Aikoku Maru
Chuuk
Known as "Half a Wreck" the Aikoku Maru is one of the most damaged ships in the lagoon, with only the stern half remaining. Initially built as an ocean liner the Aikoku Maru never saw service in this role; having been taken over by the Japanese navy straight from the shipyard. With her sister ships, Hokoku Maru and Gokoku Mary, she was intended for use on the Japan-Africa liner service. All three liners were the best vessels Japan had made to date. With 48 First Class, 48 'Special' Third Class and 304 'Regular' Third Class cabins, these vessels could reach a top speed of 20knots, a cruising speed of 17knots and could easily out run most merchant ships of the time.
There are two likely scenarios that describe how the Aikoku Maru met her violent end. Whilst both involve an unidentified U.S. plane, the sequence of events surrounding the plane differ. The sheer deviation caused by the explosion make it impossible to determine the actual cause of the damage. One account has an Avenger being disintegrated in mid air by the shockwave of an explosion. The second has the Avenger, hit by anti-aircraft fire from Dublon, spiralling out of control into the bridge of the Aikoku Maru. The wreckage of the plane fell into the forward hold and sometime later the Aikoku Maru violently exploded. So what was in the forward hold that would cause such an explosion? The magazines for the gun, mines, ammunitions, bombs and other high explosives were carried in these holds. The force of the explosion caused a shallow depression in the sea bed in which the structure now lies; no pieces of the fore ship have been found.
The wreck lies east of Dublon Island in about 70m of water, with the top of the bridge at 40m and the deck at 49m. We dove the Aikoku at 8:18am, Saturday 29th September 2001, as the fourth last dive of our 1st trip. Maximum depth was 53.4m when I did a brief and shallow entry into the stern hold to see if it contained anything. However, due to the overcast day I couldn't see the bottom of the hold. Total dive time 44 mins.
The most obvious features we noted in the short time we had on this wreck were;
The extensive damage to the bow section; it really is difficult to describe amount of damage, or, to image the force of the explosion, but it is a mangled assortment of steel - all twisted and bent.
Swimming towards the stern we passed anti-aircraft guns positioned on each side of the top deck. The guns are frozen pointing to the sky as if still shooting passing planes.
There are two hold aft, but we could not see if they had anything in them because of the poor light and depth within them.
A huge stern gun points over the port side, elevated upwards as if it to was firing at something. This is a big gun that comes into view as you swim over the aft holds.
