Truk Lagoon - May 13-20 2001

Written By Dave Ross. IANTD Instructor Trainer.

What a sense of relief! Stepping aboard and spying eight cylinders of Helium stowed on the dive deck of Aggressor II. It arrived safely ahead of us - now we were in business.

A Deep Week charter with a difference this one. It had taken a little badgering but HQ in Hawaii had given us a green light to go ahead and do pretty much whatever we liked for six days on Truks Deep Wrecks, "it's your boat, if you bring it you can use it..."

What that fortunately meant was that we wouldn't be flying half way across the Pacific to the greatest wrecks in the world to have our safe capabilities restricted by the stock use of deep air, independent doubles, and yokes instead of DIN valves. Into our gear bags went all our own bands and manifolds, extra stage rigging hardware, Tech Asia's entire blending system, and ahead of us, the deep divers best friend, 2,000 cu.ft of Helium.

The diving turned out to be phenomenal. Two of the deep ones a day and the option of a night dive on one of the other wrecks in the 30m range. Two particular ships stood out in everyone's eyes as completely in a class of their own. The San Francisco Maru and the Aikoku Maru. Both of these ships were sent to the bottom with their cargoes intact - but what wildly different impacts they make on a diver lucky enough to visit.

The San Francisco is picture perfect. The Million Dollar Wreck they call it. Upright, intact and sitting on a flat bed at 62m Its upper structures are covered in marine life which disguise the fact it was sunk in an act of war. Its four cargo holds are so full of opportunities to explore that it would take days to see everything. From a deck cargo of light tanks, to within the holds, several truck chassis, a limousine, unexploded bombs, hemispherical beach mines, depth charges, bullets spilling everywhere, and the ubiquitous piles of delicate blue and white porcelain crockery. I spent three dives in the number 2 hold alone, first with Justin, then Veronique, then finally videoing with Jerry, to be joined by Steve who managed to scooter through the trucks and hatch coamings and park it up amongst the unexploded bombs!

With so much live ordnance aboard it seems miraculous that this vessel could have been hit hard enough to sink without blowing herself apart. Which is exactly the violent end that befell the Aikoku Maru. This ship was also fully laden when bombed. Her forward holds full of aviation gas and munitions, and her stern housing hundreds of Japanese servicemen crammed into squalid, makeshift crews quarters.

The Aikoku has a real aura. The devastating loss of life can truly be sensed here. When hit, she exploded with such force that no trace of the fore ship has ever been located. She was sheared in half just forward of the bridge and sank before the smoke had cleared, taking all hands with her. Many of the mortal remains were removed to Japan over a decade ago for Shinto burial, but the wreck is huge, silty, and very deep. Bones remain. And before long, we were stumbling across them.

All of the previous years efforts in training and practice (Subic) for this kind of diving absolutely paid dividends. From the comments of Aggressors crew we were quickly running line in places where few, if any, divers ever get to, hence the discovery of the bone rooms in areas previously thought to have been cleared. Exactly what we had come for!

Our night diving too, produced some memorable experiences. John Tattersalls first view of the famous Fujikawa Maru was our night time tour of the holds containing the Zero's. A fascinating dive that I think will stay with him for a long time. At the hard end of the spectrum we had the Jerry and Steve engine room tours. Like a pair of school kids on the back deck every night. Imagine the boats poor old skipper. He gave us a great slide show of his shots of all the deepest reaches of the engine rooms and machine rooms, all their finest features, before the Fuji dive. Big mistake. Out on deck he gave a briefing for the dive and finished with "I strongly suggest you avoid any major penetration at night". Talk about red rag to a bull! An hour later as our twosome stepped chuckling back aboard, he asked them how it went. It was like stereo, both of them, "oh great, we saw EVERYTHING you just showed us... would you like to see the video...?"

World Class Diving? Yet again. And many thanks to the staff of Aggressor for supporting us... Anyone who would like a look at what we were doing out there, take a look at Jerry's site, www.deepweek.com Some terrific stills taken from his video. For those that missed out, rest assured there will be another time, though watch this space for next years soon to be revealed plot...

• Thoughts On Technical Configuration
• Truk Lagoon - May 13-20 2001
• Technical Wreck Diving on the USS New York

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