Chuuk Lagoon · Micronesia · Wreck
Shinkoku Maru
Live shells still stacked at the base of the forward gun
Photo: montereydiver · CC BY 2.0
A 153-metre fleet oiler torpedoed on 18 February 1944 and now sitting upright in about 38 metres of water, roughly 1.6 kilometres offshore. The hit came in on the port side at engine-room level. What brings divers back is the interior: her sick bay still has ampoules, syringes and phonograph records on its shelves.
Where it is and how deep
7.4140° N, 151.7790° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
The tanker lies upright about 1.6 kilometres offshore with the bottom at roughly 38 metres. Her masts were eventually cut away as a hazard to navigation, so the line lands you on the hull rather than on rigging, and you start the dive already deep. There is effectively no current to work against, but 153 metres of ship is a lot of hull for the bottom time a 38-metre profile allows.
Forward, live ammunition is still stacked beside the base of the gun, left exactly where it sits. The interiors are the better half of the dive: the sick bay still holds ampoules, syringes and phonograph records, small domestic things in a ship built to fuel a fleet. The torpedo that sank her struck from the port side at the level of the engine room.
The wreck
- Vessel
- Shinkoku Maru
- Type
- Fleet oiler
- Length
- 153.4 m (503 ft)
- Built
- 1940
- Sunk
- 1944
- Cause
- Torpedoed on the port side at engine-room level during Operation Hailstone
- Lies
- Upright at about 38 m, roughly 1.6 km offshore
Shinkoku Maru was built at Kobe in 1940 and served as a 10,020-ton fleet oiler supplying the Japanese fleet. She was at Truk when US carrier aircraft struck the anchorage in February 1944, and on 18 February a torpedo caught her from the port side at the level of the engine room and sank her. Her masts were eventually cut off as a hazard to navigation.
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 Shinkoku Maru
David Burdick · Public domain
Dive videos
Shinkoku Maru! Chuuk Diving · CnC Divers on YouTube
FSM - Chuuk - Diving the Shinkoku Maru · Tropical Sailing Life on YouTube
Questions divers ask
How deep is the Shinkoku Maru?+
The wreck sits upright with the bottom at approximately 38 metres, about 1.6 kilometres offshore. That is a deep dive by recreational standards, so Advanced Open Water, nitrox and a conservative plan are the sensible minimum before adding any interior time.
Sources
- Shinkoku Maru — Wikipedia (German)
- Operation Hailstone — Wikipedia
- Chuuk Lagoon — Wikipedia
Photo credits
- Coral- and sponge-covered structure on the Shinkoku Maru with light streaming through by montereydiver, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Coral growth and reef fish on the mast of the Shinkoku Maru by David Burdick, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
In The Logbook
- How a dive computer calculates no-stop timeBody & health · 10 min read
- Air, nitrox or trimix: which gas, and when?Gear & kit · 15 min read
- WWII wrecks you can dive, by theatreWrecks · 7 min read
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