Diving theHanikawa Maru

 

 

The Hanakawa Maru was a freighter that was caught at anchor near Tol Island during the Hailstone Attacks. Since Tol is a long way away from the dive shop on the island of Moen, it takes a special trip to get there. The trip also takes calm weather, or the boat ride can be really rough. During the 2002 trip, the wind was up when we got to Truk and we didn't know if we'd be able to dive the Hanikawa, but after a few days the wind died down and we coerced the dive guides into taking us out there.

The Chuukese are a funny people who like to stay close to home, and our dive guides are typically not enthusiastic about taking us on long boat rides. Renty and David, our divemaster and boatman, are great and they'd do anything for us. They didn't complain about going out to Tol, which is about ten miles across the lagoon, but they weren't exactly jumping for joy, either. Eventually we loaded up and went to dive the Hanikawa.

The Hanikawa is a great dive. The ship is shallow and bottom times are long. And, there's so much to see that the bottom time is always a treat. The ship is one of the "big life" ships in Truk, with schools of fish swarming around and every surface of the ship covered with coral, sponges and other marine life.

We did two dives on the Hanikawa during the 2002 expedition, and spent an hour and a half of dive time checking out the wreck. She's a big ship, and even though her holds don't contain a lot of stuff to look at, the exterior surfaces are quite beautiful. Engine room and superstructure penetrations make good dives, too, so the wreck has attractions for both novice and experienced wreck divers.

She was carrying drums of fuel when she was sunk and there are many rusted drums left in her holds. Some of the drums appear to have been empty, because they floated up to the hold's overheads and were trapped there, eventually becoming crushed by the increasing pressure as the ship sunk. Many drums were full, too, and the torpedo-bomber pilots who attacked her reported that a big fireball erupted as soon as she was hit. As she went down flaming fuel spread across the water and started fires ashore. It must have been quite a sight.

 


The Hanikawa's a "big life" ship. Very pretty.


There's an engine telegraph under all that marine life

 

 

 

 

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