TRUK & BIKINI REPORT - PART 5, Subsection B: Apogon & Lamson

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Scuba Jim

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This section deals with the submarine Apogon and the destroyer Lamson. Mainly pickies, as they do the wrecks more justice than my warbling does!

Apogon is the sistership of the Bowfin, which can be seen at Pearl Harbour.

USS Apogon.

They were Balao-class subs, the main workhorse of the US submarine fleet during WW2. There is also another Balao class sub at Bikini called the Pilotfish, but she is not as good a dive as the Apogon. Balao class subs were 310ft long and coould dive to a depth of 400ft. Apogon was one of the "Mikey Finns" that sank seriously large amounts of Japanese shipping. She had 10 21-inch torpedo tubes, 4 aft and 6 forward, and a single 5-inch gun on the deck forward of the conning tower. She was modified for the Bikini trests to be raised and lowered automatically, without the need for a crew within. She was slightly damaged in the Able blast but sank to 180ft in the Baker blast. Subsequent salvage attempts were abandoned. She is a beautiful dive because she is covered in lovely corals, the hull bristling with large amounts of whip corals. She does somewhat resemble an elongated porcupine! There are also lots of glassfish/glassy sweepers/silversides/call them what you will on the wreck.

She sits upright and can be easily dived in one dive - starting at the stern and working your way forward to the bow and then back to the conning tower. The stern tubes are open, as is the hatch to the forward torpedo compartment. It would be safe to assume the whole ship is flooded! The conning tower is particularly impressive especially when viewed from the front and slightly to the side, so you get the gun in view as well. The wooden decking has rotted away, leaving the pressure hull exposed below.

Black & white photo of Apogon stern.
And for those who see in colour!
And for those who see in colour!
And for those who see in colour!
Cute little guns sites with flappy rubber eye things!
Conning tower ladder.
AA gun at top of said ladder.
Conning tower.
Surprise surprise! A little added bonus for you all…
Black & white photo of conning tower and 5-inch gun.
Apogon bow.
And again.
Shark encounter on the way up!

Undoubtedly the best submarine dive in the world!

Lamson is one of my favourite wrecks at Bikini! If there was ever a destroyer that deserved to be called a "destroyer", then this is she! 340ft long at the deck she had five 5-inch guns, three 21-inch torpedo tubes mounted amid ships, 2 depth charge racks at the stern and K-type depth charge projectors on either side about 3/4 of the way down the ship. She was also bristling with anti-aircraft guns of all types and sizes! She is a floating gun emplacement! She had a rich history, including searching the Gilbert & Marshall groups for the missing aviator Amelia Earhart.

USS Lamson.

She sank during the Able Blast on 1 July 1946 as she was close to where the bomb dropped. The blast tore off the light topside superstructure, stacks and mainmast and smashed the bridge. It would appear that she hit the seafloor stern first, and with an almighty crunch, as there is a huge buckle in the hull just forward of the stern depth charge racks.

The famous Lamson Crunch - no it's not a dance or a kind of candy bar!

Lamson is lying upright with her stern near a depression in the reef indicating she sank stern first. The guns remained in the mounts and the torpedo tubes are intact. The depth charge tracks are twisted and torn but you can clearly see the depth charges in the tracks. The old bridge superstructure was destroyed during Able Blast but the ships telegraph and some of the instrument binnacles are still in place. Like the Apogon, Lamson is covered in whip corals & soft corals, and her forward 5 inch gun has a large plate coral growing at the end of the barrel. Schools of glassfish can be seen everywhere, and there are aggregations of marbled grouper and coral trout everywhere. Lamson is worthy of at least two dives.

Compass binnacle - wouldn't that look nice on your mantlepeice?!
Wide angle view of the stern depth charge racks.
Close-up of depth charges in their racks.
Red & yellow coral growing on end of gun barrel - looks like flames, dunnit?!
Instrumentation on a blast gauge tower.
Little wheely trolley thingy, presumably for shells!

AA gun.
Frogman Ron shooting down Japs!
Same gun from the other direction.
Yet another gun.
Shell loader.

Forward telegraph - bridge superstructure has all gone!
Stern telegraph.
Oh yeah, baby!
A view of the midships torpedoes. Note the right hand one is still in its tube…
And again.
And more torpedoes.
Big, aren't they!
Back end of torpedo tubes.

Grrrrrrrrr! I told you there was big manly guns and stuff on this wreck, eh?! Bet Charlton Heston & the NRA would like it…

Next instalment will be the Saratoga…

Ya'll have a nice weekend yer hear.
 
ScubaJim,
As I indicated on one of your previous reports.... Sure do appreciate the time you take to put it all together. The pictures add an incredible element to the report.

Excellent Job!!

Thank you

Don
 
Jim- I echo Dons remarks! What an amazing place and some great photos...Thanks!
What skill level is required to dive there...just curious?
Looks like most divers have doubles..?
 
Thanks for the kind words. Now I can't get me head out of the door!

To be honest you don't have to be a hugely experienced diver to dive Bikini. Advanced openwater and some knowledge of Nitrox is really all you need, with perhaps 80-110 dives under your belt.

The diving is easy - the water is clear, as you can see, and there is almost no current, and it is warm. You essentially dive on air and decompress on Nitrox. You can dive with twins if you are used to them and have the correct BC, if not they have steel 15 litre tanks that last a lifetime....

If you look at the first section of my report that covers Bikin itself then that should explain the basics in more detail.

Hope that assists.

Just sorting images for the Saratoga section, which I'll post at the start of next week!
 
I have been anxiously waiting for each installment of your trip and just when I think the pics can't get any better, you come through again.
The most remarkable array of pics from bikini that I've seen. I'll have to visit it sooner than later. I plan to visit Truk and Bikini but probably seperate trips. Which would you suggest I do first?
 
Thanks for the kind words!

To answer you question, Bridgediver, if you are going to do the two places separately, then I suggest Truk first. Don't want to leap from your Chrysler Proton into a Ferrari, do you?!!!

However, I would suggest you seriously consider doing both tiogether, if you have the time (3 weeks approx). A large component of the trip is airfare, and if you do the two together you would save yourself approx $2000 in flights. Justa thort...

Regards
Jim
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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