Iron Bottom Sound · Solomon Islands · Wreck
Bonegi II
A 133 m transport whose engine still breaks the surface
Photo: US Coast Guard · Public domain
Bonegi II is the Kinugawa Maru, a Japanese transport run aground beside its neighbour in November 1942 and the easier of the pair. The engine still stands partly above the waterline, the hull lies close to shore and the stern grounds out at 27 m, which keeps the whole wreck inside recreational depth and makes it the usual first dive of the two.
Also known as Kinugawa Maru, Bonegi 2.
Where it is and how deep
9.3817° S, 159.8705° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
The entry is the same as its neighbour — kit on the sand, a walk into the water, a short surface swim — but here the target is impossible to miss, because the engine still stands out of the water. You descend on the shallow wreckage close in and pick the hull up straight away, so the dive is about the structure rather than the swim out to it, and the shallow end doubles as your safety stop later.
Working aft, the plating and frames run down the slope with the growth thinning as the light drops, and the stern grounds out at 27 m. That is as deep as the wreck goes, which makes the profile easy to plan: out along the hull to the stern, turn, and come back up the same structure. Turtles and blue-spotted stingrays work the sand alongside, and sweetlips and snapper hold in the shadow of the wreckage.
Save the last stretch for the shallow end. Garden eels stand in fields on the sand off the hull, cuttlefish and octopus sit in among the plating, and the shallowest sections take enough light for photography and for a long, unhurried finish. The engine section is visible from the surface, so snorkellers get something out of the site too while divers are working the deeper half.
The wreck
- Vessel
- Kinugawa Maru
- Type
- Japanese transport
- Length
- 133 m (436 ft)
- Built
- 1938
- Sunk
- 1942
- Cause
- Beached to land troops, then destroyed by artillery, aircraft and naval gunfire
- Lies
- Engine partly above the waterline off Bonegi Beach, hull on the slope with the stern at 27 m
Kinugawa Maru was built in 1938 by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries at Nagasaki. On 15 November 1942 she was deliberately beached on the Guadalcanal shore to disembark soldiers during a Japanese reinforcement operation, and was then attacked by artillery, aircraft and naval gunfire; the fires that followed destroyed the vessel. The hull has stayed where it grounded, just off Bonegi (Mbonege) Beach northwest of Honiara, and remains a popular dive from the sand.
Marine life and season
- Sea turtles
- Stingrays
- Octopus & cuttlefish
- Macro critters
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Good |
Season follows Iron Bottom Sound: Apr–Jun and Oct–Dec are calmest; the Jan–Mar wet season brings runoff that cuts visibility on the shore wrecks.
Know before you go
- The wreck runs from the surface to a 27 m stern in one continuous slope, so it is easy to follow the hull deeper than planned — set the stern as your turn point and work back up.
Photos from Bonegi II
Archives Branch, USMC History Division · CC BY 2.0
Unknown author · Public domain
Unknown author · Public domain
Dive videos
Bonegi 2, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands - May 2017 · Albert Domingo on YouTube
Questions divers ask
How deep is Bonegi II?+
The engine is partly above the waterline and the stern lies at 27 m, so the whole wreck sits within recreational depth and you pick your profile by how far aft you swim.
Which Bonegi wreck is easier to dive?+
Bonegi II. Its stern bottoms out at 27 m, while Bonegi I runs downhill to a stern at 55 m, so most divers start here before taking on the deeper wreck next door.
Sources
- Kinugawa Maru — Wikipedia
- Diving Sites in Solomon Islands — Dive The World
- Mbonege Beach Shipwreck — OpenStreetMap
Photo credits
- The rusted bow of the beached Kinugawa Maru wreck, its name still visible on the hull, with swimmers in the water below by US Coast Guard, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- Side view of the riddled, beached hull of the Kinugawa Maru resting on the shore by Archives Branch, USMC History Division, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- The rusting hull of Kinugawa Maru beached on Guadalcanal's shore, photographed a year after it sank by Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- Close-up of the battered afterdeck and rigging of the beached Kinugawa Maru by Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
In The Logbook
- WWII wrecks you can dive, by theatreWrecks · 7 min read
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