rest of the ship.
The wreck
- Vessel
- Nippo Maru
- Type
- Navy water carrier and cargo ship
- Length
- 108 m (354 ft)
- Sunk
- 1944
- Cause
- Sunk at Truk during the Operation Hailstone raids of February 1944
- Lies
- Upright between 15 m and 46 m
Marine life and season
The sources we used don't single out particular species here.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Prime |
Season follows Chuuk Lagoon: December to April is the dry season, driest from January to March; June to September brings the heaviest rain.
Photos from Nippo Maru
Dr. Dwayne Meadows, NOAA/NMFS/OPR. · Public domain
Dr. Dwayne Meadows, NOAA/NMFS/OPR. · Public domain
montereydiver · CC BY 2.0
Dive videos
Diving the Nippo Maru - Truk Lagoon - WWII Japanese ship wreck · Sarah Van Riper on YouTube
Nippo Maru Truk Lagoon. Full Documentary · Max Gleeson's Shipwrecks of the World on YouTube
Sources
- Chuuk — Wikivoyage
- Operation Hailstone — Wikipedia
- Chuuk State — Wikipedia
- Chuuk Lagoon — Wikipedia
- Nippo Maru — Pacific Wrecks
Photo credits
- The upright superstructure of the Nippo Maru wreck rising into blue water by User: (WT-shared) Legis at wts wikivoyage, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- A World War II two-man tank still resting on the deck of the Nippo Maru by Dr. Dwayne Meadows, NOAA/NMFS/OPR., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- Coral-encrusted engine order telegraph aboard the Nippo Maru by Dr. Dwayne Meadows, NOAA/NMFS/OPR., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- Light bulbs and fittings inside the engine room of the Nippo Maru by montereydiver, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
In The Logbook
- Deep wreck diving: where recreational stopsWrecks · 8 min read
- WWII wrecks you can dive, by theatreWrecks · 7 min read
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