Diving the Kensho Maru

The Kensho Maru, also translated as Kansho Maru, is one of the mandatory dives in Truk. She's a fun dive and shallow, so everybody dives the Kensho. She's another of Truk's pretty shipwrecks, with lots of marine life everywhere you look. The engine room is open and bright.

An auxiliary engine under repair in the engine room

Just aft of the engine room is the ship's galley. There's a big stove and an assortment of utensils in the galley. Swim out through the galley's skylight and forward to the bridge.

Engine telegraph on the bridge

 Moving to the bow, there's an old 6" naval gun mounted on a raised platform. These guns are from WWI or older ships that the Japanese scrapped in order to meet obligations of different treaties. The guns were of reasonable usefulness against submarines, which were armed with small bow guns in addition to their expensive and often unreliable torpedoes. But the old six-inchers were of little or no value against aircraft, being to slow and lacking enough elevation to track fast-moving carrier aircraft. That didn't prevent the Kensho's crew from loading them up and making a little smoke with the guns, apparently, as ready ammunition boxes are located nearby.

Crated ready ammunition near the bow gun

This cluster of tube sponges live near the ship's rudder 

 Click on the image to see an enlarged photo

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