Coron · Philippines · Wreck
Morazan Maru
A pair of massive boilers in the engine room
Area photo: Ray in Manila · CC BY 2.0
A British-built cargo and passenger steamer of 1907 that the Imperial Japanese Navy captured in 1941 and renamed Ekkai Maru, sunk in Coron Bay by US carrier aircraft on 24 September 1944. She lies on her starboard side in 25 m of seawater, and with her four cargo holds empty the dive is about the structure itself and the pair of massive boilers in the engine room.
Also known as SS Morazan, Ekkai Maru.
Where it is and how deep
11.9877° N, 120.0365° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
She sits on her starboard side in 25 m of seawater, which is the first thing to get used to here. A ship heeled right over reads differently from an upright hull: decks become walls, the openings you would expect underfoot are off to one side, and it pays to keep track of which way is actually up rather than following the lines of the ship.
The four cargo holds are empty, so there is no cargo to pick through and the interest is in the spaces themselves and how they connect. The set piece is the engine room, where a pair of massive boilers is still in place. That is a genuine overhead environment on a wreck lying on her beam, where the way out is not where instinct puts it, so it belongs to divers with wreck training rather than to a general tour of the ship.
The wreck
- Vessel
- Ekkai Maru (ex-SS Morazan)
- Type
- British-built cargo and passenger steamer
- Built
- 1907
- Sunk
- 1944
- Cause
- Sunk by US carrier aircraft in Coron Bay on 24 September 1944
- Lies
- On her starboard side in 25 m of seawater
She was built in Scotland in 1907 as the SS Manco, sold in 1921 to a Honduran banana line and renamed after General Francisco Morazan, and was captured by the Imperial Japanese Navy at Shanghai on 8 December 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor. Renamed Ekkai Maru, she spent three years carrying ammunition, equipment and troops for Japan before US carrier aircraft caught her in Coron Bay on 24 September 1944.
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 | Prime | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Prime |
Season follows Coron: Dry December to April brings glassy seas and the best visibility; in the wet months bad weather sometimes stops diving.
Know before you go
- The wreck lies on her starboard side, so orientation inside is deceptive and every passage should be run with a line and a light.
Questions divers ask
How deep is the Morazan Maru?+
She sits on her starboard side in 25 m of seawater, which puts the whole wreck inside a normal recreational profile. The limits on this dive come from the overhead sections rather than the depth.
Is the Morazan Maru the same ship as the Ekkai Maru?+
Yes. She was built in Scotland in 1907 as the SS Manco, renamed SS Morazan under Honduran owners, and captured by the Imperial Japanese Navy in December 1941, which renamed her Ekkai Maru. Divers in Coron still use the Morazan name.
Sources
- Morazan Maru — Scubago
- Ekkai Maru — Wikipedia
- Coron Bay — Wikipedia
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