|
This was the only warship sunk in Coron Bay. She was a 118m long Japanese sea plane tender. The planes (Kawanishi) would be lowered to the sea by crane and take off from there. She is situated just northwest of Manglet Island.
Remarkably, she is fairly intact bearing in mind that she took a direct hit towards the stern where the flying boat was kept and sank immediately. She was almost torn in two and the flying boat was never found. Only some of the metal on the starboard side and bottom prevented the ship from breaking apart.
In fact, the bottom - the keel - is a good place to enter the wreck. Once you negotiate the twisted metal, you will see the gun placements in front of you. Other gun placements can be found outside the wreck by following the radio mast. They are at the bottom, pointing downwards.The crane used for lifting the flying boats is still intact and lies on a sandy bottom.
Because of the depth and amount of twisted metal around, no swim throughs are allowed unless proper certification is shown - namely wreck diver credentials. For those of you able to proceed, you'll be rewarded by an impressive penetration to the engine room, where all four engines are intact. Further to the stern, you can find the gears and machinery for operating the crane. The wreck attracts a good amount of marine life. You can expect to see shoals of barracuda, tuna, yellowfish, grouper, snapper, batfish and a huge assortment of smaller reef fish.
|
